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THE BRAHMO-SOMAJ AND PARSEES. 261
Aristotle, the philosopher and teacher of Alexander the
Great, states that Zoroaster lived about six thousand years
before
the death of Plato (348 B.C.), which would carry us
to about 6350 B.C. Eudoxus, Harmodorus, and other Grecian
writers, made similar calculations.
Hermippus of Smyrna, one of the most ancient authorities
among the Greeks upon the religion of the Magi, lived about
250 B.C., making the Zoroastrian books the study of his
life; This Hermippus, according to Pliny, was informed by
his teacher, Agonakes, a Magian priest, that Zoroaster lived
about five thousand years before the Trojan war, occurring
1180 B.C. This would take Zoroaster back to 6180 B.C.
That there Avas a Zoroaster in the time of Hystaspes,
Darius' father, is not disputed. Zoroaster was a common
name in Persia, as was Jesus in Syrian countries. But
Zoroaster of the Avesta, the prophet and founder of the
Parsee religion, flourished more than eight thousand years
since.
RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES OF THE PARSEES.
Conversing with Ichangir Burjorji Vacha, a Parsee Oriental
scholar of Bombay, and perusing the books he so
kindly
presented, the following is submitted as a general statement
of their religious opinions —
:
They believe in one God, eternal, invisible, — Ahura-Mazda,
unity in duahty. Ormuzd, the "highest of spirits,"
was a tutelary divinity, as was the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
This God, Ahura-Mazda, infinitely wise and good,
punishes the sinful, and rewards the virtuous for their good
deeds. Their theology knows nothing of any sin-atoning
Saviour. Their fire-temples have no pulpits. Their priests
are teachers, abounding in prayers.
Zoroaster was the exalted prophet, the
who wrought miracles, who taught men to
chief of the wise,
pray with their
faces towards the light, who enjoined upon men to practice
good deeds, and look for a reckoning on the foui'th morning
after death.