Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/260

 2S6 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, believing multitude, his journey to heaven, and his inti- ' mate conferences with the Deity. Every doubt was silenced by this supernatural evidence ; and the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with equal autho- rity and precision A short delineation of that cele- brated system will be found useful, not only to display the character of the Persian nation, but to illustrate many of their most important transactions, both in peace and war, with the Roman empire''. Persian the- The great and fundamental article of the system, was princi' lel^ *^^ Celebrated doctrine of the two principles ; a bold and injudicious attempt of eastern philosophy to recon- cile the existence of moral and physical evil, with the attributes of a beneficent creator and governor of the world. The first and original being, in whom, or by whom, the universe exists, is denominated in the writ- ings of Zoroaster, " Time without bounds;" but it must be confessed, that this infinite substance seems rather a metaphysical abstraction of the mind, than a real object endowed with self-consciousness, or pos- sessed of moral perfections. From either the bhnd, or the intelligent operation of this infinite time, which bears but too near an affinity with the chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of the universe, were from all eternity produced, Ormusd and Ahriman, each of them possessed of the powers of crea- tion, but each disposed, by his invariable nature, to exercise them with different designs. The principle of good is eternally absorbed in light ; the principle of evil eternally buried in darkness. The wise benevo- lence of Ormusd formed man capable of virtue, and abundantly provided his fair habitation with the mate- rials of happiness. By his vigilant providence, the mo- tion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the ' Hyde de Religione Veterum Pers. c. 21. •* I have principally drawn this account from the Zendavesta of M. d'An- quetil, and the Sadder, subjoined to Dr. Hyde's treatise. It must, how- ever, be confessed, that the studied obscurity of a prophet, the figurative style of the east, and the deceitful medium of a French or Latin version, may have betrayed us into error and heresy, in this abridgement of Persian theology.