Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

102 HISTORY OF PERSIA.
out of the words so formed from this alphabet ; and
yet so completely does the case appear
to be made
out, that we are not in the least disposed to retract
or even to suspend our adhesion to Professor Lassen
and Major Ra\vlinson. To the latter especially, an
officer rather than a student by profession, almost self-
instructed in some of the most important branches of
knowledge requisite to the undertaking, tempted on-
revelations of
wards, it is true, by these gradual
knowledge expanding to his view, yet devoting him-
self with disinterested, but we trust not hereafter to be
unrewarded labour, we would express in the strongest
terms our grateful admiration. His indefatigable in-
dustry in the cause of science can only be appreciated
justly by those who know what it is to labour for
hours under the sun of Persia; for in some cases,
when inscriptions are placed very high, are unapproachable
by ladders, and are perhaps weatherworn
or mutilated by accident, nothing less than the full
effulgence of Ormazd can accurately reveal the names
and deeds of his worshippers. The early travellers,
as well as Porter, Rich, and all who have laboured
to obtain accurate transcripts of the Cuneiform in-
scriptions, bear testimony to the difficulties and even
dangers
causes."
which are incurred from this and other
It would be impossible within the limits of this
small volume, to give
a detailed account of the lan-
guage enshrined in these inscriptions; it is enough
to state that abundant analogies support the be-
lief that the ancient Persian tongue of the time of
Darius, as well as that now spoken in the country, is