[Footnote 8: The sun.]
SELECTIONS FROM THE ZEND-AVESTA
Translation by James Darmestetter
INTRODUCTION
The study of religion, like the study of poetry, brings us face to face
with the fundamental principles of human nature. Religion, whether it be
natural religion or that which is formulated in a book, is as universal
as poetry, and like poetry, existed before letters and writing. It is
only in a serious and sympathetic frame of mind that we should approach
the rudest forms of these two departments of human activity. A general
analysis of the "Zend-Avesta" suggests to us the mind of the Persian
sage Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, fixed upon the phenomena of nature and
life, and trying to give a systematized account of them. He sees good
and evil, life and death, sickness and health, right and wrong, engaged
in almost equal conflict. He sees in the sun the origin of light and
heat, the source of comfort and life to man. Thus he institutes the
doctrine of Dualism and the worship of Fire. The evil things that come
unexpectedly and irresistibly, he attributes to the Devas: the help and
comfort that man needs and often obtains by means which are beyond his
control, he attributes to the "Holy Immortal Ones," who stand around the
Presence of Ormuzd. As he watches the purity of the flame, of the limpid
stream, and of the sweet smelling ground, he connects it with the moral
purity which springs from innocence and rectitude, and in his code it is
as reprehensible to pollute the fire by burning the dead, or the stream
by committing the corpse to its waves, or the earth by making it a
burial-place, as it is to cheat or lie or commit an act of violence.
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