in many a crumbling heap,
The fanes of other days, and tombs where Iran's poets sleep;
And in the midst, like burnished gems, in noonday light repose
The minarets of bright Shiraz,--the City of the Rose.

One group beside the river bank in rapt discourse are seen,
Where hangs the golden orange on its boughs of purest green;
Their words are sweet and low, and their looks are lit with joy,
Some holy blessing seems to rest on them and their employ.

The pale-faced Frank among them sits; what brought him from afar?
Nor bears he bales of merchandise, nor teaches skill in war;
One pearl alone he brings with him--the Book of life and death,--
One warfare only teaches he,--to fight the fight of faith.

And Iran's sons are round him, and one with solemn tone
Tells how the Lord of Glory was rejected by his own;
Tells from the wondrous gospel of the trial and the doom,--
The words divine of love and might,--the scourge, the cross, the tomb.

Far sweeter to the stranger's ear these eastern accents sound,
Than music of the nightingale that fills the air around;
Lovelier than balmiest odors sent from gardens of the rose,
The fragrance from the contrite soul and chastened lip that flows.

The nightingales have ceased to sing, the roses' leaves are shed,
The Frank's pale face in Tocat's field hath mouldered with the dead;
Alone and all unfriended midst his Master's work he fell,
With none to bathe his fevered brow, with none his tale to tell.

But still those sweet and solemn tones about him sound in bliss,
And fragrance from those flowers of God forevermore is his;
For his the meed, by grace, of those who rich in zeal and love,
Turn many unto righteousness, and shine as stars above.

1851. --HENRY ALFORD.

On the 24th of May, after a year's residence, Mr. Martyn left Shiraz,
bearing his precious translation to be presented to the Shah. The
journey was an occasion of disappointment, exposure and suffering.

Arrived at the Shah's camp he says: "June 12th, attended the Vizier's
levee, when there was a most intemperate and clamorous controversy
kept up for an hour or two, eight or ten on one side, and I on the
other. Amongst them were two Moollahs, the most ignorant of any I have
met in Persia or India. It would be impossible to enumerate all the
absurd things they said. Their vulgarity in interrupting me in the
middle of a speech