which of the countries of Erân did it go forth? Was there really a man of the name of Zarathushtra, who invented and preached it, and when did he live? And did he invent it, or only reform it and put it into shape? When were the texts containing the doctrine, the prayer, and the law, written down? All these points have now for years been the subject of researches, which have arrived at conclusions in a great measure conflicting, and which their authors themselves do not attempt to give out ast final. It is not for a book like the present, meant essentially for general readers, to enter into the details and merits of special controversies. It can only present, in the briefest and clearest possible form, such results as are certain and such as appear most probable, most likely to be confirmed in the course of further study, as being supported by the greatest amount of intrinsic and circumstantial evidence.

8. Most of the Greek and Roman writers whose works, or fragments of them, have come down to us, speak of Zoroaster as of a wise man of the East and teacher of divine things, and also magic, whose existence it occurred to no one to doubt. True, their testimony, taken separately, would not go for much, as neither of these nations was remarkable for great historical sense or critical discernment,—and besides, they place him at absurdly varying periods, ranging all the way between 6,000 and 500 B.C. But the unanimity of the testimony establishes a strong presumption in favor of the real existence of such a person, at some time, as yet not to be determined, although so much can be said with certainty even

now, that both the above extreme dates are equally preposterous, the one for its remoteness, the other for its lateness. More conclusive, however, is the intrinsic testimony we derive from the Avesta itself.

9. There is a small collection of hymns called GATHAS (literally "Songs "), written in a peculiar Eranian dialect, either older than the Avestan generally, or belonging to a different part of Erân. They are in verse, and bear the marks of far greater antiquity than any other portion of the book. They evidently present the teachings of a new religion in its earliest and purest stage, and, among sermons, prayers, sayings, loosely strung together in no particular order, contain some of the very few pieces of real poetical beauty which the Avesta can boast. In these "Songs" the prophet stands forth with an unmistakable, living reality. Sometimes he preaches in his own person, expounding to a concourse of hearers the simple and broad principles of his creed; sometimes he cries out to his God, as a persecuted and homeless wanderer among men, with a pathos that strongly recalls some of the Hebrew Psalms: "To what land shall I turn? Whither shall I go?

. . None of the servants pay reverence to me, nor do the wicked rulers of the country. How shall I worship Thee further, O Ahuramazda? I know that I am helpless . . . for I have few men. I implore Thee weeping, O Ahura, who grantest happiness as a friend gives a present to his friend. . . ." At other times he speaks hopefully; for he has found friends: a great king has been moved to believe in the prophet and his mission, his first disciples are among

the royal family and the mighty nobles of the land; the queen herself is his devoted follower. Then, again,. his disciples seem to be speaking, for he is mentioned. in the third person. But throughout this precious collection, the grand figure stands out most real, most human, appealing to the noblest, tenderest human sympathies, and making you feel sure that Zarathushtra has once been a living man, and not an empty name.

10. But when our curiosity prompts us to inquire for details, for biographical facts, materials fail us entirely. The Avesta tells us the name of his father and of his family or clan-SPITÂMA; also those of his wives, his sons, and his daughter, but beyond that nothing definite. Still keeping strictly to the Avestan text, we find that he was born by a great water, probably a river, in a wooded and mountainous country, and a "mountain of holy communings' is mentioned-surely a lofty forest retreat, where he spent a portion of his life-perhaps a large portion of it,—meditating and lifting his soul higher and higher, until he felt himself face to face with the Deity, and came down and went forth to teach his people, fully believing that he spoke not out of himself, but from what it had been given him to hear, in answer to his own seeking and questioning of spirit. For solitude, amidst grand natural surroundings, is a great breeder of thought and visions. Mohammed had been for years a driver of camels and a leader of caravans, conning the mighty, silent lessons. of the desert and the stars, before he announced himself a seer and a prophet, and he was forty then.

For years, too, had Moses lived the herdsman's life in the wilds of stony Sinaï before he returned to his people, old in years and in heavenly lore, and told his mission and worked it out. Let us, then, be content with such vague glimpses of the Eranian sage in his human truth, without heeding the flimsy finery of signs and wonders with which the puerile fancy of later ages and the injudicious zeal of followers tricked out the reverend and majestic image.

II. We further know from the Avesta that the king who honored Zarathushtra and believed in him was VÎSHTÂSPA, famous in legendary tradition as one of the early hero-kings of Erân. But it is scarcely admissible that the whole of Erân should have been united under one ruler in pre-historic times. So Vishtâspa will have to be imagined as king of some one Eranian country, almost certainly in the northeastern region, very possibly Bactria, which was early a prosperous and powerful kingdom, the capital of which is called "the beautiful Bakhdhi, with high-lifted banners," a designation evidently implying some great distinction, probably a royal residence. Whether Zarathushtra was a born subject of Vîshtâspa, or was a native of some other part of Erân and only came thither to preach, is uncertain. Tradition, however, makes him of royal race, and has preserved a long genealogy, which shows. him to be descended from one of the very oldest legendary kings. As to the time when king and prophet lived, it is likely that no positive date will ever be reached, and all we can with great probability conjecture, is that it should be placed some

where beyond 1000 B.C. This date, so easily accessible as to be comparatively modern in Chaldea and Assyria, is so remote as to be virtually pre-historic in a land entirely devoid of monuments, and where we have no grounds for even suppositions as to the time when writing was introduced.

12. This latter fact sufficiently shows how impossible it is to ascertain with any degree of precision at what period the Avesta texts—as well the Gâthas as the later ones--were written down. No manuscripts now extant are really ancient. According to Parsi tradition, there once was a large body of sacred books, all indiscriminately and, beyond doubt, erroneously, attributed to the prophet himself. This socalled Zoroastrian literature is said to have consisted of twenty-one books, written out on twelve thousand cowhides, (parchment), embracing every possible branch of religious discipline, philosophy, and science, but to have been destroyed at the time of the conquest of Persia by the Greeks under Alexander the Great of Macedon, three centuries before Christ. No Greek ever persecuted any religion; but as it is well known that Alexander, in a fit of drunken exaltation after a feast, burned down Persepolis, the capital of the vanquished Persian kings, it is, of course, quite possible that manuscripts may have perished in the conflagration. That an extensive sacred literature did exist at the time is partly confirmed by the testimony of a contemporary Greek writer, (Hermippos), who is recorded to have catalogued the Zoroastrian books, and to have stated the contents of each book. After the great fire we are