What rendered the phantasmagoria more attractive, was the ingenuity and talent of a young man from India,[143] who had charge of it. Besides being an adept in exhibiting it, he made frames, and painted, as occasion required, the glass he placed in them, with all kinds of Persian figures; and part of the story told in the day was sometimes exhibited at the Elchee's evening entertainments, which were often attended by dignified persons, who had before withheld their presence from regard to punctilious ceremony, but could not resist their curiosity. Thus our phantasmagoria became an important implement of diplomacy.
The Prince of Persia was anxious to possess this treasure, but as its fame had preceded the mission, it was not judged politic to disappoint the excited expectations of majesty; our magical box therefore accompanied us, and produced equal effects at the great court assembled at Sooltâneah, as it had at that of Shiraz.
The Elchee took particular pleasure, in the astonishment produced by his phantasmagoria. I one day suggested that wise and grave men, filling high stations, might expose themselves to ridicule from being amused by such trifles, and employing them as means of amusing and gratifying others. His quick reply was, "The man who is always wise, is a fool! and he, above all others, is most foolish, who, entrenched in forms and observances, neglects to use every honest means with which human nature supplies him, to promote fair and honourable objects. Besides," he added, "this amuses me, as much as any grown-up child in Persia, and it is from my keen-sighted guests observing that my enjoyment is real, that they are so much delighted. Were I to parade my superiority, by denying myself this, and other gratifications, which may be deemed trifling by men of measured manners, they would also be reserved and dignified, and we should become a group of those formalists, whom our great philosopher[144] has described, as always using shifts and perspectives, to make superficies seem body that hath depth and bulk."
After this answer, in which those that know him as well as I do will discover that the Elchee had succeeded in persuading himself, that his natural love of amusement was a valuable diplomatic quality; I, as a true follower of a mission, found it necessary to acquiesce in his reasoning, and must, therefore, recommend phantasmagorias, or something similar, as of essential importance to the success of all future embassies to Persia!
I found, on this second mission, that the duties of Hajee Ibrahim had, at his death, been divided amongst several ministers. My old friend, Hajee Mahomed Hoosein, who had been so kind to us on the first mission, when he was Begler-Beg of Isfahan, was now, under the title of Ameen-ood-Douleh,[145] at the head of the finance and revenue department. He had risen from a low origin, that of a small shopkeeper in Isfahan. The Persians, who delight in the wonderful, spoke of his riches as immense, and they referred the origin of that wealth (which enabled him to preserve the favour of the king, by satisfying his cupidity) to his having obtained part of the royal treasure, which was lost at Isfahan by Jaffier Khan Zend, when he fled, in the year 1785, in such confusion from that city, that not only his baggage and treasures, but the ensigns of royalty, were plundered by its inhabitants.
This account may have some foundation, but inquiry and observation satisfied me, that the wealth of this sensible minister arises out of those more honourable sources which his industry and good management have created. Suffice it, as a proof of this fact, to state, that every province under him is prosperous; and the city of Isfahan has more than doubled its inhabitants, and quadrupled its manufacture of rich silk and brocade, during the twenty years that he has been its governor.
Hajee Mahomed Hoosein[146] is a man of great simplicity of manners, and neither has, nor pretends to, any of that wit, or brilliancy in conversation, for which many of the Persians are so distinguished. He is rather dull in company, and appears what he really is, a plain man of business. A friend of mine one day breakfasting with him, was surprised to hear him say to a poor man, who brought a pair of slippers to sell, "Sit down my honest friend, and take your breakfast; we will bargain about the slippers afterwards."
This admission of inferiors to their society at meals is not, however, uncommon with men of rank in Persia. It arises out of a sense of the sacred duties of hospitality, and out of parade, if they have not the reality of that humility so strongly inculcated in the Koran. Besides, their character and condition often disposes them to relax with those beneath them, and even with menial servants, whom they admit to a familiarity which at first view appears contradictory to those impressions we have of their haughty character. I was one day almost reproached by Aga Meer, on account of the difference which he observed in our behaviour to those of our countrymen, who were below us in condition. "You speak of your consideration for inferiors," said he to me, "but you keep them at a much greater distance than we do. Is this your boasted freedom?" I told him that it was exactly our boasted freedom, which compelled us to the conduct we observed. "You are so classified in Persia," said I, "that you can descend from your condition as you like; a man below you will never presume on your familiarity so far as to think himself, for a moment, on the same level with those, who are so entirely distinct from his class in the community. In England we are all equal in the eye of the law, the rights of every man are the same; the differences which exist are merely those of fortune, which place us in the relation of master and servant; but where there is no other distinction, we are obliged to preserve that with care, or all forms and respects would soon be lost."