lowers. Why,' said he, 'the Persians take usury; and he that does that, is worse than a murderer or adulterer.'

"7.-I was surprised by a visit from the great Soofie Doctor, who, while most of the people were asleep, came to me for some wine. I plied him with questions innumerable; but he returned nothing but incoherent answers, and sometimes no answer at all.—Having laid aside his turban, he put on his night-cap, and soon fell asleep upon the carpet. Whilst he lay there, his disciples came, but would not believe, when I told them who was there, till they came and saw the sage asleep. When he awoke, they came in, and seated themselves at the greatest possible distance, and were all as still as in a church.

"The real state of this man seems to be despair, and it is well if it does not end in madness. I preached to him the Kingdom of God: mentioning, particularly, how I had found peace from the Son of God and the Spirit of God; through the first, forgiveness; through the second, sanctification. He said it was good, but said it with the same unconcern with which he admits all manner of things, however contradictory. Poor soul! he is sadly bewildered. "At a garden, called Shah Chiragh, in which is the tomb of a brother of one of the Imans, who was killed on the spot, a miracle is wrought every Ramazan. The Mootuwulli, or proprietor of the garden, in whose family it has been for ages, finds

its supposed sanctity abundantly profitable, as he is said to make 2,000l. a year of it. To keep alive the zeal of the people, who make their offerings there every day, he procures a villager, who is at first sick, and crying to Ali for help; and then, on the appointed day, recovers. This year a man was recovered of the palsy, and our servants came full of it. Though this farce is played off every year, the simpletons are never undeceived. Presents of sheep, fowls, sweetmeats, money, flowed in upon the Mootuwulli, who skilfully turned all to the best advantage. Those who wished to see the man's face, were to pay so much; those who were anxious to touch him, were to pay so much more; and so on.

"Two days in the Ramazan, tragedies were acíed at our house, in the women's court. Two or three men, dressed in the Khan's court robes, spouted and sung for an hour, before an immense concourse of women, all veiled. The subject, the first day, was the death of Mahomet; the second, that of Iman Hosyn.

"18.—The Ramazan ended, or ought to have ended, but the moon disappointed them. The Moollahs, not having seen the new moon would not allow the fast to be over, and the people were, in consequence, all in confusion; for not having eaten in the night, they were not at all disposed to go through the day fasting. At last some witnesses appeared, who vowed they had seen the silver bow. These were from the Prince; but the Moollahs said

they would not admit them till seventy-two of the same kind bore the same testimony. This was no great number for a Prince to produce; so the seventy-two appeared, and the feast was proclaimed."

Towards the end of November, great progress having been made in the Persian translation of the New Testament, Mr. Martyn ordered two splendid copies of it to be prepared, designing to present the one to the King of Persia; and the other to Prince Abbas Mirza, his son. It being now also his fixed intention to pass the winter at Shiraz, he resolved to commence another eminently useful, and to him most delightful, work-a version of the Psalms of David, into Persian, from the original Hebrew. The Divine Songs of Sion became thus the subject of his critical examination, close meditation, and frequent prayer; and whilst engaged in this sacred employment, often did he find his soul elevated, and his spirit refreshed, "in a strange land."

The events of the last month of the thus recorded in his Journal.

year

stand

"Dec. 3.-Attended the lecture of Aga Mahomed Hasan. He read and commented on three books of metaphysics, and at intervals conversed with me. Amongst other things, we discussed the cause of the ascent of a light body in a fluid. Our argument came, at last, to this-that if one particle of fluid were on another, it would, from its gravity, move ever horizontally off, in order to be nearer the centre. 'If,' said he, ‘a body can move towards the centre

only directly, how do you account for its falling down an inclined plane?" I began to explain the composition and resolution of forces, but some disciples coming in, he could not stay to hear what I had to say, but went on with his lecture. At one time he asked me some questions about genera and species.

"6.-Aga Boozong, and his disciple, Aga Ali, a Mede, came, and sat many hours. The former, from love to the Gospel, as he said, desired a friend at Isfahan to send him Luke's Gospel, translated from the Arabic. He asked me about the Trinity, and said, "that for himself, he had no objection to the doctrine.' So say all the Soofies, but they will only concede to Jesus, a nature, which they conceive to belong to all the Prophets, and all the illumined. He stated his sentiments: I asked for reasons, but asked in vain. 'Proofs,' he said, 'were cobwebs—a breath broke them: nothing but a divine teacher could make known the mystery.' Aga Ali, in order to prove to me that proofs were nothing, adduced the instance of Matthew the publican, who rose at the call of Christ, without seeing a miracle. They were fond of producing what they knew of the Gospel, in confirmation of their mystic themes. The Atonement they would not hear of, because the Mahometans pretended, in the same way, that Hosyn was sacrificed for the sins of men. Thus Satan has contrived Mahometanism with more craft than at first appears: for the impostor of Mecca, by making common cause with the Prophets of God,

has taken care, that if any forsake him, they shall at the same time, forsake the messengers of God; of whom they know nothing but just what he tells them-which is far enough from the truth.

"8.-The Soofies breakfasted with me. Aga Boozong talked dogmatically about the unity of all being, and quoted large portions from the Munari of Mouluwee Room. Another part of the conversation was about India.-The Soofies consider all the Brahmins as philosophers of the same school with themselves. One of them asked me gravely, 'whether I had met with any in whom was the Holy Ghost?? This, he supposed, was only the way of expressing what they meant by being enlightened.

"12.-Letters at last from India.-Mirza Seid Ali was curious to know in what way we corresponded, and made me read Mr. Brown's letter to me, and mine to Corrie. He took care to let his friends know that we wrote nothing about our own affairs. It was all about translations and the cause of Christ: with this he was delighted.

Given the earnest

was much struck

"O that I had it,'

"16.-In translating 2 Cor. i. of the Spirit in our hearts,' he when it was explained to him. said he; 'have you received it? I told him, that as I had no doubt of my acceptance through Christ, I concluded that I had. Once before, on the words, 'who are saved,' he expressed his surprise at the confidence with which Christians spoke of salvation. On 1 Cor. xi, he observed, 'that the doctrine of the