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

188 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. IV.

of God? This great thinker of remote antiquity solved this difficult question philosophically by the supposition of two primeval causes which, though different, were united, and produced the world of material things as well as that of the spirit.

“The one who produced the ‘reality’ is called Vohumano, ‘the good mind;’ the other through whom the non-reality originated bears the name Akemmano, the ‘evil mind.’ All good, true, and perfect things which fall under the category of ‘reality’ are the production of the ‘good mind;’ while all that is bad and delusive belongs to the sphere of ‘non-reality, and is traced to the ‘evil mind.’ They are the two moving causes in the universe, united from the beginning, and therefore called twins. They are present everywhere,—in the Ahura Mazda as well as in men.

“These two primeval principles, if supposed to be united in Ahura Mazda Himself, are not called Vohumano and Akemmano, but Spento Mainyush, the ‘beneficent spirit, and Angro Mainyush, the ‘hurtful spirit.’ —That Angro Mainyush is no separate being opposed to Ahura Mazda is to be gathered unmistakably from Yas. xix. 9, where Ahura Mazda is mentioning His two spirits who are inherent in His own nature, and are in other passages distinctly called the ‘two creators’ and the ‘two masters.’ And, indeed, we never find Angro Mainyush men-