Ch.XXVI, p.621, f.1
"If one conclusion more than another has been forced upon our notice by the
retrospect in which I have indulged, it is that a sublime and unmurmuring
devotion has been inculcated by this new faith, whatever it be. There is,
I believe, but one instance of a Babi having recanted under pressure or
menace of suffering, and he reverted to the faith and was executed with two
years. Tales of magnificent heroism illumine the blood-stained pages of
Babi history. Ignorant and unlettered as many of the votaries are, and
have been, they are yet prepared to die for their religion, and the fires
of Smithfield did not kindle a nobler courage than has met and defined the
more refined torture-mongers of Tihran. Of no small account, then, must
be the tenets of a creed that can awaken in its followers so rare and
beautiful a spirit of self-sacrifice.... It is these little incidents,
protruding from time to time their ugly features, that prove Persia to be
not as yet quite redeemed, and that somewhat a stagger the tall-takers
about Iranian civilization." (Lord Curzon's "Persia and the Persian
Question," vol. 1, p. 501.)