cult to take. Most of the poultry of Europe is also bred in Persia, except the turkey. Insects abound in the damp and marshy places on the borders of the Caspian, near the shores of the Persian gulf, and towards the banks of the Tigris; and locusts, snakes, and scorpions, visit the southern parts.

The most extraordinary mineral production of Persia is that of naphtha or bitumen, found in pits three feet in diameter, and ten or twelve deep, which fill of themselves after a certain period. This forms a most excellent substitute for pitch. The bottoms of most of the vessels which navigate the Euphrates and Tigris are covered with it; and it is used by the natives, instead of oil, for lamps. There is also a white naphtha, which, however, is suspected to be a different substance. It is found floating, like a crust, on the surface of the water, does not possess the qualities of pitch, but affords a more agreeable light. A black and liquid petroleum, of an agreeable odor, flows in small quantity from a mountain in Kerman. The king reserves it for himself to be used in presents; and the mines are carefully sealed and guarded. The turquoise, a precious stone peculiar to Persia, is found in the mountains of Khorassan. Here also the king demands a choice of all that the mine produces; but the merchants have found the secret of evading this monopoly, and of carrying off the jewels. Silver, lead, iron, and copper, are met with in the provinces of Kerman and Mazanderan. The mineral waters of the country are entirely neglected.

The existing government of Persia is entirely absolute the reigning king being judged the vicegerent of the prophet, and entitled to the most implicit obedience. He is absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects; and the first man in the empire who disputes or neglects his commands may instantly be stript of his dignities, and publicly bastinadoed. The grand vizier and lord high treasurer exercise generally the executive power; but in the capital the king sits daily to administer justice. The punishments are very severe; and the barbarous system of mutilation frequent. Many of the wandering tribes, however, are ruled by their own khans, who merely pay occasional military service to the state. At a former period all the provinces were thus ruled by hereditary rulers who felt a solid interest in the welfare of the people; but these have been removed, and the new officers study only to enrich themselves. The weakness thus induced has probably been one main cause of that series of destructive revolutions to which Persia has been subject, since the reign of Shah Sophi, who made this change. The khans who still retain hereditary sway, having at their command the most warlike part of the population, are much courted by the

monarch.

Persia has at the present time scarcely any thing like a regular army. The most efficient consists of the royal slaves, as they are termed with great propriety, 3000 in number, a considerable part of whom have been disciplined after the European manner. The royal guards, amounting to 10,000, have lands assigned them

round the capital, and compose only a body of militia. The defence of Persia rests mainly upon the wandering tribes, who are alike excited by loyalty and the desire of plunder, to join the standard of the shah, but who often, revolt to the enemy. This force, consisting entirely of cavalry, may, it is said, by a great effort, be raised to 150,000 or 200,000 men. The Persians have no idea of tactics. In their reviews the soldiers pass along one by one, and have their arms examined. In making war, they fly round the enemy, and endeavour to cut off his provisions and water; seeing him thoroughly exhausted,, they make a sudden onset, and overwhelm him. Persia is always to be easily conquered, but is retained with difficulty. The Russians, like their ancient enemies, notwithstanding their superiority in the field, have never been able to extend their frontier much beyond the Araxes.

The people, though oppressed on every side, are gay, lively, and active. Their dress is much lighter than that of their Turkish neighbours, and profusely adorned with ornaments: ostentation is indeed a reigning principle. A sabre will often be made worth from 15,000 to 30,000 piastres. There is no country where the beard is regarded with equal veneration. During the day it is washed, repeatedly combed, and adjusted, for which purposes a pocket-mirror is constantly in use: the rich even adorn it with jewellery.

The Persians are the most learned and polite nation of the east. They employ in their conversation the most extravagant hyperboles: and, to make their sincerity appear the greater, they contrive, when a traveller is passing, to be overheard expatiating in his praise to a third person. Their whole conduct consists principally, we are told, of a train of fraud and artifice; and they never return to fair dealing till they find a man able to detect their impostures. Presents are looked for with great avidity.

There are two regular classes of poets, one whose theme is philosophy, and the other whose lyre is devoted to love. At the head of the former is Sadi, of the latter Hafiz. They dwell chiefly of course upon the beauties of the beloved object, which are treated in the utmost detail, upon the miseries of absence, &c. Rigid Mahometans scarcely consider it lawful to peruse the works of Hafiz. Morality is taught by proverb, apologue, and fables, usually clothed in verse. The following is their circle of sciences, according to the order in which they are studied: grammar and syntax, theology, philosophy, mathematics, and finally medicine and astrology. Their diligence in study is said to be extraordinary, and the greatest attention is paid to education. The three ranks of wise men bear the titles of Taleb, Mollah, and Moushtehed.

The whole nation are Mahometans, of the sect of Sunnites, or Ali, who, on that ground, are viewed by the Turks with greater abhorrence than Christians. The Persians, however, are not intolerant, but listen without anger to the professions or arguments of those who hold a different belief. The exception, perhaps, is in the case of the Guebres, or worshippers of fire, who are now almost extirpated; a remnant only of about 4000

being found in Yezd, and other towns of Kerman. The Persians generally have the utmost confidence in charms, talismans, sentences of Ali written upon parchment, lucky and unlucky days, &c.

To a considerable extent they are a manufacturing people, and in the brilliancy of their dyes and colors surpass the Turks, and perhaps even Europeans. To the latter they have communicated that exquisite blue tint called ultra marine. The wool produced here is manufactured into stuffs of various form and fineness; and those unrivalled carpets, to which we give the name of Turkey, are in fact wrought principally by females of the Persian tribes. The wool produced by the goats of Kerman is also made into shawls of considerable fineness. Silk is a great staple, either by itself, or mixed with cotton and wool; and the Persians excel in brocade, embroidery, and tapestry of all kinds. Muskets, pistols, and carabines, are made and mounted in most of the great towns: and Khorassan contains a manufactory of sword blades, the founders of which were, it is said, transported from Damascus by Timur. Leather, paper, and porcelain, nearly equal to that of China, are also among the manufactures. Bushire is now the only Persian port in the gulf, the chief commerce of which is carried on by way of Bussora. The commercial intercourse of Persia is, therefore, chiefly carried on by caravans with Turkey, Tartary, and India.

The PERSIAN GULF.-The Gulf of Persia (Sinus Persicus) is entered from the Gulf of Muscat through the Strait of Ormus, eleven leagues wide, between Cape Mussendom and Cape Bambaruck on the Persian shore. This gulf differs from the Red Sea in being almost entirely free from coral reefs, though it has many islands. It is beyond the limits of the monsoons, but the position and nature of the neighbouring countries produce periodical winds, which blow up and down the gulf as in the Red Sea, northwest winds prevailing for nine months, from October to July, and south-east the other three months. The former is called by the Arabs shimaul, and the latter shurquee. For about forty days, commencing at the middle of June, the north-west wind blows with great violence, and is called the grand shimaul. In March and April these winds also blow very strong for about twenty days without intermission; and at this time the current sets strong up the gulf against the wind. During the period of the prevailing south-east winds, hard but transient gales from the south-west are sometimes experienced towards the entrance of the gulf. The currents are observed to run into the gulf from May to September; and out during the rest of the year. In the middle of the gulf the current generally sets down, but is weak: along the shores small tides prevail. The prevailing winds seem to depend on the nature of the neighbouring countries, and the position of the gulf northwest and south-east. To the south-east and east are the Arabian Sea and the sandy deserts - of Persia, the atmosphere of which must be more rarified for a greater part of the year than that to the north and north-west, where are the Black

and Caspian Seas and the cold Caucasus: hence north-west winds prevail the greater part of the year, and are strongest in the summer months. when the air to the south is most rarified by the sea being vertical, and by the melting of the northern snows and ices, producing a stream of condensed air. In the gulf are many springs of fresh water in the sea, particularly one near the Isles of Bahrein.

The Persian Gulf receives at its head the united waters of the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, which have both their sources in the mountains of Caucasus, between the Caspian and Black Seas. Their junction takes place at Korna, thirty leagues above Bussora, and the united waters take the name of the Shat-al-Arab (River of the Arabs) to the sea, into which they empty themselves, amongst banks, by several mouths; of which the western one alone is navigable by ships, and is distinguished from the others by the branches of date trees floating out of it with the stream: its greatest depth is twenty feet, and for twenty-five leagues from its mouth it is free from banks. The other branches are only navigable by boats. The land at the mouth of the river is so low that the date trees are the first objects seen, and in general these trees cover the banks up to Bussora, with a few interspersed patches of rice ground. Vessels of seventy tons go from Bussora to Bagdad; these vessels, from the scarcity of wood, are composed of pieces of every size and species, from the size of a barrel stave upwards, and the whole is covered with dammer, a species of resin used in India instead of pitch, an inch thick, which keeps them from leaking.

The Arabian coast of the gulf, from the Strait of Ormus to Aftan River, 400 miles, is occupied by the Jochassim pirates, whose chief places of rendezvous are Ejinaum, a small town and good port, and Noseilkam, ten leagues from Ejmaum. The sheik of Julfar, whose territory is outside the gulf, on the west of Cape Mussendom, has also a number of pirate dows, mounting four to eighteen guns; but the most powerful of these piratical chiefs is the Chaub, whose capital is Durac (thought to be the Siwa of Alexander), on the east bank of the Euphrates.

The west shore of the Persian Gulf is always avoided by European ships, and consequently is little known. For a distance of sixty leagues from Cape Mussendom there is not known to be any place of shelter. Ras-el-Khima is a large pirate town, on a sandy peninsula, and is, comparatively with other Arab towns, strongly fortified with batteries and towers. In 1809 the British Indian government determined to chastise those pirates, who had long committed depredations on the English trade, and even captured some of the Company's vessels of war, treating the crews with great cruelty; an expedition was consequently sent from Bombay, and their capital, El Khima, was taken by assault, and the fortifitions destroyed, together with seventy of their piratical dows. A considerable plunder fell into the hands of the captors, whose loss was only one officer killed, and four men wounded. In latitude about 25° is a place called Seer, with the island Zare to the west; the Pearl Bank is

thought to commence here, and extends along the coast to latitude about 27°. There are many insignificant towns on the coast, from which the pearl fishery is carried on. The most considerable are Lahsa, on Aftan River; Farut, celebrated for its grapes; El-Katif, supposed to be the ancient Gerra, built of salt stone, and where the ruins of a Portuguese fort are seen; Grain, Gran, or Koueit, is forty leagues from El Katif; the coast between is desert, and with many islands. Gran is a town of mats and poles, with 10,000 inhabitants, engaged in the pearl fishery to a considerable extent. Here the East India Company's packets usually wait for the over-land despatches from England.

Bussora, Bassora, Basra or Busra, called by the Arabs Al Sure, or the rocky, from the nature of the surrounding country, is a straggling Arab town, ninety miles from the sea, and one mile and a half from the west bank of the river of the Arabs. A creek runs from the river to the town, by which vessels of seventy tons ascend to the latter. The houses are of sun-dried bricks, with terraced clay roofs, and of a mean appearance. The country round is a level plain, and, except on the immediate banks of the river, without tree or shrub. The climate is not considered healthy; the summers are extremely hot, and the winters cold and wet: the extremes of the thermometer are 110° to 50°. The trade of Bussora is very considerable, it being the principal emporium of the commerce between India and the Turkish dominions. The English East India Company have a factory here.

Cape Jasques, which forms the eastern side of the Strait of Ormus, has a square white perforated cliff, like a tower, projecting into the sea. East of the cape a river empties itself into the northwest angle of Jasques Bay. Its mouth is crossed by a bar, with but seven or eight feet high-water, and four fathoms and a half within. The Persian shore of the gulf, towards its entrance, is occupied by Arabs, generally independent of the Persian dominion, who subsist by navigation, fishing, and piracy. Ascending the Persian shore of the gulf, the places of any note, in succession, are Mina, on the River Ibrahim. Gombroon, or Bender Abassi (Port of Abbas), was formerly a celebrated mart, but at present is nearly deserted, and in ruins. It is situated at the foot of a hill opposite Kismish Island, is unhealthy, and without water, but what is preserved in cisterns from the rains. Kongon, or Kungoon, is a considerable town, with some trade; the coast is here lined with stupendous mountains, rugged and barren. Cape Verdistan, or Burdistan, has a shoal running out from it three leagues to the south.

Bushire (Bender Abou-scher), the principal fort of the Persians in the gulf, is an ill-built town of 1200 houses, of white stone or sunburnt bricks, surrounded by a wall with some bastions, merely sufficient to protect it from the insults of the Arabs. It is built on a point of land which is insulated in high tides. Vessels of ten feet draft run up the river to the town, but those of burden cannot approach the river's mouth nearer than five miles. The water procured here is extremely brackish, though brought

ten miles from the town. The remains of the Portuguese factory and castle are still to be seen, as are the ruins of Reeshire, a large town in the time of their power, four miles south of Bushire. The English East India Company have a resident here. Its trade is considerable, being properly the seaport of Schiraz, with which it has a constant commercial communication by caravans, and from it Persia is principally supplied with India merchandise, for which it pays in specie.

The Gulf of Persia has, as we have said, several islands of note, of which the first towards the entrance is the celebrated Ormus, six miles long, and two leagues from Bender-Abassi. It is a totally barren rock, the low parts of which are covered with a crust of salt resembling snow. Its inhabitants are few, and chiefly subsist by collecting sulphur, of which they furnish cargoes to some small vessels. They are dependent for fresh water on what is preserved in cisterns in the rains.

Larak Isle, a league south-west of Ormus.

Kishmish (Oaracta), the largest island in the gulf, is twenty leagues long east and west, but not two broad; it is populous and well cultivated, producing wheat and other grain. On the east side is a good port named Congo, but fit only for small vessels; it has however a spring of excellent water, almost the only one in the gulf. Near the middle of the south side is Angar Isle, three miles long, occupied by wild sheep and hogs.

Mamouth and Selim, also called Mamet and Salamet, Kaze and Nabajou, and by English seamen the tombs, the ancient Aradus, are two small isles three leagues from the west side of Kismish.

Poliore and Knobflore, also called Souri and Abou-mousa, are barren islets. Souri looks like a two masted vessel.

Kyen, or Keish Island, is low, fruitful, and inhabited.

Busheab, or Sheik-Saib, is of considerable size, well inhabited, and covered with date trees. On the east side is a town occupied by pirates.

Karek, or Kharedje (Icarah), north of Bushire, is three leagues long and two broad, has 1500 inhabitants, and is tolerably cultivated, producing wheat, rice, and barley; it abounds with goats, but has few other animals. On the north are the ruins of a Dutch factory, established between 1750 and 1765. The island at present is subject to the sheik of Bushire; on its south side is fresh water, convenient for shipping. Pilots are usually taken here for Bussora. In the centre of the island is a hill, with coral and sea shells on its summit, and courses of lava are observed on its sides. The isles Bahrein, Bahareïn, are, as their name signifies, two in number; they lie before Aftan River, five leagues from the main. The largest, named Anal by the Arabs, the ancient Tylos, is leyel, covered with date trees, and has a fortified town. The southeast, and smallest, is called Samak; they are celebrated for the great pearl fishery carried on near them; they are subject to the sheik of Bushire.

PERSIAN LANGUAGE. The claims and characters of this important dialect of human speech have been so well illustrated and enforced in mo

dern times, and especially by Sir W. Jones, that we cannot withhold an abridged view of them in this place.

The history of the Persian language, according to Sir W. Jones, may be divided into four periods, like that of the empire; under each dynasty there was an apparent change in the dialect of the kingdom, especially under the two last, viz. the 'Sassanian' and 'Mahometan' dynasties; and these are the only periods of which any certain records remain.

In the infancy of the empire, under Cayúmaras and his descendants, it cannot be supposed that any great pains were taken to polish the language. Herodotus assures us that, even after the reign of Cyrus, the whole education of the Persian youth, from the age of five years to twenty, consisted in only three points, riding, throwing the javelin, and the practice of moral virtue; which account is also confirmed by Xenophon. It ought not, however, to be imagined, that the ancient Persians, especially those of the second period, were entire strangers to the art of composition either in verse or prose; but what their language was, what were their rules of versification, or what was the course of their studies, no mortal can pretend to know with any shadow of exactness. The Greeks can give us no assistance, nor are we much enlightened by the writers after Alexander; it is necessary therefore to consult the Persians themselves. From the great traveller Chardin, we learn, that the old Persian is a language entirely lost, in which no books are extant. We have therefore no account of the Persian language till the time of the Sassanian kings, who flourished from the opening of the third century to the middle of the seventh, during which period an academy of physic was founded at Gandisapor, a city of Korosan, and, as it gradually declined from its original institution, it became a school of poetry, rhetoric, dialectics, and the abstract sciences. In this seminary the Persian tongue must have been much refined, and the rusticity of the old idiom was succeeded by a pure and elegant dialect, which being constantly spoken at the court of Beharam Gúr in the year 351, acquired the name of Deri, or courtly, to distinguish it from the pehlavi, pahlavi, or language of the country. This idiom did not, however, supersede the ancient dialect; for several compositions in Pahlavi were extant even after Mahomet, which appear to have been written by order of the Sassanian princes. Anushirvan, surnamed the Just, who reigned at the close of the sixth century, when Mahomet was born, obtained from India a collection of fables, translated by his chief physician from the Sanscrit language, which he acquired for this purpose; this collection he translated into the Pahlavian dialect; about 140 years after it was turned from Pehlavi into Arabic, by order of Almansor, second caliph of the Abassides; and this is the volume now found in every language of Europe,under the name of Calila wa Demma, or the fables of Pilpay. In the reign of Anashirvan Mahomet polished the language of his country; and, when the battle of Cadessia gave the last blow to the Persian monarchy, the whole empire of Iran was reduced under the power of the first Mahometan dynasty: the ancient litera

ture of l'ersia, which had been promoted by the family of Sassan, was immediately discouraged by the successors of Mahomet; because some Persian romances, brought into Arabia, were extolled to the disparagement of the Koran, the people to whom they were read alleging, that the stories of griffons and giants were more amusing to them than the moral lessons of Mahomet.' Accordingly a chapter of the Koran was immediately written to stop the progress of these opinions, and other measures were taken to check their diffusion. This is supposed to have been the moving cause of that enthusiasm of the Mahometans which induced them to burn the famous library of Alexandria, and the records of the Persian empire. It was a long time before the native Persians could recover from the shock of this violent revolution; and their language seems to have been little cultivated under the caliphs, who gave greater encouragement to the literature of the Arabians; but when the power of the Abassides began to decline, and a number of independent princes arose in the different provinces of their empire, the arts of elegance, and chiefly poetry, revived in Persia; and there was hardly a prince, or governor of a city, who had not several poets and men of letters in his train. The Persian tongue was consequently restored in the tenth century; but it was very different from the Deri or Pehlavi of the ancients; it was mixed with the words of the Koran, and with expressions from the Arabian poets, whom the Persians considered as their masters, and affected to imitate in their poetical measures, and the turn of their verses.

The oldest Persian poems, of which Sir W. Jones obtained any knowledge, are those of Ferdúsi, and which, in his account of them, are exhibited as a glorious monument of eastern genius and learning; and of which he further says, that if it should be generally understood in its original language, will contest the merit of invention with Homer himself, whatever be thought of its subject, or the arrangement of its incidents. He has furnished an extract from this poem, and adds, that it will exhibit a specimen of the Persian tongue very little adulterated by a mixture with the Arabic, and in all probability approaching nearly to the dialect used in Persia in the time of Mahomet, who admired it for its extreme softness, and was heard to say, 'that it would be spoken on that account in the gardens of Paradise.' Of these two languages was formed the modern dialect of Persia, which being spoken in its greatest purity by the natives of Pars or Farsistan, acquired the name of Parsi; though it is even called Deri by Hafiz. Nearly in the same age, viz. at the close of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries, the great Aleul Ola, surnamed Alámi from his blindness, published his excellent odes in Arabic, in which he professedly imitated the poets before Mahomet. At this time, and soon after, the Persian language became altogether mixed with Arabic. At Shiraz, called the Athens of Persia, flourished in the thirteenth century, Sadi, a native of this city; who wrote several pieces, both in prose and verse; and by means of an extract from his Gulistan, or Bed of Roses, Sir W. Jones has

shown us how the Persian and Arabic languages were mixed together in his age. The same city. had the honor of producing, in the fourteenth century, the most elegant lyric poet of Asia, Shemseddin, surnamed Hafiz; of whose productions Sir W. Jones has transcribed two Gazals or anacreontic odes, with a translation. There is nothing, says our author, which affords a stronger proof of the excellence of the Persian tongue than that it remained uncorrupted after the irruption of the Tartars, who at different times, and under various leaders, made themselves masters of Persia; for the Tartarian princes, and chiefly Tamerlane, who was a patron of Hafiz, were so far from discouraging polite literature, like the Goths and Huns, that they adopted even the language and religion of the conquered country, and promoted the fine arts with a boundless munificence; and one of them, who founded the Mogul empire in Hindostan, introduced the Persian literature into his dominions, where it flourishes to this day; and all the letters from the Indian governors are written in the language of Sadi. The Turks themselves improved their harsh dialect by mixing it with the Persian; and Mahomet II., who took Constantinople in the middle of the fifteenth century, was a protector of the Persian poets, among whom was Noureddin Jami, whose poem On the Loves of Joseph and Zelikha is very highly extolled by our author, who has given a specimen of his elegant style. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, under the family of Sesi, the Persian language began to lose its ancient purity, and even to borrow some of its terms from the Turkish, which was commonly spoken at court.

The characters of the Persian language are written from right to left, and the language consists of thirty-two letters, which vary in their form as they are initials and medials, or finals, both connected and unconnected. For the pronunciation both of the consonants and vowels, we refer to Sir William Jones's Grammar, from which we make the following extracts.

The short vowels are seldom written in the Persian books, and the omission of them occasions a perplexity to the learner of the language. He will soon perceive with pleasure a great resemblance between the Persian and English languages, in the facility and simplicity of their form and construction. The former, as well as the latter, has no difference of termination to mark the gender, either in substantives or adjectives: all inanimate things are neuter, and animals of different sexes either have different names, or are distinguished by certain words, denoting male and female.

The Persian substantives, like ours, have but one variation of case, which is formed by adding a certain syllable to the nominative in both numbers; and answers often to the dative, but generally to the accusative case in other languages. When the accusative is used indefinitely, this syllable is omitted; but when the noun is definite or limited, that syllable is added to it. In Persian there is no genitive case; but when two substantives of different meanings come together, a hesra, or short e, is added in reading to the former of them, and the latter remains unaltered,

The same rule must be observed before a pronoun possessive, and before an adjective. The other cases are expressed, for the most part, as in our language, by particles placed before the nominative. Our article a is supplied in Persian by adding the letter ya, or as it is sounded ee, to a noun, which restrains it to the singular number. The Persian plural is formed by adding certain characters for syllables to the singular: but these terminations are not, as in many languages, wholly arbitrary; on the contrary, they are regulated with the utmost precision. It must not be omitted that the Arabic substantives frequently have two sorts of plurals: one formed according to the analogy of the Persian nouns, and another after the irregular manner of the Arabians; and this circumstance, besides several others, proves the impossibility of learning the Persian language accurately, without a moderate knowledge of the Arabic: and Sir William Jones advises the learner to peruse with attention the Arabic grammar of Erpenius, of which there are two fine editions, one by Golius, and another by Albert Schultens, before he attempts to translate a Persian manuscript.

The Persian adjectives admit of no variation, but in the degrees of comparison. The positive is made comparative by adding to it one character for a syllable, and superlative by means of another.

An adjective is sometimes used substantively, and forms its plural like a noun; if it be a compound adjective, the syllables denoting the plural number and the oblique case are placed at the end of it.

The personal pronouns are, 1, men, I: thus, sing. men. I; plur. ma, we; obl. merá, me, mára, us. 2. To, thou: thus, sing. to, thou; plur. shumá, you or ye; obl. tura, thee; shumará, you. 3. O, he: thus, sing. o, he, she, or it; plur. ishán, they; obl. ôra, him, her, or it; ishânra, them. The possessives are the same with the personals, and are distinguished by being added to their substantives. Our reciprocal pronouns, own and self, are expressed in Persian by certain words, which are applicable to all persons and sexes. For the demonstrative pronouns this, these, that, those, in the several cases singular, plural, and oblique, there are appropriate characters or expressions. Certain syllables prefixed to pronouns personal change them into possessives, and are read with a short vowel. The relatives and interrogatives are supplied by the invariable pronouns ke and che; of which the former usually relates to persons, and the latter to things.

The Persians have active and neuter verbs, like other nations; but many of their verbs have both an active and neuter sense, which can be determined only by the construction. These verbs have properly but one conjugation, and but three changes of tense, the imperative, the aorist, and the preterite: all the other tenses being formed by the help of certain particles, or of the auxilliary verbs signifying to be, and to be willing. The passive voice is formed by adding the tenses of the verb substantive to the participle preterite of the active. Our author has exhibited the inflexions of the auxiliary verbs, and an analysis of all the tenses of a Persian verb, showing in what manner they are deduced from