respectively in their appreciation of the scientific marvels of the
Polytechnic Institution, they meet on common ground in their admiration of
the wax-work exhibition of Madame Tussaud; though the Khan, who was not
sufficiently acquainted with the features of our public characters to
judge of the likenesses, expresses his commendation only in general terms.
But the Parsees, with the naïveté of children, break out into absolute
raptures at recognising the features of Lord Melbourne, "a good-humoured
looking, kind English gentleman, with a countenance, perhaps, representing
frankness and candour more than dignity"--William IV., "looking the very
picture of good-nature"--the Duke of Wellington, Lord Brougham, &c.;
"indeed, we know of no exhibition (where a person has read about people)
that will afford him so much pleasure, always recollecting that it is only
_one_ shilling, and for this you may stop just as long as you are
inclined." Their remarks, on seeing the effigy of Voltaire, are too
curious to be omitted. "He is an extraordinary-looking man, dressed so
oddly too, with little pinched-up features, and his hair so curiously
arranged. We looked much at him, thinking he must have had much courage,
and have thought himself quite right in his belief, to have stood opposed
to all the existing religious systems of his native land. He, however, and
those who thought differently from him, have long since in another world
experienced, that if men only act up to what they believe to be right, the
Maker of the Deist, the Christian, and the Parsee, will receive them into
his presence; and that it is the _professor of religion_, who is _nothing
but a professor_, let his creed be what it may, that will meet with the
greatest punishment from Him that ruleth all things." But before we quit
the subject of this attractive exhibition, we must not omit to mention an
adventure of the Persian princes, two of whom, having paid a previous
visit, persuaded the third brother, on his accompanying them thither, that
he was in truth in the royal palace, (whither he had been invited for one
of the Queen's parties on the same evening.) and in the presence of the