Show TIE PERSIAN E3II1IIE tan rcniosj Lecture llcforc the Students SocIety There was a moderately good attendance at-tendance at the regular session of the Students Society of tho Latter day Saints College last evening The chief Hem on lie programme was a lecture ou the subJect The Rise and fall of Ujo 1crsiaa Em plicdclivered by President Wil 13n Done The lecture which occupied cupied three quarters of an hour was closely listened to and evidently enjoyed by tee present The speaker began by giving a brief account of tho origin of lie ancient nations Mankind has been classified Into three divisions or types the Caucasian or white type the 31011 1130 or jellov and the Ethiopian or blck The frt of these Is the only race which has taken any active part in the history of the worM For convenience this type his been subdivided into three families the Semitic the Hamlltc and the Aryan or Japhetic Ju The thrl of these families includes the nations of the Jexns the Phoenicians the Arabian the Assyrians and other lie second fall comprises the Egyptians aud other nations of northern Africa lie Babylonian and Mine othcrniluor people while branch are included in tho Aryan nr IncuJ most of the nations of Europe and their colonies and the Persians j Our earliest glimpse of 1erslan history is gained about the yearSGO BC At this time they were lu partial bondage to the Assyrians but lie yoke was broken from their ntckn and they xvcro established together gether with the Meshes I closely related re-lated Ieopf us an Independent government gov-ernment under Cyaxares His successor Cjll cessor nstyages a rather effeminate klngjheldthcfovcrclgntyonlholer slant whose king CmbJ I supposed l sup-posed to have bl the ou In laxv of the Median monarch A son teas born to Cambyse In the early part of the sixth century B C who according ac-cording to tho popular legend the truth of which U as uncertain as that of most lend the soothsayers sooth-sayers hid foretold would utimate IJ 1 reign over all Asia I fearing for the saety anti per pr manancy il his throne AstyagcS at whose court this boy hid been left as a hostage by his father ordered or-dered the young prince be put to lle thTj death ThoofllceT entrusted xvith this duty left I to bo informed by a shepherd who taking a fancy to the boy reared him in his family and kepthtlull ignorant his ohl birth In course of time the boy committed I serious offense lo flogging one of his playmates for xxlilcli act ho teat cited to appear before the king when Astyages at once recognized his grandson The mmarch from tint tme roman kept tie boy at his eourt inflicting a very sexere punishment pun-ishment upon the ouleer who had neglected to carry out his order Having grown to manhood the prince organized hijcountrj men in I I revolt against Astj e and a sMeJ Hy that kings chief general the olllccr xvhom Atyages hal rongedetablUlied himself king over all Media and ler li About 530 B Ch Thus Cyrus the Great concerning sellout Isaiah prophesied a century and I half before that time Lau the fulfilment of liLt high destiny Cyrus conquered Iydi and other portions of Asia and then turned lih attention to Babylon The lecturer staled in an impressive impres-sive manner the rlrciimstanees of thedownfall of nab tontbc turn log of the riser Euphrates from Its course through the city that Its bed might be ned by the inuy of Cyrus for a pas agexvaj be neath the walls the impious feast of Bebhazzar the liindxvritln on the xt all and its Interpretation In-terpretation by Daniel and thin cusp > turn or die cl bj he 1ervian king Tlio Juris xrlm had been reilucol lo captlxlt bj ebucliadaijar were lmllled by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple This was the special work for which Cyrus had been raided up He was mortally mor-tally xvonniletl I fexx jenrs afterward after-ward by tome of the barlarous tribes ou the north of his empire He wa succeeded ly his son the gloomy Cambyoex who having secretly procurctl the death of his brother tmerdb lurnoJ lib aten lou t further conquest lie conquered con-quered Egypt and parts of Eastern Egpt Africa but upon recelxing the tidings tid-ings that a maui had Utirped the throncof Persia under the name of committed Mii femcrdK Cambjes cmmll cde Tlie fllrO bmerdis revoked the edict giving permission to the Jews to relxiild their temple and partially det trI the work already accent plUhcd tonnnl that end Ho restored stored thor religion of 3tislin In i lace of the compantlvelr pur Xoroa trlinlsm the latter of which taught belief in a god almovt identical iden-tical with tlie Jehovih of the Israel lIes But the malevolent reign of the usurper was of short dttnllon fur bo Wa depoccil and slam In the year following his aCC ion by Da rius Ilystaspc 521 1 < Darius began his reign by again restoring the privileges i > reviou i Iy granted to the Jews and by reestablishing rees-tablishing Zoroa tranlsm He organized or-ganized the government In the most perfect form I had Jet assumed Haviog accomnllshetl tills work Dam turned his attention to the conquest of Greece The various attempts by Darius and his son Xerxes to conquer Greece were dllat l upon at seine length by the speaker who emphasized the fact tliat the faIlure of each expedition teas the result ot the hand of Providcnccexcrclscd in bchilf of the Greeks Ho also sjioke pf the disastrous coiiMxmcnces xx hii h would necessarily have follow fol-low ed the conquest of Greece by the Persians shon Ing that under their rule Europe would never have attained at-tained to lint degree of civilization and enlightenment xvhich modern nations there haxo reached Nor would it have been possible for the religion of Christ to be tabll < hed in Europe had time Persians gained control of that country The decline of the Persian Empire Em-pire dates from the accession of Xerxes in ISi B C The succeeding monarchs did little xvorthy of record rec-ord their lime being occupied principally prin-cipally In quelling revolts The last Persian king called Dirms ascended the throne about 331B C simultaneously with the accession Alexander the Great to the throne of Macedonia The attention of Alexander was turned to Persia which country he Invaded in 333 I1C He defeated the ferslaus in two battles during that year and after an Interval of a year and a halftime final battle xvas fought on the plains of ArbcLt near the city of Babylon Although the force of Carius was far superior in numbers to those Alexander they were no match for the great Stare donian phalanx and the Persians were totally deflated WiLls his battle which occurredm lie year 33 jj i the history of Persia as an independnt nation closes it then became a part of the great world empire Alexander At the present time Persia is ruled over by a despot and Its people peo-ple are hell in the strongest bonds cf ignorance and superstition The Pcr i3 of today Is not time Persia of thepist After the delivery of the lecture an instrumental selection was pleasingly rendered by Clare W Itcld one of the students followed by a very creditable recitationThe Blacksmiths Story by J J Walton Wal-ton principal of the Tenth District School The next session of the Society will be duly announced |