mystery no intellect can fathom, whose
climax no eye can even dimly perceive, whose conclusion no mind can
adequately foreshadow. Each of these acts revolves around its own theme,
boasts of its own heroes, registers its own tragedies, records its own
triumphs, and contributes its own share to the execution of one common,
immutable Purpose. To isolate any one of them from the others, to
dissociate the later manifestations of one universal, all-embracing
Revelation from the pristine purpose that animated it in its earliest
days, would be tantamount to a mutilation of the structure on which it
rests, and to a lamentable perversion of its truth and of its history.

The first period (1844-1853), centers around the gentle, the youthful and
irresistible person of the Bab, matchless in His meekness, imperturbable
in His serenity, magnetic in His utterance, unrivaled in the dramatic
episodes of His swift and tragic ministry. It begins with the Declaration
of His Mission, culminates in His martyrdom, and ends in a veritable orgy
of religious massacre revolting in its hideousness. It is characterized by
nine years of fierce and relentless contest, whose theatre was the whole
of Persia, in which above ten thousand heroes laid down their lives, in
which two sovereigns of the Qajar dynasty and their wicked ministers
participated, and which was supported by the entire _Sh_i'ah
ecclesiastical hierarchy, by the military resources of the state, and by
the implacable hostility of the masses. The second period (1853-1892)
derives its inspiration from the august figure of Baha'u'llah, preeminent
in holiness, awesome in the majesty of His strength and power,
unapproachable in the transcendent brightness of His glory. It opens with
the first stirrings, in the soul of Baha'u'llah while in the Siyah-_Ch_al
of Tihran, of the Revelation anticipated by the Bab, attains its plenitude
in the proclamation of that Revelation to the kings and ecclesiastical
leaders of the earth, and terminates in the ascension of its Author in the
vicinity of the prison-town of Akka. It extends over thirty-nine years of
continuous, of unprecedented and overpowering Revelation, is marked by the
propagation of the Faith to the neighboring territories of Turkey, of
Russia, of 'Iraq, of Syria, of Egypt and of India, and is distinguished by
a corresponding aggravation of hostility, represented by the united
attacks launched by the _Sh_ah of Persia and the Sultan of Turkey, th