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

CHAP. V. | THE UNITY OF GOD. 221

teacher, directed them to turn towards the sun or the fire when they prayed; but the prayers which they recite in this position are addressed solely to the Sovereign Being, and not to the symbols of Him.

“The doctrines, however, which these miracles ” (z.e. those of Zoroaster) “ confirmed were wise and rational. They taught the unity of God; His omnipotence ; His goodness towards men; a great veneration for fire, the visible type of the invisible Divinity ; and a great aversion for Ahreman, the evil principle, the instigator of evil thoughts, but not co-eternal with God. The morality contained in the books of Zoroaster is very pure, and all founded on the love of our neighbour.”

The following extract from Forbes’s Oriental Memoirs also proves that the Parsis are not worshippers of the elements :—

“These fires (i.e. the sacred fires of the Parsis) are attended day and night by the Andiarus or priests, and are never permitted to expire. They are preserved in a large chafing-dish, carefully supplied with fuel, perfumed by a small quantity of sandal-wood or other aromatics. The vulgar and illiterate worship this sacred flame, as also the sun, moon, and stars, without regard to the invisible Creator; but the learned and judicious adore only the Almighty Fountain of Light, the author and disposer of all things, under the symbol of fire. Zoroaster and the ancient