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386 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xlii to banish corruption from the seat of justice, as dogs were ex- cluded from the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the first Artaxerxes was revived and published as the rule of the magistrates ; but the assurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue. Their behaviour was inspected by a thousand eyes, their words were overheard by a thousand ears, the secret or public agents of the throne ; and the pro- vinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were enlight- ened by the frequent visits of a sovereign who affected to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary career. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects most deserving of his care. In every city of Persia, orphans and the children of the poor were maintained and instructed at the public expense; the daughters were given in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank, and the sons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanic trades or promoted to more honourable service. The deserted villages were relieved by his bounty ; to the peasants and farmers who were found incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cattle, seed, and the instruments of husbandry ; and the rare and inestimable treasure of fresh water was parsimoniously managed and skilfully dispersed over the arid territory of Persia. 52 The prosperity of that kingdom was the effect and the evidence of his virtues ; his vices are those of Oriental despotism; but in the long competition between Chosroes and Justinian the advantage both of merit and fortune is almost always on the side of the Barbarian. 53 His love of To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputation of knowledge ; and the seven Greek philosophers, who visited his court, were invited and deceived by the strange assurance that 52 In Persia, the prince of the waters is an officer of state. The number of wells and subterraneous channels is much diminished, and with it the fertility of the soil : 400 wells have been recently lost near Tauris, and 42,000 were once reckoned in the province of Khorasan (Chardin, torn. iii. p. 99, 100. Tavernier, torn. i. p. 416). 53 The character and government of Nushirvan is represented sometimes in the words of d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient, p. 680, &c. from Khondemir), Eutychius (Annal. torn. ii. p. 179, 180 — very rich [ed. Migne, P. G. iii., p. 1075]), Abulpharagius (Dynast, vii. p. 94, 95 — very poor), Tarikh Shikard (p. 144-150), Texeira (in Stevens, 1. i. c. 35), Asseman (Bibliot. Orient, torn. iii. p. 404-410), and the Abbe Pourmont (Hist, de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, torn. vii. p. 325-334), who has trans- lated a spurious or genuine testament of Nushirvan. [Also Tabari (ed. Noldeke, p. 251 sqq.). For an account of the domestic government of Chosroes see Bawlin- son's Seventh Oriental Monarchy.]