Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/261

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 237 temperate mixture of the elements, are preserved. But chap. the maHce of Ahriman has long since pierced " Or- ^^^^- musd's egg ;" or, in other words, has violated the har- mony of his works. Since that fatal irruption, the most minute articles of good and evil are intimately inter- mingled and agitated together; the rankest poisons spring up amidst the most salutary plants ; deluges, earthquakes, and conflagrations, attest the conflict of nature, and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune. Whilst the rest of human kind are led away captives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and protector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full confidence, that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his tri- umph. At that decisive period, the enlightened wis- dom of goodness will render the power of Ormusd su- perior to the furious malice of his rival. Ahriman and his followers, disarmed and subdued, will sink into their native darkness; and virtue will maintain the eternal peace and harmony of the universe K The theology of Zoroaster was darkly comprehended Religious by foreigners, and even by the far greater number of ^^'^^ 'P* his disciples; but the most careless observers were struck with the philosophic simplicity of the Persian worship. " That people," says Herodotus " *' rejects the use of temples, of altars, and of statues ; and smiles at the folly of those nations who imagine that the gods are sprung from, or bear any affinity with, the human nature. The tops of the highest mountains are the places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers are the principal worship ; the supreme God who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the object to whom they are addressed." Yet, at the same time, in the true spirit ' The modern Persees, (and in some degree the Sadder,) exalt Ormusd into the first and omnipotent cause, whilst they degrade Ahriman into an inferior but rebellious spirit. Their desire of pleasing the mahometans may have contributed to refine their theological system. "* Herodotus, 1. i. c. 131. But Dr. Prideaux thinks, with reason, that the use of temples was afterwards permitted in the magian religion.