HISTORICAL NOTICE.

ANTIQUITY Shows us few personages as celebrated, and yet as little known with any exactness, as Zoroaster. The countries for which he legislated have, during 2200 years, undergone revolutions which have changed their entire aspect. His doctrines formed many of the ancient philosophers; in the hands of heretics, they have given birth to famous sects, and made schisms in Christianity; yet this doctrine and the books which contain it are still a problem for most of the learned. After so many ages and their varied succession of events, no one expected to see the works of the Persian legislator appear. A people almost unknown, pretend however to possess this treasure, and assure us that the Zend books are from the hand of the Prophet, whose law it follows and has always followed. Whatever the nature of these books, if they are Zoroaster's, there are few monuments of greater interest, as well from their antiquity, as the effects which they have produced. The Parsees, descendants of those who after the death of Iezjerd retired into the mountains of Kirman and into India, attribute the Zend books to Zoroaster, whom they regard as their legislator

Like the Chaldeans, the Parsees receive from their fathers the deposit of science, and religiously transmit it to their posterity as they have received it. The zeal with which they guard this precious treasure, renders them deaf to every proposition of reform. If a learned Destour, such as Darab, wishes to retrench from the Zend text, current among the Parsees of India, repetitions which seem to result from the ignorance of copyists, he meets with unbending opposition from the nation, which allows no change even in translations and commentaries. It is to uninterrupted tradition that we owe the authenticity and integrity of their books, the tradition of men to whom none can refuse the character of good faith, and whose inviolable attachment to the law of their fathers merits the more consideration from the nature of the works, which they regard as their most precious inheritance. It is the voice of an entire people which offers us

6

THE SUN HIEROGLYPHIC OF GOD.

the monuments of its faith, liturgic books, whose religious practice and civil customs are at once the witness and the commentary.

These books form the breviary of the Parsee priests; they read them continually; it is not rare to meet with Mobeds who recite them from memory. They furnish the basis of divine worship, and of most of the Parsee prayers.

The Zend-avesta differs widely in its character from those treatises in which Zoroaster seems to have developed the philosophy of his faith. These, less interesting to the mass of the people, have fixed the attention of a few disciples: it is this philosophical side which was known to the Greeks and Romans, and we have hitherto formed our ideas upon theirs. The character revealed by the Zend is that of a legislator, the founder of a religion, an enthusiast; who speaks less to the mind, than to the senses, the imagination, and the heart. The people have preserved these works suited to their own level; the priests have retained them; they form part of the external body of the religion. The Zend books have never, as has been supposed by persons superficially informed in Oriental literature, been called books of Abraham. They contain no quotations from the Psalms, nor a word of the Jews and their patriarchs. The historian Hermippus, praised by Pliny for his exactness, confidently cites works of Zoroaster about 240 or 250 years after him.

Dion Chrysostome relates the sublime manner in which Zoroaster has celebrated the car of the chief of nature, and ascribed to him the hymns sung by the Magians in the celebration of their mysteries; and Suidas indicates the different matters treated of in his works.

The learned bishop Eusebius, so profoundly versed in antiquities, in acquainting us with the Persian collection of liturgic books, does not hesitate to name thus the works of Zoroaster.

Those who attach much interest to the question of personal authenticity, may consult farther on this subject the memoir of M. Anquetil Du Perron in the tome trente huitiême de l'histoire de l'académie des sciences et des lettres.

The Magian religion was at first a pure theism; but as early as the time of Abraham, had become mingled with heterodox notions. They always, however, preserved zealously their faith in the unity of God, and we are not to conclude, from their reverence for the Sun or for fire, that they have ever paid a merely material or sensual worship to this element and this star.

Zoroaster prescribes indeed the rite of turning towards the Sun or

HISTORICAL NOTICE.

7

fire in praying, but in the formula and prayers accompanying this direction of the body, they are considered as symbols which assist in the direction of the soul towards the Supreme Being. Amongst some sects water was held in reverence as well as fire; they were forbidden to muddy it, as no filth was to be cast into the fire. The visible and material Sun was recognized by them as the limited providence and dispenser of life to our planetary system, as Ormusd, the Spiritual Sun, was worshiped as the Creator and fountain of inspiration, for the spirits embodied in those organic lives. They have more ceremonies and formulas of preparation, initiation, adoration, and expiation than any other people, and practice all with scrupulous exactitude, however burdensome and fatiguing by their multiplicity and length.

Though not restricted by their law in regard to food, the Parsees, who preserve this worship in India, abstain with the Brahmins from beef, and with the Mahommedan and Jew from pork.

Their marriages are blessed by the priests, and their death-beds consoled by prayers; but no priest approaches the bodies of the dead, which are exposed upon the "tower of silence," and quickly consumed by birds of prey, that they may not infect fire, water, earth, or air.

They were divided into three classes or grades:

The lowest performed the services of the temple, subject to the authority of the others.

There were three sorts of temples

Oratories, where a lamp was kept always burning.

Temples, where fire burned upon the altars.

A Basilisk of the Archmagi, where adorers went to pay their most solemn devotions.*

*Thus the Catholics have oratories, chapels, and cathedrals; and high mass on their solemn occasions is only performed in the cathedrals.

MAXIMS OF THE MAGIAN RELIGION.

Not to change their prayers or forms of worship.

To frequent the temples zealously.

Not to dwell far from the temples, and to enter them privately and without exhibition.

To guard the sacred fire.

To abstain from sexual intercourse on the sacred days.

To consecrate marriages.

To avoid all pollution.

To bathe often.

To allow no impure desire in the heart, no perverse thought in the

mind.

To shun deceit and falsehood.

To forget injuries.

To meditate the sacred word, the Zend-avesta, as the only law, whose corruption will be visited by the condign punishment of heaven.

To fear God alone.

To trust entirely in the Divine goodness.

To await the day of the Lord's appearance, and be always prepared for it.

To remember Zoroaster to the end of the ages.

To distinguish the true from false revelations.

To reprove the wicked boldly and without respect for their rank.

To carry the truth to sovereigns.

To instruct the people.

To excel in the knowledge of sciences.

To be frugal.

To perform acts of beneficence, as the noblest employment of wealth.

To live by one's labor.

To respect the property of others.

The Magian confined himself in marriage to his own sect and even family.