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.