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Not one in ten thousand dies by poison; yet the bare mention of it strikes with horrour: what multitudes by intemperance! yet how little it is feared! See that moth, which flies incessantly round the candle-it is consumed! man of pleasure, behold thine own image. Temperance is the best physic.

The life of man is a fever, in which very cold fits are followed by others equally hot.

The man who hath never been sick doth not know the value of health. The man who is pointed at with the finger, never dies of disease. The medicine that doth not cause the patient to wink (sleep) never cures him.

When a family rises early in the morning, conclude the house to be well governed. One hour's sleep before midnight is worth two hours' after. Who goes to bed with a late supper, all night tumbles and tosses. Often and little eating makes Fish must swim thrice.

a man fat.

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FROM THE GREEK BY J. P. CORY, ESQ. TOGETHER WITH HIS
LIFE, BY PETER BAYLE, Author of thE HISTORICAL
AND CRITICAL DICTIONARY; AND AN ABSTRACT OF
HIS THEOLOGY, BY EDWARD GIBBON, THE
ROMAN HISTORIAN.

Zoroaster, of all heathen or idolatrous worshippers, seems to have been the most rational and consistent. He considered fire or light not so much an object of worship, as rather the most pure and lively emblem of the eternal God; and was of opinion that man required something visible or tangible to exalt his mind to that degree of adoration which is due to the Divine Being. Anonymous.

The disciples of Zoroaster reject the use of temples, of altars, and of statues; and smile 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.

Herodotus.

THE

LIFE OF ZOROASTER.*

ZOROASTER, a celebrated ancient philosopher, said to have been the founder or the reformer of the religion of the magi, distinguished himself by his profound researches in philosophy; being, however, intent more especially on the study of the heavenly bodies, and the investigation of the nature and origin of the universe.

As the head of a religious sect among the orientals, he enjoined on his followers the practice of benevolence; as he declared that nothing could be more acceptable to Heaven than mutual affection and the display of philanthropy. Tradition and history together would warrant the belief that he was respected by his countrymen for his abilities as a lawgiver and a philosopher; and though many of his doctrines are puerile, ridiculous, and unintelligible, yet his followers are still to be found in numbers in the wilds of Persia

* This brief memoir, with the exception of the first, second, and last paragraphs, is taken from the "Great Historical and Critical Dictionary" of M. Bayle.

and the vast provinces of India. Like Pythagoras, Zoroaster admitted no visible object of adoration, except fire, which he considered as the most proper emblem of a supreme being: a doctrine that seems to have been preserved by Numa, in the worship and ceremonies instituted in honour of Vesta.

Authors afford very little authentic information respecting the life of this famous person. The reader ought not, therefore, to expect any thing besides a heap of uncertainties and contradictory accounts. We are told that Zoroaster laughed the very day he was born, which was peculiar to him amongst the whole race of mankind; and that the palpitation of his brain was so strong, that it repulsed any hand laid upon his head, which was regarded as a presage of his future eminence in knowledge. It is added that he passed twenty years in the deserts, and that he ate but one cheese, which never grew old; that the love of wisdom and justice obliged him to retire to a mountain, to live there in solitude; that when he descended from it, there fell a celestial fire upon the mountain, which burned perpetually; that the king of Persia, accompanied by the greatest lords of his court, approached it, in order to put up prayers to God; that Zoroaster came out of the flames, without being injured; that he comforted and encouraged the Persians; and that he offered sacrifices, as if God had accompanied him to that place; that afterwards he did not live in

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