es originate in the vices of their Government, while such virtues as
they do possess proceed from qualities of the mind.'

To this nice, but, as I think, entirely affected discrimination between
the sources respectively of Persian virtues and vices, it might be
sufficient answer to point out that in "Hajji Baba" Morier takes up the
pen of the professional satirist, an instrument which no satirist worthy
of the name from Juvenal to Swift has ever yet dipped in honey or in
treacle alone. But a more candid and certainly a more amusing reply was
that which Morier himself received, after the publication of the book,
from the Persian envoy whom he had escorted to England. This was how the
irritated ambassador wrote:

'What for you write "Hajji Baba," sir? King very angry, sir. I swear
him you never write lies; but he say, yes--write. All people very angry
with you, sir. That very bad book, sir. All lies, sir. Who tell you all
these lies, sir? What for you not speak to me? Very bad business, sir.
_Persian people very bad people, perhaps, but very good to you, sir._
What for you abuse them so bad?'

There is a world of unconscious admission in the sentence which I have
italicised, and which may well stand in defence of Morier's caustic, but
never malicious, satire.

There is, however, to my mind, a deeper interest in the book than
that which arises from its good-humoured flagellation of Persian
peccadilloes. Just as no one who is unacquainted with the history and
leading figures of the period can properly appreciate Sir Thomas More's
"Utopia," or "Gulliver's Travels," so no one who has not sojourned in
Persia, and devoted considerable study to contemporary events, can form
any idea of the extent to which "Hajji Baba" is a picture of actual
personages, and a record of veritable facts. It is no frolic of
imaginative satire only; it is a historical document. The figures that
move across the stage are not pasteboard creations, but the living
personalities, disguised only in respect of their names, with whom
Morier was brought daily into contact while at Tehran. The majority
of the incidents so skilfully woven into the narrative of the hero's
adventures actually occurred, and can be identified by the student
who is familiar with the incidents of the time. Above all, in its
delineation of national customs, the book is an invaluable contribution
to sociology, and conveys a more truthful and instructive impression of