History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. IV.] AHURA MAZDA. 185

one; (6) and the principle of his speculative philosophy was Dualism, 7.e. the supposition of two primeval causes of the real world and of the intellectual; (c) while his moral philosophy was moving in the triad of thought, word, and deed.”

Now let us see what were the theology, speculative philosophy, and moral philosophy of Zoroastrianism as taught by its great philosopher and prophet. Firstly, as to his theology. The religion propounded by him is a simple form of theism, recognising but one God, Ahura Mazda, the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of the Universe, without form and invisible. To Him is assigned a place above all, and to Him every praise is to be given for all the good in this world and all the blessings we enjoy. Zoroastrianism does not require any image of God to be made for the purpose of worship, as to Him is attributed no form, shape, or colour. He is an immense light from which all glory, bounty, and goodness flow. He is represented as the mightiest, the most just, and the most benevolent. His mercies are as boundless as His being. The adoration or worship of any other object is blasphemous. Such, in short, is the idea of God as inculeated in the religion of Zoroaster.

The account given by Herodotus so early as B.c. 484 is well known. He says: ‘They (the Persians) have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This