repeating, and the veneration for his memory was carried so far, that Plato did not scruple to assert, that after his body had been burnt on the funeral pile, he had risen again on the twelfth day *.

The institutions of Zoroastres were superseded by those of Mahomet. The sect of the Magians, however, still professes to use his liturgy and prayers, extracted from the first part of the Zend-Avesta, repeating them in a language not understood. Its adherents consist chiefly of the lower and menial classes of society, who are stigmatized as Giaours, or Infidels, by the Mahometans. In consequence of a severe persecution which the Magians experienced from the Moslems, they fled in dispersion to different parts, and established themselves, towards the conclusion of the eighth century, in the province of Guzzerat, where their descendants, called Parsis, still exist as a distinct community, while another colony of them lives under the protection of the British government at Bombay †.

De Repub. xvi. 10. Clemens, Alexand. Strom. lib. v. § 255. vol. ii. p. 711. Edit. Potter. 1715.

+Ovington's Travels.

1

The Zend-Avesta, which word has been thought to mean the fire-kindler, and to bear allusion to the mode of kindling fire, by rubbing two bits of cane together, which prevailed among the Persians, is the title of the sacred book which Zoroastres composed, and which contained his pretended revelations *. When presented to Darius it was bound in twelve rolls, and consisted of 100 skins of vellum. Some say, that copies are still preserved by the sect of the Magians, in their oratories and fire-temples, written in the old Persian language and character; whilst modern Persian scholars affirm, that all remains of it have perished, and that the Parsis of Guzzerat acknowledge that, so far from now possessing the ancient books of Zoroastres, they have not so much as one single copy saved by their ancestors from the general wreck in the seventh century; the formularies which they now use, being only transcripts of a translation by one of the Parsi Destours, or Priests, who lived three or four centuries since.

Plutarch de Isid. et Osirid et Euseb. Prid. Con. vol. i. b. iv. p. 167. Some understand the expression Zend-Avesta to mean the "living word."

The learned Hyde, in his history of the ancient Persians, endeavours to establish from various authorities the proofs of the preservation of many of the doctrines of the Patriarchal faith, and of the adoption of sacred precepts and rites into the religion of that people, and he was in possession of some manuscripts, which he considered as fragments of the works of Zoroastres *, and published extracts from them. Upon his statements is grounded much of what is here adduced, with respect to the tenets and institutions of that distinguished Legislator. It is to be regretted, that his proposals to publish an entire translation of what he possessed was not encouraged. He himself described the book of the Sad-der (of which he published the Introduction and Conclusion) as a compendium of the precepts and rules of Zoroastres, made for the use of the Church of the Magi, composed in verse by a Parsi Destour (Priest), who lived about two hundred years before the time of Hyde.

Richardson speaks with great contempt of the manuscripts of Zoroastres; nevertheless,

what Hyde has represented to be the doctrines of Zoroastres is confirmed by many testimonies, and agrees with the general reports of ancient writers upon the subject; and if the fragments and copies which remain, were compositions of a spurious nature and modern date, they were probably fabricated in conformity to the best established accounts. It is said that the whole Zend-Avesta was brought from India by Mr. Fraser, and deposited in the Radcliffe Library, at Oxford: if satisfactory proofs exist of the authenticity of the work, there can be little doubt that the learning and munificence of the present age might, under such auspices, procure a translation.

The publication of Anquetil du Perron, oriental interpreter to the King of France, who professes to give a translation of the whole Zend-Avesta, is declared also by Mr. Richardson to bear palpable marks of a total or at least of a partial fabrication, produced in modern times. It is interspersed with Arabic words, which were not introduced into the Persian language till the seventh century. There are, however, some writers, among whom Kleuker may be particularly mentioned, who contend that it has consi

derable claims to be regarded as a genuine work.

Hyde supposes the original doctrine of the Persian religion to have been framed in conformity to the primeval simplicity of the faith of Shem, and to have inculcated a belief in the Supreme Being, and the assurance of a future judgment.

He is of opinion, that this faith after having been corrupted, was brought back to its genuine spirit by Abraham, and afterwards again depraved by additions, particularly by Sabianism, which introduced an undue veneration for the heavenly bodies and elements, a superstition against which Moses had cautioned the Israelites before, and from which Job declared himself free

*

Zoroastres and his followers continued, however, to reverence the sun as the Throne of God, on which he sat with apparent majesty; and, as the Jews beheld the Shechinah, or Divine Glory, in their temples, and preserved the sacred fire on their altars, he and his followers bent before the holy flame which he professed to have obtained from the fire out of which God addressed him, and

*Job xxxi. 26, 27.