On the whole there
is a marvellous accordance between the 'Zend-Avesta' and the accounts of
the ancients with regard to the doctrine and institutions of Zoroaster.
Plutarch agrees so well with the Zend books that I think no one will
deny the close resemblance of doctrines and identity of origin. Add to
all this the incontrovertible argument to be drawn from the language,
the antiquity of which is established by the fact that it was necessary
to translate a part of the Zend books into Pahlavi, a language which was
growing obsolete as early as the time of the Sassanides. Lastly, it
cannot be denied that Zoroaster left books which were, through
centuries, the groundwork of the Magic religion, and which were
preserved by the Magi, as shown by a series of documents from the time
of Hermippus. Therefore I am unable to see why we should not trust the
Magi of our days when they ascribe to Zoroaster those traditional books
of their ancestors, in which nothing is found to indicate fraud or a
modern hand."
Two years afterwards, in 1793, was published in Paris a book which,
without directly dealing with the "Avesta," was the first step taken to
make its authenticity incontrovertible. It was the masterly memoir by
Sylvestre de Sacy, in which the Pahlavi inscriptions of the first
Sassanides were deciphered for the first time and in a decisive manner.
De Sacy, in his researches, had chiefly relied on the Pahlavi lexicon
published by Anquetil, whose work vindicated itself thus--better than by
heaping up arguments--by promoting discoveries.
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