termination n of the German. Comparatives are formed in Persian, as in German, by the addition of the syllable ter or er; for instance, the Persian adjective signifying good, in the comparative forms behter, in German besser, and in English better. The pronouns and numerals in German and in Persian are also etymologically connected. With respect to the personal terminations of the verbs, the Persian sometimes follows the German, sometimes the Sanscrit, and sometimes the Greek or Latin forms. The future tense is formed as in English by the aid of an auxiliary, and the passive is formed according to the same analogy, by placing the past participle of the active verb before the different tenses and modes of an auxiliary. The affinity of the Persian with the other members of the great Indo-European class of languages is to be traced even in the particles of composition. The Persian a represents the Greek privative ȧ; and Von Hammer has not hesitated to say that this same particle also occasionally corresponds in meaning with the Greek άπò and èπì, and the German an, ab and auf. The Persian ba, he says is the German bey, and English by. The particle pes in Persian he considers equivalent to post in Latin, and the Persian negative particles ne and me, equivalent to the Latin ne and the Greek μn. Persian also resembles Greek, German, and English, in its power of compounding words; and in the variety and elegance of its compound adjectives it is said even to surpass these languages. The Persian adjectives are compounded in three ways; by placing a substantive before a contracted particle, by prefixing an adjective to a substantive, and, lastly, by adding one substantive to another. The combinations produced according to these three forms are exceedingly numerous, and sometimes highly poetical: they are often used, especially in the plural number, as substantives without any noun being employed, and so melodious are they accounted by the Persian poets, that an entire distich is frequently filled with them.

The great beauty of the Persian language consists in its softness and extreme simplicity; its style of phraseology is natural and easy, and capable of being reduced to few rules. In this simplicity of construction, in harmony of sound, in facility of versification, and in consequent adaptation for poetry, the Persian resembles the Italian; indeed it has been justly styled the "Italian of the East." It has been said that the crown of Persian literature is its poetry: the same perhaps is true of the Italian; and in connection with the several points of resemblance between these two languages, both with regard to their present development and to their origin and early history, it is rather a striking fact, and a subject for inquiry to a psychologist, that a remarkable similarity of sentiment and imagery pervades the works of Persian and Italian poets. This similarity has been repeatedly pointed out, and the sonnets of Petrarch have been compared to those of Sadi. Another prominent feature of the Persian language is its intimate admixture with Arabic words and idioms. Turkish words also occur in Persian, but scarcely a line or sentence is to be met with free from some words either purely Arabic, or of Arabic origin. This, however, varies in different authors; and pure Persian is not overloaded with Arabic; in like manner as pure English is more Saxon" than either "Latin" or Greek"-English. The peculiar forms of the plural called broken, imperfect, or irregular plurals, which characterise the Arabic and Ethiopic languages, are borrowed by the Persian; and Arabic syntax is sedulously studied by all who desire to write the Persian language with correctness.

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III.-ALPHABETICAL SYSTEM.

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The primitive alphabetical system of the Persian empire seems to have consisted of a peculiar set of characters called from their form arrow-headed, and cuneiform or wedge-shaped. Specimens of these characters have been found in ancient inscriptions on monuments of stone, and sometimes on bricks at Persepolis, and in the west of Persia. The efforts that have been made of late years in the study of the Zend, have tended to facilitate the decyphering of these inscriptions, the language in which they are written being an ancient and long extinct idiom closely connected with the Zend. The Persians since the time of the Saracen conquest have used the Arabic letters, which they write, like the Arabs, from right to left. Their alphabet consists of thirty-two characters, of which four are peculiar to their language: on the other hand, eight of the Arabic characters have no corresponding sound in Persian;

for instance the th of the Arabs is pronounced like s in Persia, just as the Polish Jews pronounce л: these eight letters are nevertheless retained in Persian writings, and are useful in showing the derivation of words, for they are seldom or never found in any word not purely Arabic.

IV.-VERSIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

An ancient version of the Scriptures existed in the language formerly spoken in the Persian empire; but of this version, and even of the particular dialect in which it was written, we have little or no information beyond the casual allusions of Chrysostom and Theodoret. Christianity was early established in Persia, for Constantine the Great wrote to Sapor, king of that country, in behalf of the Christian churches in his dominions. The Elamites present on the day of Pentecost doubtless carried back the Christian doctrine with them, and we are assured of a Bishop of Persia being at the Council of Nice.

The oldest version existing in the modern Persian language is probably that of the Pentateuch contained in the London Polyglot. This Pentateuch is believed to have been translated by Rabbi Jacob, a Jew, who, on account of his having come from a city called Tus, was surnamed Tusius or Tawosus. The period of its execution is unknown, but it certainly was translated subsequently to the eighth century, for Babel in Gen. 10. 10, is rendered Bagdad. The translation is supposed to have been made from the Syriac, but it follows the Hebrew pretty closely. It was first printed at Constantinople in 1546, accompanied with the Hebrew text, the Chaldee Targum of Onkelos, and the Arabic version of Saadias Gaon. The only other portion of Persian Scriptures contained in the London Polyglot consists of the four Gospels, supposed to have been written at Kaffa, a town of the Crimea, about A.D. 1341, by a Roman Catholic. This translation is evidently from the Peshito, as is proved by many internal evidences, but it is interpolated with readings from the Vulgate, and even from Romish rituals and legends. If it had been free from these glosses and additions, it would have furnished valuable aid in the criticism of the Peshito. Another edition of the Persian Gospels was commenced under the care of Wheeloc, Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, and at his death superintended by Pierson. This edition left the press in 1657. The editors used the very MS. from which the Gospels in the London Polyglot were printed; and although they possessed two other MSS., of which one is supposed to have contained a version from the Greek, yet they confounded them all together, and appealed to the SyroPersian text in the formation of their own. Le Long speaks of another version of the Persian Gospels, which he says was transcribed in 1388, from an original of much older date, and sent by Jerome Xavier, a Jesuit, from Agra to the Collegium Romanum. Yet it is recorded of this same Xavier, that at the request of Akbar, emperor of the Moguls, to be furnished with the Scriptures in Persian, he merely feigned compliance, and with the aid of a Persian compiled a life of Christ, partly from the Gospels, and partly from Romish legends, which, when presented to the emperor, only served to excite derision. This production was printed by De Dieu, at Leyden, in 1639. The next attempt to procure a version of the Scriptures in Persian was made by Nadir Shah. This emperor was desirous of procuring a translation of the Gospels, the Psalms, and the prophecies of Jeremiah, on account of the references made in the Koran to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and with this view he summoned several Armenian bishops and priests, Romish missionaries, and Persian moollahs, to Ispahan. The Armenians, from their imperfect acquaintance with the Persian language, were unable to take any efficient part in the translation, the whole of which, in consequence, devolved upon the Romish and Mohammedan priests: between them they effected their work by the aid of an ancient Arabic and other versions, but it was dressed up with all the glosses which the Koran could warrant, and the Romish priests made such use as they could of the Vulgate. When the work was presented to Nadir Shah, he turned it into ridicule, and declared that he could himself make a better religion than any that had yet been produced. If this story be true, the version sometimes found in the hands of the Armenian priests in India, may be safely conjectured to be the same as that of Nadir: a copy of this version was shown to the Rev. Henry Martyn, who remarked that he did not wonder at the emperor's contempt of it.

As the style in which the Gospels of the Polyglot are written has long been antiquated at Ispahan, several efforts have been made during the present century to produce a version in the polished dialect now spoken by the Persians. A translation of the four Gospels was made under the superintendence of Colonel Colebrooke, and printed at Calcutta in 1804. Our accounts of this work are very meagre, and it never seems to have obtained much circulation. In 1812 the Rev. L. Sebastiani had advanced nearly to the end of the Epistles, in a translation of the New Testament from the Greek, and during the same year 1000 copies of the Gospels of this version were printed at Serampore by order of the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society. Sebastiani had been many years resident at the court of Persia, and his version was chiefly designed for the use of the Christians dispersed in Persia.

In the meantime another translation of the whole of the New Testament had been progressing at Dinapore, under the superintendence of Henry Martyn. The translators were Sabat and Mirza Fitrut: the former had previously been employed in this translation at Serampore, and the latter by Colonel Colebrooke. This version was completed in 1808, but it was found to be so replete with Arabic and abstruse terms intelligible only to the learned, that the Rev. Henry Martyn determined upon visiting Persia in person, that he might there obtain the means of producing a clear and idiomatic version. In 1811 he reached Shiraz, the seat of Persian literature, and remained there nearly a year. He was received with much friendship by some of the principal men of the city, who expressed the warmest sympathy for the man of God, as they habitually designated our missionary. When the weather became too intense for his enfeebled frame to bear the extreme heat of the city, Jaffier Ali Khan, a Persian noble, pitched a tent for him in a delightful garden beyond the wall, and here he executed from the original Greek a translation of the New Testament, remarkable not only for its strict fidelity to the text, but for its astonishing conformity to the niceties of the Persian idiom. By the Persians themselves this work has been designated "a masterpiece of perfection;" and while other Oriental versions have been superseded by more accurate translations, the Persian and Hindustani Testaments of this accomplished scholar are at this day in higher repute than ever. On the accomplishment of his object, he found that his constitution had been completely shattered by the effects of the climate and extreme exertion, and he attempted to return to England, but expired during his journey homewards, at Tokat, a commercial city of Asia Minor, in 1812. Copies of the work which had caused the sacrifice of his valuable life were deposited with Sir Gore Ouseley, the English ambassador in Persia. One copy was presented to the King of Persia, who in a letter written on the occasion, expressed his approbation of the work. On returning to England by way of St. Petersburg, Sir Gore Ouseley met with P ince Galitzin, and it was suggested that the Prince, who was at the head of the Russian Bible Society, should cause an edition of Martyn's Testament to be printed at St. Petersburg, for circulation in the provinces of Western Persia. The impression was completed in less than six months, and consisted of 5000 copies.

In 1813 a communication was received by the Corresponding Committee at Calcutta from Meer Seid Ali, the learned native employed by the Rev. Henry Martyn at Shiraz, in which, with many expressions of regret for the loss of his excellent master, he informed the Committee that the MS. of the Persian New Testament and of the Psalins (which had likewise been translated at Shiraz) was in his possession, and that he waited their orders as to its disposal. He was directed by the Committee first to take four correct copies of the MS., that no risk might be incurred in the transmission of so great a treasure, and then to forward the MS. to Calcutta, whither he was invited himself for the purpose of superintending the publication. The Psalter and New Testament passed through the press at Calcutta in 1816. The Psalter was reprinted in London, under the editorship of Dr. Lee, in 1824; and the New Testament, edited by the same distinguished scholar, was published in London in 1827. This Testament was reprinted in London in 1837; and an edition of 3000 copies was printed at Edinburgh in 1847, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in order to accompany an edition of the Old Testament, which, as we shall presently have occasion to mention, was then passing through the press in that city.

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Of all these editions of Martyn's Testament, the most incorrect seems to have been that printed at St. Petersburg in 1815. This impression was so defaced with errors that the missionaries deemed it useless, and at their request the issue was stopped by the Russian Bible Society. The Rev. William Glen, of the Scottish Mission at Astrakhan, was in consequence led to undertake a version of the Psalms in Persian, for the benefit of the numerous individuals speaking that language who resort for purposes of trade to Astrakhan and the south of Russia. In preparing his version, Mr. Glen first made a literal translation of the Hebrew text, which he submitted, with due explanations, to his teacher; it was then the office of the latter to give as exact a representation of the sense as possible in classical Persian: his production was then revised and compared with the original by Mr. Glen. In 1826, the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society made arrangements with the Scottish Missionary Society for the services of Mr. Glen at Astrakhan, in making a translation of the poetical and prophetical books of the Old Testament. In the meanwhile, Mirza Jaffier had been engaged by the same Society to produce a version of the historical books of the Old Testament at St. Petersburg, under the eye of Dr. Pinkerton, and according to specific directions sent out for the purpose by Dr. Lee. The only portion of Mirza Jaffier's version which appears to have been published is the book of Genesis, printed in London in 1827, under the care of Dr. Lee. Mr. Glen's version of the Psalms and Proverbs was revised by Mr. Greenfield, assisted by Mr. Seddon, and published in London in 1830-31; the edition consisted of 1000 copies, and another edition appeared in 1836. The entire Old Testament, translated by Mr. Glen, was eventually printed at Edinburgh, under the auspices of the Committee of Foreign Missions connected with the United Associate Synod of Scotland, and the British and Foreign Bible Society contributed £500 towards its publication; the edition left the press

in 1847.

In consequence of a grant by the British and Foreign Bible Society in aid of the translation department of Bishop's College, Calcutta, the Rev. T. Robinson (then chaplain at Poonah, but afterwards archdeacon) applied for the sanction of the Bishop of Calcutta to a projected version of the Old Testament in Persian; and on its being ascertained that the design fell within the terms of the grant, the translation was commenced in 1824. The Pentateuch was completed and printed at Calcutta in 1830, and in 1838 the entire Old Testament was finished; the translation is from the original text, and is accounted faithful and accurate. A Persian version of the prophecy of Isaiah was purchased by the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the sum of £100, in 1833. This version had been executed by the Mirza Ibraham, of the East India College at Haileybury, and revised by Mr. Johnson, one of the professors of that College. The translator took the English Authorised Version for a basis, and adhered to it as far as it expresses faithfully the sense of the original. Being well acquainted with both Hebrew and Arabic, he made it a rule to use in his translation an Arabic word of the same root with the original, where such a word had been adopted into Persian; and in rendering the sense of difficult passages, he first consulted our English version, then turned to the original Hebrew and compared it with the Arabic, and finally discussed the question with some of the members of the College, besides referring to several commentators. In 1834 an edition of this book was published by the Society, under the care of Mr. Johnson. In 1841 the attention of the Calcutta Committee was occupied in lithographing an edition of the Scriptures in the Persian character, a method deemed preferable to the former system of Arabic type printing. In 1842, 5000 lithographed New Testaments of Martyn's version left the Calcutta press; and in 1844, 5000 copies of Genesis and part of Exodus, of Archdeacon Robinson's translation, were also lithographed.

V.-RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION.

The work of distributing the Scriptures has been very extensively prosecuted in Persia: the portion which has there gone into widest circulation is Martyn's Testament; and a recent traveller declares that this inestimable work has made its way by single copies into many houses in Persia, and that he found persons acquainted with it in every city through which he passed. The Scriptures

have not yet effected any general change in Persia, but individual instances are not wanting of their blessed influence. A writer in the Asiatic Journal states, that once, at a convivial meeting in Persia where religious questions were being discussed, he chanced to express his opinions with a considerable degree of levity. He was immediately afterwards startled by perceiving the eyes of one of the guests fixed upon him with a peculiar and piercing expression of surprise, regret, and reproof. On inquiry, he found this person to be by name Mohammed Rameh, a man of great learning and high moral endowments; he had, it was said, been educated as a moollah, but had never officiated, and led a life of retirement. The writer obtained an interview with him, in which Mohammed avowed himself a Christian, and related the history of his conversion in nearly the following terms:-"In the year 1223 of the Hejira, there came to this city an Englishman who taught the religion of Christ with a boldness hitherto unparalleled in Persia, in the midst of much scorn and ill-treatment from our moollahs as well as the rabble. He was a beardless youth, and evidently enfeebled with disease. I was then a decided enemy to infidels, and I visited the teacher of the despised sect with the declared object of treating him with scorn, and exposing his doctrines to contempt. These evil feelings gradually subsided beneath the influence of his gentleness, and just before he quitted Shiraz I paid him a parting visit. Our conversation the memory of it will never fade from the tablets of my memory-sealed my conversion. He gave me a book: it has ever been my constant companion; the study of it has formed my most delightful occupation." Upon this Mohammed brought out a copy of the New Testament in Persian; on one of the blank leaves was written-" There is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth.— Henry Martyn."

The Persian Scriptures have been likewise distributed in the countries adjacent to Persia, where, as has been above stated, vast numbers of people speaking the Persian language are dispersed. The following instance of the blessing of God on this version occurred in Hindoostan in 1844. "I am thankful to tell you," (writes the Rev. A. Sternberg), "of a Hindoo, who two months ago was baptized by me, having been brought to a thorough conviction of the truth of our religion only by reading, by himself, a Persian New Testament which he had got at Cuttack some months previous. He was a Kaith, and was well acquainted with the common creed of Mohammedans and its errors before he became acquainted with Christianity. In the commencement of the year 1844, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jagganath; on his return he received a Persian New Testament from a missionary preaching in a Bazaar Chapel at Cuttack; but he did not touch it for fear. On his arrival at Arrah, he was obliged to stop on account of his wife's and child's illness. Now the time was come: he had leisure, and began to read his Persian Testament, and instantly he was struck with the truth of the word. Only one passage made him stop a little, the term 'Son of God:' when his Mohammedan prejudices on this subject had been removed, he applied for baptism; since that period," continues Mr. Sternberg, "he has shown such deep knowledge of all the principal doctrines of faith, as well as a thorough change of sentiment, that he was and is to me, who was very far from expecting to see a Hindoo truly converted, a most seasonable evidence of the mighty power of the written word of God. He has had no teacher; the reading of the Word alone has converted him. It is encouraging to find again the saying true, 'one soweth and another reapeth.'