Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/224

 114 TEHERAN AND A NEWER PERSIA

transportation must be improved everywhere if the life-blood of commerce is to course freely through the somewhat hard- ened arteries of trade. Firm and equable legislation, more- over, must mete out truer justice to the people, if their hope for liberty, equality, and fraternity is actually to be realized. The state organization must, furthermore, recognize more keenly than it does the necessity of developing some sort of an adequate force that may be able independently to preserve order within the bounds of the country and to defend its borders from invasion or encroachment from without. Above all, it seems to me, is the paramount necessity of believing in the dignity of labor. Carlyle's doctrine of work must form a tenet in the newer creed which may mean Iran's utter regener- ation. This article of faith is to be included in the newer creed, not only in theory, but in practice. Yes, the soft trill of the Nightingale must be forgotten and the drowsy fragrance of the Rose shaken off, if Persia is truly to assume once more the strength of the Lion and to follow the high path of the Sun. Then will such titles as Sur-i Isrdfil^ or 'Gabriel's Trumpet,' have real meaning; then may the glories of the reign of Jamshid return once more ; and then may the hand of a new Cyrus and a new Darius be outstretched to grasp the hand of fellowship and support extended by lands that know the rule of a Liberal Government and the blessings of a Constitution, and the pristine glory of Iran thus re-assume its past effulgence.

�� �