There are, however, a few illustrious names upon the records of the Persian literati, even after the close of the thirteenth century, and such was the intellectual vitality of the people that lyric poetry and rhetoric were well developed during these stormy times in the political and military world, for the empire had still many men of culture, and also boasted of one literary king. PRIESTLY RULE. Nations, as well as individuals, have their periods of growth, prosperity and decay. It is seldom that they arise from an age of great prostration and regain their former strength and brilliancy. History, however, furnishes bright exceptions to this general rule, and Persia has repeatedly recovered herself from the ravages of foreign conquest. Three times her territory has been invaded when the design of the conqueror has apparently been the extermination of the science of letters, and three times she has rallied bravely from the shock and rebuilded her institutions of learning, founding a new national literature upon the ruins of the old. Her literature of to-day is profuse in quantity, consisting largely of the various forms of romance,[292] but the best works of Persian authors belong to the centuries past. Perhaps she might rally even the fourth time, and resume her old position in the world of letters, but she is held in a state of lethargy by the benumbing influence of a Mohammedan priesthood. Even the Shāh rules only by the permission of this power, being looked upon as the vicegerent of the prophet, and the laws of the nation are subject to the dictation of the priests. They stand in the way of all progress, as even a railway cannot be laid without their permission, much less can institutions of learning be carried on outside of their control. Official corruption, which seems to threaten the very existence of some of the Eastern nations, gathers new power from the influence of these Mohammedan mollāhs, and a large share of the money which is appropriated for public improvement eventually finds its way into the coffers of the king’s ministers. There is little hope of intellectual growth under this baneful influence. At the beginning of the present century Īrānian poetry assumed a dramatic form, but, like the Greek drama, and the “Mysteries” of the Middle ages, it is the offspring of a religious ceremony, and the great attraction of the Persian stage is a Moslem passion play,[293] even the drama of the empire being under the control of her conquerors. RUSSIAN OPPRESSION.