﻿ON THE PERSIANS. 55 



and relations, affections of the mind, and other ideas 

 common to the whole race of man. 



If a nation of Hindus, it may be urged, ever pos- 

 sessed and governed the country of Iran, we should 

 find on the very ancient ruins of the temple or pa- 

 lace, now called the Throne of Jemshid, some in- 

 scriptions in Devanagari, or at least in the charac- 

 ters on the stones at Ekphanta, where the sculpture 

 is unquestionably Indian, or in those on the Staff of 

 Firuz Shah, which exist in the heart of India ; and 

 such inscriptions we probably should have found, if 

 that edifice had not been erected after the migra- 

 tion of the Brahmans from Iran, and the violent schism 

 in the Persian religion, of which we shall presently 

 speak ; for, although the popular name of the build- 

 ing at lstakhr, or Persepolis, be no certain proof that it 

 was raised in the time of Jemshid, yet such a fact 

 might easily have been preserved by tradition ; and 

 we shall soon have abundant evidence, that the tem- 

 ple was posterior to the reign of the Hindu mo- 

 narchy. The cypresses indeed, which are represented 

 with the figures in procession, might induce a rea- 

 der of the Shahnamah to believe, that the sculptures 

 related to the new faith introduced by Zeratusht ; but 

 as a cypress is a beautiful ornament, and as many of 

 the figures appear inconsistent with the reformed 

 adoration of fire, we must have recourse to stronger 

 proofs, that the Takhti Jemshid was erected after 

 Cayumers. The building has lately been visited, 

 and the characters on it examined, by Mr. Franck- 

 lift} from whom we learn, that Njebuhrhas delineated 

 them with great accuracy; but without such testi- 

 mony I should have suspected the correctness of 

 the delineation, because the Danish traveller has ex- 

 hibited two inscriptions in modern Persian, and one 

 of them from the same place, which cannot have 



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