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

CHAP. V.] DEAN PRIDEAUX. 219

similarities justly said to exist between the Parsi and Christian religions.”

Having thus examined what causes justify a Parsi in paying his reverence to fire, having ascertained the antiquity of this fire-reverence, and having seen how far the same spirit was exhibited by almost all ancient nations, and how it is observed even now by many religions, Christianity included, we will proceed to quote the opinion of a few authors who on account of their studies and knowledge are capable of forming an authoritative opinion about the faith of the Parsis, the only people on the surface of the earth that have adhered to this ancient fire-reverence in its original pure and simple form.

The following is the opinion of Dean Prideaux on this subject :—“ They (the Persians), abominating all images, worshipped God only by fire. Light was the truest symbol of the good God, and therefore they always worshipped him before fire as being the cause of light, and especially before the sun, as being, in their opinion, the pertectest fire, and causing the pertectest light. And for this reason, in all their temples, they had fire continually burning on altars erected in them for that purpose, and before these sacred fires they offered up all their public devotions, as likewise they did all their private devotions before their private fires in their own houses. Thus did they pay the highest honour to light, as being, in