Essay on the Sacred Fire and on the Vestals

faith that these Monarchs may have been ineffective, without Zoroaster original: "Zerdust," the Persian name for Zoroaster having authorized them.

I will not dwell any longer on this Philosopher; in speaking of the Religion of the Persians in the preceding chapter, I gave a sufficient idea of what it was before and after him. Oriental Writers have taken care to accumulate miracles upon every moment of his life. It would be useless to repeat them; his actions are less interesting than his morality; at least we know it as it is and without alloy; he died at Balkh An ancient city in modern-day Afghanistan, once a center of Zoroastrianism where he had retired. Arjasp original: "Argusp", King of Turan, neighbor and enemy of the Persians, and an ardent persecutor of the followers of Zoroaster, came to take this City at the head of an army, destroyed the Altars, and used the blood of the Magi to extinguish the Sacred Fire; that of Zoroaster was, it is said, spilled on this occasion.

I said above that it was this Philosopher who had the Pyreia Pyreia: Greek term for Persian fire temples built; the Persians believed that the Fire of Heaven had descended upon the first one he had constructed at Xis in Media. The Magi maintained it; they secretly threw combustible materials into it, and told the People that it preserved itself without help. This charlatanism was undoubtedly condemnable; but it is known that in the holiest Religions, similar means have sometimes been employed; these little tricks did not harm the essential part, the wisdom of the worship; I will further observe that it was the purest. The Persians had

not received the Religion of the Hebrews; their homages were addressed to the same God, with different ceremonies; they were perhaps worthy of him; one does not see that he required other Peoples to receive the Law he had given to the Israelites; it is mentioned nowhere. He commanded them to flee idolatry and idolaters, to exterminate the latter along with their Gods; but he did not tell them to instruct them; and it does not appear that the Jews attempted it.

IT is not among the Chaldeans and the Persians alone that one must seek Sacred Fires; almost all ancient Nations had them; they were seen among the Egyptians; Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian claims that this custom was born among them, from where it spread to the rest of the world. Plutarch speaks of a lamp that burned day and night in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon; it was believed that the God himself maintained it; the secrecy with which the Priests renewed the oil contributed to strengthening this opinion; a miracle adds much to credulity, and when one does not have C ij Printer's signature mark for the gathering of pages