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

212 AISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. V.

whole solar system, is it not worthy of the reverence paid to it by the ancient Aryans and continued to it even up to this hour by the present generation of Parsis? Are not the numberless blessings which fire in all its different forms bestows upon the surface of the earth sufficient to justify man im paying his respect to this the noblest of God's creations ? Looking at the innumerable uses to which fire is put and the numberless blessings it confers upon us, we can, without the least fear of being contradicted, put the same question as regards fire which Professor Theodore Cooke of the Poona College put as regards the sun in his Natural Philosophy— Is not the sun, therefore, worthy of the reverence which has been paid to him by the early races of mankmd and by Parsis and others in our own time ?”

These two causes would justify any man, of whatever nationality he might be, in paying his reverence to this symbol of the Deity and to this noble and divine creation.

Thirdly, a new element of purity is added to the fire burning in the Atash-Adarans and Atash-Behrams (fire-temples) of the Parsis by the religious ceremonies accompanied with prayers that are performed over it, before it is installed in its proper place on a vase on an exalted stand in a chamber set apart. The sacred fire burning there is not the ordinary fire burning on our hearths. It has