To prove however, that he is in error, I need but confine myself to the unravelling of his own words. At first he affirms that _Eeran_ is the plural of _Eer_, and means the _country of believers_; if so, the singular must mean _the country of a believer_; but he tells us afterwards, that _Eer_ signifies _a believer_ alone, consequently _Eeran_ must _believers_ alone, without any consideration of the word _country_. And the same inconsistency, which manifests itself here, applies with equal strictness to _An-Eiran_ also. Should these papers ever reach the observance of this distinguished foreigner, whom I appreciate even for his _approximation_ to the precincts of the _thought_, they will, I doubt not, readily disabuse him of a _radical_ misconception. _Eeran_ is not a _plural_ at all, but a _compound_ word: its constituents being _Eer_ and _An_,[144] of which the former signifies _Sacred_ and the latter a _Territory_. So that the united import will be the _Sacred Territory_; and _An-Eeran_, of course, is but its negative. This exposition I gain from the Irish language, which I take to be the primitive Iranian or Persic language. By it I am furthermore enabled to inform the _German_ “professor” that _Turan_, though now inhabited by “Nomad tribes,” obtained not its name from that circumstance, but from a widely different one. Tur[145] means _prolific_, whether as regards _population_ or _rural produce_; and _An_, as before, a territory--the whole betokening a _prolific territory_.[146] And he should remember, what he is not at all unconscious of, that eastern denominations are not varied by recent occupants, but continue in uninterrupted succession, from age to age, as imposed at the outset. CHAPTER X. Thus far have Ireland and Persia kept company together, both equally rejoicing in the common name of _Iran_. But now, when we descend to particulars, this harmony separates. Ireland being an _island_ surrounded on all sides by water--which Persia is not--it was necessary it should obtain a denomination expressive of this accident; or, at all events, when the alteration was so easily formed as by the change of the final _an_ into _in_--_an_ meaning _land_, and _in island_--the transition was so natural as at once to recommend its propriety.