History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

xxii INTRODUCTION.

the chances against success the more numerous. But still the result went to falsify these not unnatural anticipations, and the members of the Wadia family showed a skill as shipwrights that won the admiration of English admirals and naval constructors. They seemed to inherit the capacity just as they succeeded by family right to the post of master-builder to the East India Company. It does not seem an unnatural inference to declare that this success, attained in so many different directions, must have been attributable to the good qualities and perseverance of the Parsis. The Hindus and Mahomedans, who so far outnumber the descendants of the ancient Persians that the latter are only like a drop in the ocean, have had the same opportunities, and if they had only seized them there is no reason why they should not have attained the commercial pre-eminence that the Parsis long possessed, and still to a certain extent enjoy. Without incurring the charge of excessive partiality to my own race, the fact shows their superior energy and persistency in attaining an object upon which they may have set their hearts.

But the Parsis have earned their reputation not so much by the manner in which they have accumulated fortunes as by the way in which they have dispensed the store with which Providence has blessed them.

Whether the explanation be an exceptional capacity