with want of patriotism. They who really entertain such a notion may find a sufficient answer in Sir Howard Douglas's Introduction to his great work on Naval Gunnery. It was originally drawn up in the shape of a series of papers for the private and confidential use of our Board of Admiralty, and some feeling such as we have above alluded to seems to have at one time withheld Sir Howard from publishing. But on his scruples being communicated to the Board, over which Lord Melville then presided, the gallant author was informed that their lordships, while estimating very highly the value of the work, "did not see any objection to its publication"; and in discussing (p. 306) the possibility and prudence of concealing the destructive effects of any new weapon of war, so as to reserve to ourselves the initiative and the exclusive use of the new weapon, Sir Howard Douglas points out that the French did not do so with their latest improvements in the art of gunnery, and adds the significant remark,-" Nor can anything of a practical description be kept secret in these times." In England, especially, the present constitution of our Government, no less than of our army and navy, renders any great and sudden change of system, in obedience to the convictions of any one man or board of men, simply an impossibility. Improvements can be introduced only by a conviction of their value being impressed on a large body of educated officers, and if the improvement be extensive, or involve much expense, it is not only necessary to impress the conviction on the profession, but on the non-professional public,—or at all events, on that portion of the public which more or less directly controls the strings of the national purse. To effect this in England, publicity is indispensable. In a progressive science there can be no secret. When Adams, by a series of calculations the most abstruse, had discovered that there belonged to our system a vast planet of whose existence no previous astronomer had even a suspicion, he might well have imagined that he had wrung from Nature one of her most hidden secrets. But others, unknown to him, were treading close on his heels in the same path, and had he delayed but for one fortnight to publish his discovery, the immortal honour had fallen to another nation. So it is with all scientific truth. Its publication is a mere question of time, and he who would serve a nation of intelligent and reading Englishmen, must place his discoveries before them in the shape in which they will most speedily and surely become known to the widest possible circle. In so acting, Colonel Jacob doubtless felt assured that a truth made known to free men is of more power than all The work of Sir Howard Douglas. 39 the secrets of Solomon's Seal confined to despots and alchemists; and that the free nation which first and most widely recognises such a truth, will use it most effectually, whether for self-defence or in upholding the cause of truth and justice against the power of despotism, covered by a shield of such secrecy as despotism only can enforce. With this reflection, we would commend Colonel Jacob's pamphlet to the attentive perusal of every military man and every sincere lover of his country, and we would urge on those who have the means to do so, the necessity of testing in the fullest and most conclusive manner the real value of a weapon for which powers so tremendous are claimed, on authority so little open to reasonable doubt. Neither the scope of this article nor the limits allowed to us, permit of our entering on the numerous important subjects discussed in the standard work of Sir Howard Douglas, to which we have so often referred. It should be in the hands of every naval or military man who aspires to be master of his profession, and even for the non-professional man who takes the interest which every patriotic Englishman ought to feel in the improvement of our army and navy, there is matter of the deepest interest in Sir Howard's earnest appeals on the subject of the danger of our present tendency to build leviathan ships and fill them with shell guns (pp. 305, 306), on popular fallacies regarding the power of naval gunnery against maritime fortresses (p. 335), on the fundamental errors of gunboats armed with Lancaster guns, and similar gimcracks, to the exclusion of ordnance of known value for heavy firing (pp. 363, 611, 613), 'and on the crying want of a sufficient reserve of trained gunners in our navy (p. 497). With two quotations from this valuable work we must conclude: "It remains only that we take special care to preserve the high position which we have struggled through years of difficulty to attain; that we not only secure it from decay, but also use the utmost diligence to improve it, by availing ourselves of all the resources of science as they arise, and acquiring those facilities in manual operations which continual practice alone can bestow." "That which has lately happened in the Black Sea"-(the words are a quotation from a letter officially published in the Moniteur of February 1854, by the celebrated French General of Artillery, Paixhans, relative to the burning of the Turkish fleet at Sinope by Russian ships firing shells furnished with time-fuzes,)— "and that which may soon take place elsewhere, is that which will always happen. in favor of any power which may first use effectually and apply a new weapon of war; and this truth is about to appear in another manner by the musket which is now receiving such remarkable improvements in its range and accuracy of fire." 2. ART. III.-PARSI ARCHEOLOGY, AND ITS EXPLORERS. Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre, contenant les Idées 3. Avesta die Heiligen Schriften der Parsen. Zum Esten Male im Grundtexte sammt der Huzvaresch-Obersetzung Prerausgeben. Von Dr. FRIEDERICH SPIEGEL. 1 Band: Der Vendidad. Vienna: 1853. 4. Zend-Avesta, or the Religious Books of the Zoroastrians. Edited and interpreted by N. L. WESTERGAARD, Professor of the Oriental Languages in the University of Copenhagen. Vol. 1: The Zend Texts. Copenhagen: 1854. No notice has yet been taken in our pages of the interesting investigations which have been carried on in connection with Parsi antiquities. The subject is in itself one of the most important in the ample range of Oriental lore; and on that account we should hardly deem ourselves at liberty to pass it over. But the inquiry has a claim of peculiar strength on Bombay Reviewers, in the fact that the great body of the people who now profess the Parsi faith are inhabitants of Western India, and mingle with ourselves in the intercourse of daily life. Henry Lord; Doctor Hyde. 41 There are a good many questions belonging to our subject on which it is not at present possible to speak with confidence. Several important topics connected with Parsi antiquity are still keenly debated by scholars of high name; and none are freer to confess the obscurity that still rests on the subject than the Spiegels and Westergaards who are doing the most to dispel that obscurity. We deem it right to shun the troubled waters of controversy. We shall pretty nearly restrict ourselves to a summary of those conclusions which all who have devoted attention to the topic will admit to be certain—or, at all events, probable in a high degree. Probably the easiest way of introducing the subject will be to give a rapid sketch of the progress of investigation and discovery in connection with it. And we shall confine ourselves to modern days. It would be as endless as it would be profitless to review the opinions regarding Zoroaster and the Persian religion, held by the Greeks and Romans, and by the Fathers of the Christian Church. Even considerably before the Christian era Zoroaster had become mythical-everything connected with his age and doings was involved in doubt; and Pliny was disposed to cut the knot by supposing that there had been at least two personages of the name. Kleuker, the German translator of Anquetil du Perron, has laboriously collected the ancient allusions to Zoroaster, or, to refer to a more accessible writer, Stanley, the author of a well-known History of Philosophy, has laboured to reduce to some order the chaos of conflicting statements, although with indifferent success. We cannot afford time to notice the curious little volume of Henry Lord," some time resident in the East Indies, and Preacher to the Honorable Company of Merchants trading thither." It appeared in 1630, and was entitled "A Discovery of Two Foreign Sects in the East Indies-namely, the sect of Banians, the ancient natives of India, and the sect of the Persees, the ancient inhabitants of Persia; together with the Religion and Manners of each Sect." There is a good deal of graphic description in Lord; but in accurate knowledge he fails. The first work of standard excellence on the subject of the Parsis and their faith, was by Dr. Thomas Hyde, Professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford, and a man of extensive Oriental learning. A copy of the second edition of his work lies before us, bearing the date of 1760; the first edition was published in 1700. It is a volume of 580 pages, written in Latin that would seem to indicate less familiarity with classical, than we know the author to have possessed with Oriental lore. VOL. IV.NO. I. 6 Hyde carried on his researches with praiseworthy zeal and perseverance. He writes with vivacity; and his book is still readable mainly from the possession of that quality. His attempt, however, to expound the ancient Persian religion was unsuccessful, and that, because he could not command the materials on which alone a correct judgment could he based. No blame attaches to him; he did all that one in his position could have done to solve the problem. The unsatisfactory character of the statements before him must have put his patience to a severe test, and would have exhausted any ordinary zeal. The authorities on which he chiefly depended were quite modern, the chief of them being the Sad-dar, a little book written in rude Persian verse, only, as Hyde himself admits, two centuries before his own time. Had he been able to make use of them, he had in his possession two MSS. that would have thrown far more light on the subject than any modern compilations. These were two Zend MSS. containing the Yaçna and the Niaish; but he does not appear to have been able to turn them to account. Yet, apparently, he could decypher the characters, for he has supplied us with a tolerable Zend alphabet, and there are scattered throughout his work a large number of Zend and Pehlvi words, with their sounds more or less correctly given. The conclusions which Hyde could draw from the imperfect evidence before him need not detain us. He labours zealously to prove that proper Parsiism is a pure system of religion—that it is not pyro-latria, but only pyro-dulia. He holds that Zoroaster was acquainted with the Old Testament Scriptures, and largely availed himself of that acquaintance in drawing up his own system. He believes that Zoroaster was contemporary with Darius Hystaspes. With all his energy, Hyde did not succeed in arousing any very general interest in the subject he had discussed. His book saw a second edition-and a very handsome edition it is, ornamented with excellent engravings, but even the first could hardly be said to sell; and we are told the Doctor tried to turn it to some account by lighting his fire with it. The worthy man was nearly a fire-worshipper himself, but he must have felt that feeding the flames with the product of his brain was rather a costly sacrifice. Hyde had loudly called on Europeans residing in India to aid in throwing light on the antiquities of Parsiism and kindred subjects. Some of our countrymen now began to exert themselves in the good cause. MSS. were collected, often at great expense, and sent home to England. No one seems to have |