68 
ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY- 
villages of less dimensions, but promising equal refreshment, 
from the number of trees which mingled their gay green with 
the rustic dwellings, spread themselves along the base of the 
same line of hills which cover the town of Gilpaigon, and 
seemed quite in as good condition. The impression this sight, 
with its accompanying cultivation, made on my mind as I ap¬ 
proached, can hardly be conceived by a European who has never 
wandered from happy Christendom : so beyond imagination is 
the difference, between the populousness and aspect of countries, 
which own such different governments as those of Asia and Eu¬ 
rope. Here, in the East, with regard to population and its 
habitations, this vast tract of country, (once the very well-spring 
of emigration to all nations of the earth,) appears like the dry 
bed of some former great river; where the depth, and the space, 
evidence the mighty flood by which it might have been filled; 
and a few pools of stagnant water, dotting the marshy surface, 
remain vestiges that such an element really did fill it. No man 
can enter Persia, without remembering he is about to tread a 
land which a long line of native princes covered with cities, and 
towns, and fertility; a country, which even its Grecian con¬ 
querors embellished with the noblest structures, and Roman 
invaders adorned with bridges, aqueducts, and castles. But of 
all these towns, villages, and structures, the erections of so many 
different ages and generations of men, few remain of any kind 
that are not sunk in ruin, or furrowed with decay. Where were 
once cities, and hamlets, and cultivated fields, are now vast so¬ 
litudes ; without house, or hut, or tree, or blade of grass, for 
many, many miles. Indeed, so frequent are these monotonous 
tracts, dreary to the eye, and dismal to the heart, that the 
glimpse of a mouldering wall, round some long-abandoned vil- 
