"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي بقلم جورج ناثانييل كرزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎١‎٣‎١] (٧٤٨/١٨٠)

PERSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS
131
It is amusing enough, in the light of ascertained knowledge, to look
back upon the conjectural labours of others who have toiled in dark-
The cunei- ness - That, however, should not diminish our gratitude to
form alpha- those who, like Chardin, Kaempfer and Le Brun, at the end
of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries,
liist essayed on a considerable scale the work of transcription and
illustration of the Acheemenian monuments ; 1 to Niebuhr, whose
scholarly industry dignified the middle of the latter century ; or to
those who, like Rich, Ouseley, and Ker Porter, early in the nineteenth,
brought back to Europe more careful drawings and reproductions than
had hitherto been procurable, to assist the labours of the students,
whose keen intellects were already trembling on the brink of a momen
tous discovery. This was no less than the decipherment of the cunei
form alphabet. There is no need here to repeat the tale, which is as
romantic as it is remarkable. It is sufficient to recall the facts that
first in Germany Professor Grotefend, seconded at Paris by M. Burnouf,
and at Bonn by Professor Lassen ; and, independently of these, Major,'
now Sir Henry, Rawlinson, in Persia itself, step by step, by patient
analysis and happy intuition, were creating out of the symbols that had
puzzled generations of inquirers, first an alphabet, and then out of this
alphabet a language. Successively the riddles of the great rock of
Bisitun, the chiselled epigraphs of Persepolis, and the inscriptions of
Naksh-i-Rustam, were flashed upon the world, and beyond possibility
of doubt men could now read the handwriting and know of a surety
that they were contemplating the handiwork of Darius. In the light
of these astonishing discoveries, theory was compelled to shift its
ground, and, unable to question the origin, turned with avidity to the
discussion of the purport of these more than ever interesting ruins
With this exercise it still shows no sign of becoming exhausted.
Simultaneously with these discoveries, the enlightened liberality
of the French Government was responsible for presenting to scholars
Improved students the means of prosecuting or verifying their
iUustra- labours by the publication of the splendid engravings suc
cessively of Texier, and of Plandin and Coste. Though
viewed alongside of photographic representations, their work, and
particularly that of Texier, is seen to be sometimes quite fanciful, and
frequently incorrect, yet too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the
painstaking industry with which these artists toiled in a country where
those only who have travelled in it can estimate the ceaseless obstacles
1 Several of the seventeenth-century travellers who contemplated book-makina-
on a large scale took artists with them to Persia to make the requisite drawing
Pietro della Valle and Kaempfer both did so. Herbert got his illustrations drawn
subsequently at home, with portentous results in the case of Persepolis So did
Struys. ^ ^
k 2