THE KING OF PERSIA.--He is called King of Kings. What a name for a man! It is the title of God alone. The king sits on a marble throne, and his garments sparkle with jewels of dazzling brightness. The walls of his state-chamber are covered with looking-glasses. One side of the room opens into a court adorned with flowers and fountains. Great part of his time is spent in amusements, such as hunting and shooting, writing verses, and hearing stories. He keeps a man called a story-teller, and he will never hear the same story repeated twice. It gives the man a great deal of trouble to find new stories every day. The king keeps jesters, who make jokes; and he has mimics, who play antics to make him laugh. He dines at eight in the evening from dishes of pure gold. No one is allowed to dine with him; but two of his little boys wait upon him, and his physician stands by to advise him not to eat too much. Do you think he is happy in all his grandeur? Judge for yourself. All his golden dishes come up covered and sealed. Why? For fear of poison. There is a chief officer in the kitchen who watches the cook, to see that he puts no poison into the food: and he seals up the dishes before they are taken to the king, in order that the servants may not put in poison as they are carrying them along. In what fear this great king lives! He cannot trust his own servants. TEHERAN.--This is the royal city. It is built in a barren plain, and is exceedingly hot, as the hills around keep off the air. It is a mean city, for it is chiefly built of mud huts. The king's palace is called the "Ark," and is a very strong as well as grand place.[5] [5] Extracted chiefly from Southgate's Travels. CHINA. There is no country in the world like China. How different it is from Persia, where there are so few people; whereas China is crowded with inhabitants! How different it is from England, where the people are instructed in the Bible, whereas China is full of idols. China is a heathen country; yet it is not a savage country, for the people are quiet, and orderly, and industrious. It would be hard for a child to imagine what a great multitude of people there are in China. If you were to sit by a clock, and if all the Chinese were to pass before you one at a time, and if you were to count one at each tick of the clock, and if you were never to leave off counting day or night--how long do you think it would be before you had counted all the Chinese? Twelve years. O what a vast number of people there must be in China! In all, there are about three hundred and sixty millions! If all the people in the world were collected together, out of every three one would be a Chinese. How sad it is to think that this immense nation knows not God, nor his glorious Son! There are too many people in China, for there is not food enough for them all; and many are half-starved.