the pure, the celestial fire, or the Sun. They rendered Supreme homage only to the Supreme Being, who is the Creator and Sovereign Disposer of the world. When it has been asked of those remnants of the ancient Persians, who retired into India after the Arabian conquest, what worship they pay to the sun; they have replied, that they do not adore the stars, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor any of the planets; that they only turn their faces towards the sun when they pray.

The ancients and the moderns are not agreed on the question, whether the religion of the Magi was already established among the Persians at the time of Zoroaster's birth; or whether Sabaism* and idolatry reigned among them. In the first case, he would only be the restorer or reformer of Magism; in the second, he would be the institutor of it. It is not a question, which regards us; but if it is necessary to take a side, I should rather believe that Zoroaster did nothing but reform the religion of the Magi, which had been impaired, or purify it from the false opinions, by which it had been corrupted. This man was born in the days of Cyrus, in the province of Aderbijan, which is Media. His father, a native of the same province, was named Purshasp, and his mother, who belonged to the village of Rey, bore the name of Doghdu.

The genealogy of Zoroaster seems certain, since it is contained in a religious book of the Persians, called Sad-Der; and as all the names of his ancestors, even to Espintaman his great-great-grandfather, are Persian names, one cannot doubt of his Persian origin; so that they deceived themselves, who have accounted him a Jew. This does not hinder but that he might have been in the service of some prophet or distinguished man among the Jews,† since his family was poor. I pass by the fables relating to the miracle of his birth, to examine in passing whether the name of Zerdusht or Zardasch was his proper name; or whether it was only a religious surname, which was applied to him. The latter seems to me to be the more probable, since Zardasch in ancient Persian signifies friend of fire, as his followers, who

* The worship of "the host of heaven."

+ Prideaux will have it that Zoroaster was a Jew, and servant to one of the prophets, probably Daniel.

reside in India, testify to this day. This remark might serve to reconcile the historians, who speak of several Zoroasters, whom they place in different times. Mr Hyde maintains that there has been but one, and that he has been multiplied only through ignorance of the age and country in which he really lived. This plurality might also be produced by the fact, that the name of Zoroaster, not being a proper name, has been applied to all those, who have given sanction to the religion of fire. It is thus that Oxyartes, king of the Bactrians, might have been called Zoroaster, and that the Persians give the same name to Abraham, because they pretend that this patriarch approved and practised the same religion.

Having formed in solitude his system of philosophy and religion, and written it in a book called the Zend, Zoroaster, arrived at the age of thirty years, went to seek Hystaspes in the village of Balk. He presented to him his book, which, it is said, he boasted to have received from heaven: but it is more likely that he only laid claim to a divine revelation for what the book contained. The king Hystaspes, or, as the Persians call him, Gustasp, received him; and when Zoroaster had confirmed his doctrine by some prodigies, he embraced it, and urged it on his subjects. Hyde places the death of this prince at about the year 555 before the birth of our Lord; but these dates are not very sure.

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The religion of Zoroaster consisted in three principal articles; in purity of faith, in sincerity and becomingness of language, in integrity and sanctity of conduct. It acknowledged but one only God, and forbade the adoration of any other than he. This is apparent from these words of the Sad-Der Know before all things, that your Lord is One, that he is holy, that he has no equal; that he is the Lord of power and glory. This fundamental article is confirmed by the testimonies of Arabian authors, who assure us that Zoroaster never heard but of one God, without companion, without associate, without equal. It is the same God, who exists by himself, and who before the ages formed the world of pure and happy spirits. These are the same with the eons of the Manichæans, or the intelligences of Plato. Three thousand years after this first work, God sent forth HIS WILL, under the appearance of a brilliant light; it took the form of a man. It was attended by seventy of the highest of his

angels, and it was then that it formed the sun, the moon, the stars, and men. But by men we are certainly to understand only human souls, with a luminous, subtile and transparent body, which they never put off, but which are as it were their envelope and their vehicle. For as to a material, corruptible body, they were not clothed with that till they descended into the sublunary world, which was not yet created.

Evil had not yet appeared; it did not manifest itself till three thousand years afterwards, when God formed this lower world, which has for its limits the vortex of the moon, where the empire ends of matter and evil. Above, every thing is happy, immortal: but before speaking of the origin of evil, let us finish our description of the religion of Zoroaster. Remarkably pure, in many respects, as to its doctrines; it was equally so with regard to its mode of worship. The temples, consecrated wholly to the divinity, contained no statues or images. The only symbol of his presence there was a perpetual fire. When they worshipped, they turned towards the east; because it is from that quarter the light advances, and the heavenly bodies rise. No religious homage was paid to the angels. They were considered but the ministers of the Supreme Being; having each one his employment and lot in the government of the world, and acting as mediators between the invisible and unapproachable God and guilty and mortal man. As to what the pagans called the visible gods, the sun and the stars, they were looked upon only as images of the Divinity; but animated images, which had been formed by himself, merited also a sort of veneration. A paradise, a hell, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, were the constant doctrines of their faith.*

Beausobre's Histoire Critique de Manichée et du Manichéisme. Liv. 2. ch. 1. See also Prideaux, book 1. ch. 4. and Pastoret's Zoroastre, Confucius and Mahomet comparés.

*The author goes on to relate, that this religion fell into great corruptions under the dominion of the Greeks and Parthians; but was restored to its ancient lustre under the father and predecessor of Sapor. In the reign of this latter prince appeared the famous Manes, or Manichæus, who drew him away from the Zoroastrian belief in the resurrection of the body, "un dogme," says Beausobre, "que la raison n'admet qu' avec repugnance, et par une grande soumission de foi." The heresiarch had no reason, however, to rejoice in this success; for his heresy on this point was the chief article in the accusation which wrought his death.

HE has gone to his God; he has gone to his home; No more amid peril and errour to roam;

His eyes are no longer dim ;

His feet will no more falter;
No grief can follow him;

No pang his cheek can alter.

There are paleness, and weeping, and sighs below; For our faith is faint, and our tears will flow;

But the harps of heaven are ringing;

Glad angels come to greet him;
And hymns of joy are singing,
While old friends press to meet him.

O honoured, beloved, to earth unconfined,
Thou hast soared on high; thou hast left us behind.
But our parting is not forever;

We will follow thee, by heaven's light,
Where the grave cannot dissever

The souls whom God will unite.

Yes, visions of his future rest

To man, the pilgrim, here are shown;
Deep love, pure friendship, thrill his breast,
And hopes rush in of joys unknown.

Released from earth's dull round of cares,
The aspiring soul her vigour tries;
Plumes her soiled pinions, and prepares
To soar amid etherial skies.

Around us float in changing light
The dazzling forms of distant years;
And earth becomes a glorious sight,
Beyond which opening heaven appears.

We did not part, as others part;
And should we meet on earth no more,
Yet deep and dear, within my heart,
Some thoughts will rest, a treasured store.

How oft, when weary and alone,
Have I recalled each word, each look,
The meaning of each varying tone,

And the last parting glance we took.

Yes, sometimes even here are found,
Those who can touch the chords of love,
And wake a glad and holy sound,
Like that which fills the courts above.

It is, as when a traveller hears
In a strange land, his native tongue,
A voice, he loved in happier years,
A song, that once his mother sung.

We part; the sea will roll between,
While we through different climates roam;
Sad days, a life may intervene ;

But we shall meet again,-at home.