ssical version of the Scriptures, such as might
adequately express their meaning, and convey a sense of their beauty of
language and force of expression to the scholarly and fastidious
Oriental.

He made friends in the suite of the Ambassador, Sir Gore Ouseley, whose
house he ministered on Sunday, and he was presented by him to the heir to
the throne, Prince Abbas Mirza. He had, by way of Court dress, to wear a
pair of red cloth stockings and high-heeled shoes, and was marched up
through the great court of the palace, where a hundred fountains began to
play the moment the Ambassador entered. The Prince sat on the ground in
his hall of audience, and all his visitors sat in a line with their hats
on, but he conversed with no one but the Ambassador, looking so gentle
and amiable that Mr. Martyn could hardly believe that the tyrannical acts
reported of him could be true.

In the summer heat, Jaffier Ali pitched a tent for him in a garden
outside the walls of Shiraz, where he worked with much enjoyment, "living
among clusters of grapes, by the side of a clear stream," and sitting
under the shade of an orange-tree. From thence he made an expedition to
see the ruins of Persepolis, greatly to the perplexity of his escort,
who, after repeatedly telling him that the place was uninhabited,
concluded that he had come thither to drink brandy in secret!

On the New Year's Day of 1812 Martyn wrote in his journal: "The present
year will probably be a perilous one, but my life is of little
consequence, whether I live to finish the Persian New Testament, or do
not. I look back with pity and shame on my former self, and on the
importance I then attached to my life and labours. The more I see of my
own works, the more I am ashamed of them. Coarseness and clumsiness mar
all the works of men. I am sick when I look at man, and his wisdom, and
his doings, and am relieved only by reflecting that we have a city whose
builder and maker is God. The least of _His_ works is refreshing to look
at. A dried leaf or a straw makes me feel myself in good company.
Complacency and admiration take the place of disgust."

On the 24th of February he finished his Persian New Testament, and in six
weeks more his translation of the Psalms. His residence in Persia had
lasted just a year, and, though direct missionary work had not been
possible to him there, he had certainly inspired his coadjutor, Mirza
Seid Ali, with a much higher morality and with s