Essay on the Sacred Fire and on the Vestals

prescribed, so that he might be in a position to instruct others; purity was recommended to him; the forgiveness of injuries was not the least of his duties; for was not the God, of whom he was the minister, offended daily, and did He not unceasingly pour out His blessings upon men?

The Arch-Mage The high priest or leader of the Magi was himself subject to these precepts; one does not recognize here the tone of a rogue; Zerdust Zoroaster wanted to make the Magi more respectable; to achieve this, he made all virtues a duty for them.

According to the custom of the Orient, he dressed some of his Dogmas in Parables; he thus established this doctrine, so consoling and necessary to human weakness, that it is never too late to repent and obtain grace.
"A man was held in Gehenna A term for hell or a place of suffering; his body was entirely plunged into it; his right foot alone was outside. While he lived, he was a Sovereign; never had he used his power to do a good deed; solely occupied with his pleasures, from the depths of his Palace where he gave himself up to delights, he governed his Peoples with a scepter of iron; one day while he was hunting, he saw a ewe caught by the foot in a thicket; hunger pressed upon her; she could not reach the grass that was before her; touched by compassion for the first time, he descended from his horse and freed her. It is in reward for this action that his foot

"foot is not in Gehenna. Men," Zerdust then adds, "strive to do as much good as possible; the eye of the Eternal Being is open upon you; he sees everything, and there is nothing of which he does not take account."

The book containing this Doctrine and these precepts is called the Zund or Zunda-Vesta The Zend-Avesta, the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism which means kindled fire The author's etymology here is historical; modern scholars translate it closer to "Interpretation of the Law". It is written in ancient Persian characters; Doctor Thomas Hyde 1636–1703, an English Orientalist and professor at Oxford had offered to publish it with a Latin translation alongside; but this undertaking required immense costs; he asked for help in vain; no one aided him, and this idea expired with him.

Prideaux Humphrey Prideaux, 1648–1724, an English theologian who wrote on the history of the Jews and neighboring nations gives great praise to this book; his testimony cannot be suspect, since he is one of those who label Zerdust an impostor. He says that everything it contains is consistent with the purest and most austere virtue, with the exception of the article on incest, which is regarded there as a matter of indifference.

Some scholars are annoyed by this restriction; they complain that Prideaux did not cite as proof the Zunda-Vesta, or the Sadder A 15th-century Persian prose summary of Zoroastrian law, which is the abridgment of it put into ordinary Persian language. They do not yield to the authority of Diogenes Laertius, Strabo, Philo the Jew, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, etc., who are the guarantors for Prideaux; historians do indeed show several instances of incest among the Kings of Persia; but it is thought