ABSTRACT
Depressing as is the picture which I have been compelled in the interests of truth to draw of Persian administration, and sore as is the need for a fundamental change in the principles upon which it is conducted, the present reign has yet witnessed the introduction of a series of reforms into the country which honourably differentiate it from any immediately preceding epoch. An examination of these reforms, and of their history, is a task of alternate congratulation and dismay. On the one hand we see the imperious and irresistible influence of the West, and of what we term civilisation, successfully beating down the barriers of ancient Oriental prejudice. On the other hand, and side by side with this welcome spectacle, we observe superstition resurgent, reformatory zeal baffled, and the vis inertiœ supreme. We know not whether to give the rein to our hopes or to our despair. Is Persia about to enter, nay, has she already entered, the comity of civilised nations, or does she still sit a contented outcast without the gate? From the evidence which will be forthcoming in this chapter, added to that which has already been adduced, the reader must shape his own judgment. For my own part, I would solicit, in the interests of my subject, a friendly and even a lenient consideration; knowing well, as I do, that the ways of the East and West are wide asunder as the poles; that what we call civilisation and sometimes rashly confuse with progress, is viewed by Oriental peoples in a wholly different perspective; and that different nations have their own peculiar way of finding salvation. Moreover, what may seem but a foot-pace to ourselves, may resemble the rush of a locomotive engine to others, to whom speed has hitherto been unknown. Nor must the sower expect an immediate harvest from all his seed.
Ambiguous panorama
