time, and known by the title of the sacred collection of Persian monu

ments.

I

5 God is the first of all incorruptible beings, eternal and unbegotten. He is not compounded of parts. There is none like nor equal to him. He is the author of all good, and entirely desinterested; the most excellent of all excellent beings, and the wisest of all intelligent natures; the father of equity, the parent of good laws, self-instructed, self-sufficient, and the first former of nature."

The modern writers among the Arabians and Persians, who have preserved to us what remains are left of the ancient doctrine of Zoroaster among the Guebrii or worshippers of Fire, maintain, that the first Magi ad

s Euseb. Præp. evang. lib. 1. pag. 42, edit. Paris.

5, Dios es el primero de los incorruptibles: eterno, no engendrado: no está compuesto de partes: nada hay semejante ni igual á él es el autor de todo bien, desinteresado, el mas excelente de todos los seres excelentes, y la mas sabia de todas las inteligencias: el padre de la justicia y de las buenas leyes: instruido por sí solo, suficiente á sí mismo, y primer productor

de la naturaleza."

Los autores modernos de los Arabes y de los Persas que nos han conservado lo que queda de la antigua doctrina de Zoroastres entre los Guebres y los Ignicolas, aseguran que los primeros Magos no admitian sino un

s Euseb. Præp. evang. lib. 1. p. 42. edic. Paris.

solo principio eterno.

6

Abulfeda, citado por el célebre Doctor Pocok, dice que segun la primitiva doctrina de los Persas,,, Dios era mas antiguo que la luz y las tinieblas, y que habia existido en todo tiempo en una soledad adorable sin compañero y sin competidor."

Saristani, citado por Mr. Hyde, dice,,,que los primeros Magos 7 no miraban el bueno y mal principio comɑ coeternos, sino que creian la luz era

que

eterna, y que las tinieblas habian sido producidas por la infidelidad de Ariman, xefe de los Genios."

Tal era la teología de los antiguos Persas, que yo he puesto en la

6 Pccok Spicil. Hist. Arab. pag. 146.

7 Hyde Relig. ant. Persar. cap. s pag. 261, & cap 22 pag. 290.

mitted only one eternal principle of all things.

Abulfeda, cited by the famous Dr. Pocok, says, that according to the primitive doctrine of the Persians ",,, God was prior to both light and darkness, and had existed from all eternity in an adorable solitude, without any companion or rival."

Saristhani, quoted by Dr. Hyde, says, " that the first Magi 7 did not look upon the good and evil principles as both of them co-eternal, but thought that the light was indeed eternal, and that the darkness was produced in time by the disloyalty of Ahriman, chief of the Genii.

Such was the theology of the ancient Persians, which in the fore

6 Pocok Spicil. Hist. Arab. pag. 146.

7 Hyde Relig. vet. Persar. cap. 8 pag. 161, & cap. 22 pag. 290.

going work I have put in the mouth

of Zoroaster.

Mr. Bayle says in his Dictionary, that the ancient Persians were all Manichæans. However he came to en tertain this notion, he must certainly have given it up, if he had consulted the original authors: a method which that famous critick did not always take. He had a genius capable of going to the bottom of any subject whatever but he wrote sometimes in a hurry, and treated superficially the gravest and most important subjects. Besides, there is no clearing him from the charge of loving too much the dismal obscurity of Scepticism. He is always upon his guard against the pleasing ideas of immortality. He shews with art and subtlety all the dark sides of a question: but he very rarely represents it in that point of