HISTORICAL REMARKS. 
525 
this will be done by some one of the many learned and in¬ 
defatigable travellers who direct their researches to this part of 
the East; and that Professor Grottefund’s talents may be 
exercised in developing its meaning. From its length, it must 
contain much matter ; from its diffusion over the monument, 
probably a great variety ; and we might find some light on the 
obscurity in which the original name of Persepolis is involved ; 
besides, we might gain a knowledge of the era in which the 
Persian kings first dedicated this rock to the rites of sepulture ; 
but, should it not convey any of these informations, still it were 
worth the pains of translation ; for it could hardly fail of de¬ 
ciding the point, whether the ashes of Darius Hystaspes reposed 
here, or that we must look for his tomb in the sepulchral 
mountain of Persepolis. 
Cyrus was the first of the Persian kings whom history records 
as having ordered his tomb to be constructed during his life; 
but we do not find that it was to be erected in this, or on any 
other mountain, nor in the metropolis of his ancestors, but at 
Pasargadae, the city of his own founding, and it was to be of a 
very singular shape. Yet, notwithstanding that he only is 
noticed as having concerned himself on such an occasion, there 
is no reason for concluding that he was actually the first prince 
of that country who had marked for himself a particular place of 
interment. To some, anxiety respecting the disposal of our 
mortal remains after death, appears an instinct of nature ; but, 
though others deny the existence of such an idea as innate, we 
may yet find sufficient argument for the feeling, and its univer¬ 
sality amongst mankind in all ages, from the reasonableness of the 
thing. I do not speak of a person under the light of revelation, 
who cannot but respect the depository of the body which is to 
