The Diary of B.M. the Shah of Persia. By J.
W. Redhouse. (Murray.)—Having already given at some length our impressions of this Diary when it appeared (partly translated and partly analysed by Herr Schindler) in the columns of the Academy, little remains for as now beyond observing that the Diary, as a whole, quite confirms our previous opinion of the directness and almost boyish simplicity both of the thoughts themselves, and of the language in which they are put. The Shah writes down such things as are interesting to himself, or such as he thinks will interest his people,—not at all (as is the case with most writers of journals) from a sense of what is expected from him, He says what he really thinks, not what other people will expect that he ought to think, and the effect is often extremely quaint. Then, too. the shrewdness of his observations, and the quiet confidence visible throughout that he is instructing and delighting his readers, the utter absence of any consciousness of impending criticism either of himself or of his book, and the confidence he reposes in the genuineness of the welcome given him. "It is evident," he says, "that the people of England were all sorry and grieved in their hearts at our departure," almost disarms the critic's pen. There is nothing profound, striking, or deeply interesting in the Shah's Diary, but it is not unamusing to look at Western nations and their civilisation through Persian glasses, and the Diary is too brief to be tedious. The volume is, as is befitting, tastefully got up, with good paper and type, and is illustrated by a portrait of the writer, from which we do not gain high ideas of his benignity.
Previous page
