“Há 28.—O Hormuzd, may I reach thee through good thought (conscience). Give me virtue in the creation of this world, and in the other heavenly world. Thou givest Paradise to every man's soul, through good thought (conscience). Whatever thou hast created is with good purposes. May I learn the desire for righteousness, as I am able. "Há 31.-He who is holy goes to immortality.

"Há 34.-What, O Hormuzd, is thy will, what thy worship, and what thy invocation? God replies-see and adorn holiness-learn my ways of holiness with a good conscience. -Tell me, O Hormuzd, the ways of good conscience.-To be glad with the religion of the good, with virtuous deeds, and with holiness.

"Há 56.-May the virtue of the virtuous endure, and may wickedness vanish. In this house, may obedience prevail over disobedience, peace over quarrel, charity over hard-heartedness, good thoughts over bad thoughts, truth over words of lie, and piety

over sin.

“Há 59.—I enjoin on earth and in heaven to study the Honwar.' I enjoin holiness on earth and in heaven. That to pray much to Hormuzd is good, I enjoin in heaven and on earth. I enjoin the holy, and the virtuous, and the prayerful, on earth and in heaven to punish the evil spirit and his works, which are wicked and full of death-to punish the thief and the tyrant-punish the magicians of cruel intentions-to punish the breakers of promise, and those that induce others to break their promise-to punish the harassers of good and holy men-to punish the evil thoughts, words, and deeds, of the sinful." Truth is particularly inculcated.

"Há 7.-I understand truth-telling exalted.

"Há 19.-All the days of the holy man are with thoughts of truth, words of truth, and deeds of truth.

“Há 29.—The walker in truth is the obtainer of immortality, is not to perish. "Há 31.-To speak true words is true excellence."

The Parsi believes in the necessity and efficacy of prayer.

“Há 56.—I invoke the benefit and success of prayer. To arrive at prayer is to arrive at perfect conscience; the good seed of prayer is virtuous conscience, virtuous words, and virtuous deeds. May our prayers be efficacious in thwarting the inflictions of the wicked spirits and wicked men. May I love prayer, O Hormuzd, for prayer is joy to me. resort to prayer, and I invoke prayer. Prayer to thee, O Hormuzd, is the giver, excellence, holiness, success, and high exaltation; it is the act of virtue.

I

"Há 59.-To pray much to Hormuzd is good, I enjoin in heaven and on earth." The study of the religion is considered most meritorious; and the holy word (the Zend Avestá) is said to have been created by God before all creation. Extracts from Há 19 all refer to this subject.

"Há 44.-What is the high religion? That which promotes holiness and truth with good thought, word, and deed."

Há 19 declares "Honwar" (the word of God) to have been created before the heavens, before the waters, before all creation; and that whoever studies them without wearying shall attain to the paradise of the holy, which is full of glory. “Há 59.—I enjoin on earth and in heaven to study the Honwar.' The Parsi religion is for all, and not for any particular nation or people.

"Há 46.-May all men and women of the world become my followers, and become acquainted with thy exalted religion. Whoever accepts Zurthost's religion, praises it, and meditates on it, and studies it much, to him God gives a place in the other world; and in this world Bahaman (good conscience) gives him exaltation."

The Parsi religion contains no propitiating of the devil. There is not a single reference to the thoughts, or words, or deeds of evil spirits, without wishing destruction or reformation to them.

"Há 1.-I learn the Zurthosti religion, the worship of God, which is different to that of the Devs (the evil spirits), and is like the justice of God.

"Há 8.-May the wicked and the evil-doers be disappointed, and be swept away from the creation of the holy Creator.

“Há 12.-I am of the religion of the worship of God; I praise that religion and declare it before the wicked, and praise it with good conscience, and virtuous words, and virtuous deeds.

"Há 44.-O Hormuzd, why may not these sinners become virtuous ?

“Há 32.—The sinners who desire bribery, and court sovereignty and power with lies, and think wickedness, they are the injurers of the world. They obtain, O Hormuzd, lamentation from their desire.

"Há 33.-The wicked are punished according to their thoughts, words, and deeds. Better it be that they be introduced to a taste of learning. O Hormuzd, give them a desire for wisdom, that they may become promoters of holiness."

The Parsis are called by others "Fire Worshippers," and they defend themselves by saying that they do not worship the fire, but regard it and other great natural phenomena and objects as emblems of the Divine power. To me it appears that the imputation, on the one hand, is wrong, and the defence, on the other hand, a little overshot. Though the Parsi “remembers, praises, loves, or regards holy," whatever is beautiful, or wonderful, or harmless, or useful in nature, he never asks from an unintelligent material object assistance or benefit; he is, therefore, no idolater, or worshipper of matter. On the other hand, when the Parsi addresses his prayers to Hormuzd or God, he never thinks it at all necessary that he should turn his face to any particular object. He would say, and does say, his "Hormuzd yasht" (prayer to Hormuzd) anywhere whatever without the slightest misgiving. Again, when he addresses the angel of water, or any other but that of fire, he does not stand before the fire. It is only when he addresses the angel of fire that he turns his face to the fire. In short, in addressing any particular angel, he turns his face to the object of that angel's guardianship as his emblem. But in his prayers to Hormuzd, he recognises, or uses, or turns his face to no emblems whatever. Since fire only could be brought within the limits of the temple-any of the grand objects of nature (as the sea, the sun, etc.) being unavailable for this purpose the temples naturally became the sanctuaries of fire alone, and hence has arisen the mistake of the Parsis being regarded as "Fire Worshippers."

This much is clear in Há 30—" He who knows God through His works reaches Him";—but I do not recollect meeting with any text enjoining & Parsi to turn his face to any particular object as an emblem of God; though he is directed, as in the above text, to rise from Nature to Nature's God.

The doctrine of any sort or form of " propitiation of the devil" does not find place in their books. To struggle for doing good and destroying evil is an emphatic injunction.

Such was the state of the religious belief of the Parsis till a generation ago. But the study of the Zend Avestá has been since carried on with increasing zeal, activity, and intelligence by Parsi educated scholars. The "Ruhanumai," of which I have been president for some years, has been, through the means of such scholars, carrying on its researches in the ancient literature, and from time to time bringing the results before the communities by public meetings and publications of their proceedings. The views now held by such scholars are that some of those religious books, which the Parsis considered canonical, were not so; that with the exception of a certain portion, called the Gáthás, they were not the words of Zarthusht or his contemporary disciples and coadjutors,-that before Zarthusht's time the religion was almost a polytheism. Zarthusht made a complete revolution-preached the worship of the one great supreme God, as the beginning and end of the holy religion; and that God alone was the

creator and giver and all-in-all of everything.

He threw aside the earlier gods or spirits; addressing God,-"Thou and thou alone does my mind's eye see."

The monotheism of Zarthusht was complete and unequivocal; and his monogamy was as clear. The present Parsi scholars maintain that the other books are later compilations by priests; that after the death of Zarthusht the priests rehabilitated, though in subordinate positions, the earlier spirits, which were considered as presiding over fire, water, earth, and all the great creations of nature; and established the ritual and ceremonies as thought desirable or profitable to themselves, as has happened with other religions,—that all the invocations to the various spirits for aid were not a part of the religion as Zarthusht established it; and that the Parsis should return to the original spirituality, simplicity, and purity of their religion,that it is clear from Zarthusht's words that the eternal principles of the worship of one God, and of purity in thought, word, and deed were alone binding for ever. But all customs, ritual and ceremonies adopted according to the circumstances of time, place and civilization, can be altered as the good and the physical and spiritual wants of the community may require. These scholars therefore urge that, whatever might have been the justification or reasons of many religious customs and ceremonies at the time when they were first adopted, they were not binding on the community for ever, and that they must reform their customs and ritual as time and circumstances might demand, after careful consideration by the community.

One of the books (the Vandidad) which was considered in ignorance, as most sacred, is a compilation of various times, and is mainly directed to the inculcation of cleanliness. It is an elaborate sanitary code, according to the lights, requirements, and influences of the times and conditions of life of the Parsis.

I may conclude by remarking that, though the Parsis are a small number -only about 84,000 in all India, in the midst of a population of 254,000,000 -I think one important reason why they occupy so large a space in the mind of the world is that influence of their religion which imposed upon them love of God, love of truth, of charity in all its senses, and an earnest striving after doing some good as the mission of life, and which embraced their morality of life in pure thought, word and deed. May they always continue to follow in these paths!

VOL. 1.

MITHRAISM.

BY JOHN M. ROBERTSON.

In the current edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the completion of which was recently celebrated, you will find devoted to the subject of the ancient deity Mithra or Mithras, and his cultus, one half-page. It might seem, then, that I am asking your attention to a subject of very small importance to a religion of very little account among the religions of antiquity. I venture to assert, however, that though I should now fail to awaken in you any interest in the matter proportionate to its moment, Mithraism is and will remain a subject with a very close and serious bearing upon the history of religious evolution, and upon the concrete religion prevailing in our own day in Christendom. A very little inquiry serves to discover that this ancient cult, of which so little is known in our own time. was during some centuries of the Roman Empire the most widespread of the religious systems which that Empire embraced; that is to say, that Mithraism was the most nearly universal religion of the western world in those early centuries which we commonly call Christianthe two or three centuries before the fall of Imperial Rome. As to this, students seem agreed. To the early Fathers, we shall see, Mithraism was a most serious thorn in the flesh; and the monumental remains of the Roman period, in almost all parts of the empire, show its extraordinary popularity. In our own country, held by the Romans for three hundred years at a time when Christianity is supposed to have penetrated the whole imperial world, there have been found no monumental signs whatever of any Roman profession of the Christian faith; while monuments in honour of Mithra abound. There has been found, for instance, a Mithraic cave at Housesteads, in Northumberland, containing sculptures of Mithra-worship, and an inscription: "To the god, best and greatest, invincible Mithra, lord of ages"; and another at Kichester, with an inscription: "To the god the sun, the invincible Mithra, the lord of ages." Other monuments have been found at Chester, on the line of the

1

Cf. Tiele, Outlines of the Hist. of the Anc. Relig., Eng. trans., p. 170; Gaston Boissier, La Religion Romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins, i. 395, ii. 417; H. Seel, Die Mithrageheimnisse, Aarau, 1823, p. 214; Sainte-Croix, Recherches sur les Mystères du Paganisme, 2e ed., ii. 123; Smith and Cheetham's Dict. of Christ. Antiq., Art Paganism; Beugnot, Hist. de la Destruction du Paganisme, 1835, i. 152–161; ii. 225; Windischmann, Mithra, ein Beitrag zur Mythengeschichte des Orients, in Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlands, Bd. i., S. 62.

2 See Wright's "The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon," 4th ed., pp. 327, 353.

Roman wall, at Cambeck-fort in Cumberland, at Oxford, and at York.1 And "Mithraic bas-reliefs, cut upon the smoothed faces of rocks, or upon tablets of stone, still abound throughout the former western provinces of the Roman Empire; many exist in Germany; still more in France." 2 According to Mr. King, again, "the famous Arthur's Oon' (destroyed in the last century) upon the Carron, a hemispherical vaulted building of immense blocks of stone, was unmistakably a Specus Mithraum, the same in design as Chosroes' magnificent fire-temple at Gazaca.”3

And yet, with all this testimony to the vogue of Mithraism in the early Christian centuries, there ensues for a whole era an absolute blank in the knowledge of the matter in Christendom-a thousand years in which the ancient cultus seems a forgotten name in Europe. One modern investigator, M. Lajard, thinks that since the time of the Fathers, as the phrase goes, the first in European literature to mention Mithra was Pietro Riccio (Petrus Crinitus), born about 1465, a disciple of Politian; and no other mention occurs till about the middle of the sixteenth century. And such was the ignorance of most scholars, that of three now well-known Mithraic monuments discovered about that period, not one is attributed to Mithra either by the great antiquarian of the time, Rossi, or by his pupil Flaminius Vacca. You all know the sculptured group of Mithra slaying the bull, so often engraved, of which we have a good example in the British Museum. Rossi declared one of these monuments to represent Jupiter, as the bull, carrying off Europa; and Vacca tells how a lion-headed image, now known to represent Mithra, but then held to represent the devil, was (probably) burned in a limekiln. A century later, Leibnitz demonstrated that Ormazd and Ahriman were simply deified heroes; and later still the historian Mosheim, a man not devoid of judgment, elaborately and fatuously proved that Mithra had simply been at one time, like Nimrod, a famous hunter,7 before the lord or otherwise. And even in our own day, when all the extant notices and monuments of Mithra have been carefully collected and studied, a vigilant scholars confesses that we are profoundly ignorant as to the Mithraic religion. It is somewhat remarkable that this should be so and though in the terms of the case we cannot look to find much direct knowledge, we may hope at least to find out why the once popular cultus has fallen into such obscurity. To that end we must see what really is known about it.

1 Id. p. 327. Wellbeloved, Eburacum, 1842, pp. 75, 84 Stukeley, Palæographica Britannica, No. 3, London, 1752. See also the inscriptions to Sol and Mithra in Hübner, Inscr. Brit. Lat.

2 C. W. King, "The Gnostics and their Remains," 2nd ed., p. 136: See the modern writers on Mithraism generally.

3 Id. ib.

• Introduction à l'Etude du Culte de Mithra, 1846, pp. 2, 3.

De Honesta Disciplina, v. 14, cited by Lajard.

By Smet and Pighi.

• Mosheim's notes on Cudworth, Intel. Syst., Harrison's ed., i. 473.

• Havet, Le Christianisme et ses Origines, iii. 402.