Parsi
tradition
has an answer.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v02 - Aqu to Bag
"No, no, Julia must not be Amelia. It is not at all the part
for her. She would not like it. She would not do well. She is
too tall and robust. Amelia should be a small, light, girlish,
skipping figure. It is fit for Miss Crawford, and Miss Crawford
only. She looks the part, and I am persuaded will do it ad-
mirably. "
Without attending to this, Henry Crawford continued his sup-
plication. "You must oblige us," said he, "indeed you must.
When you have studied the character I am sure you will feel it
suits you. Tragedy may be your choice, but it will certainly
appear that comedy chooses you. You will have to visit me in
prison with a basket of provisions; you will not refuse to visit
me in prison? I think I see you coming in with your basket. "
The influence of his voice was felt. Julia wavered; but was
he only trying to soothe and pacify her, and make her overlook
the previous affront? She distrusted him. The slight had been
most determined. He was, perhaps, but at treacherous play
with her. She looked suspiciously at her sister; Maria's coun-
tenance was to decide it; if she were vexed and alarmed — but
Maria looked all serenity and satisfaction, and Julia well knew
that on this ground Maria could not be happy but at her expense.
With hasty indignation, therefore, and a tremulous voice, she said
to him, "You do not seem afraid of not keeping your coun-
tenance when I come in with a basket of provisions-though one
might have supposed—but it is only as Agatha that I was to be
so overpowering! " She stopped, Henry Crawford looked rather
foolish, and as if he did not know what to say. Tom Bertram
began again:-
She will be an excellent
"Miss Crawford must be Amelia.
Amelia. "
"Do not be afraid of my wanting the character," cried Julia,
with angry quickness: "I am not to be Agatha, and I am sure I
will do nothing else; and as to Amelia, it is of all parts in the
## p. 1075 (#501) ###########################################
JANE AUSTEN
1075
world the most disgusting to me. I quite detest her. An odious
little, pert, unnatural, impudent girl. I have always protested
against comedy, and this is comedy in its worst form. " And so
saying, she walked hastily out of the room, leaving awkward
feelings to more than one, but exciting small compassion in any
except Fanny, who had been a quiet auditor of the whole, and
who could not think of her as under the agitations of jealousy
without great pity.
•
The inattention of the two brothers and the aunt to Julia's
discomposure, and their blindness to its true cause, must be im-
puted to the fullness of their own minds. They were totally
preoccupied. Tom was engrossed by the concerns of his theatre,
and saw nothing that did not immediately relate to it. Edmund,
between his theatrical and his real part-between Miss Craw-
ford's claims and his own conduct-between love and consistency,
was equally unobservant: and Mrs. Norris was too busy in con-
triving and directing the general little matters of the company,
superintending their various dresses with economical expedients,
for which nobody thanked her, and saving, with delighted integ-
rity, half-a-crown here and there to the absent Sir Thomas, to
have leisure for watching the behavior, or guarding the happi-
ness, of his daughters.
FRUITLESS REGRETS AND APPLES OF SODOM
From Mansfield Park'
THE
HESE were the circumstances and the hopes which gradu-
ally brought their alleviation to Sir Thomas, deadening his
sense of what was lost, and in part reconciling him to
himself; though the anguish arising from the conviction of his
own errors in the education of his daughters was never to be
entirely done away.
Too late he became aware how unfavorable to the character
of any young people must be the totally opposite treatment
which Maria and Julia had been always experiencing at home,
where the excessive indulgence and flattery of their aunt had
been continually contrasted with his own severity. He saw how
ill he had judged, in expecting to counteract what was wrong.
in Mrs. Norris by its reverse in himself, clearly saw that he had
but increased the evil, by teaching them to repress their spirits
## p. 1076 (#502) ###########################################
1076
JANE AUSTEN
in his presence so as to make their real disposition unknown
to him, and sending them for all their indulgences to a person
who had been able to attach them only by the blindness of her
affection and the excess of her praise.
Here had been grievous mismanagement; but, bad as it was,
he gradually grew to feel that it had not been the most direful
mistake in his plan of education. Something must have been
wanting within, or time would have worn away much of its ill
effect. He feared that principle, active principle, had been want-
ing; that they had never been properly taught to govern their
inclinations and tempers, by that sense of duty which can alone
suffice. They had been instructed theoretically in their religion,
but never required to bring it into daily practice. To be distin-
guished for elegance and accomplishments-the authorized object
of their youth—could have had no useful influence that way, no
moral effect on the mind. He had meant them to be good, but
his cares had been directed to the understanding and manners,
not the disposition; and of the necessity of self-denial and humil
ity, he feared they had never heard from any lips that could
profit them.
Bitterly did he deplore a deficiency which now he could
scarcely comprehend to have been possible. Wretchedly did he
feel, that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive
education, he had brought up his daughters without their under-
standing their first duties, or his being acquainted with their
character and temper.
The high spirit and strong passions of Mrs. Rushworth espe-
cially were made known to him only in their sad result. She
was not to be prevailed on to leave Mr. Crawford.
She hoped
to marry him, and they continued together till she was obliged
to be convinced that such hope was vain, and till the disappoint-
ment and wretchedness arising from the conviction rendered her
temper so bad, and her feelings for him so like hatred, as to
make them for a while each other's punishment, and then induce
a voluntary separation.
She had lived with him to be reproached as the ruin of all
his happiness in Fanny, and carried away no better consolation
in leaving him, than that she had divided them. What can
exceed the misery of such a mind in such a situation!
Mr. Rushworth had no difficulty in procuring a divorce; and
so ended a marriage contracted under such circumstances as to
## p. 1077 (#503) ###########################################
JANE AUSTEN
1077
make any better end the effect of good luck, not to be reckoned
on. She had despised him, and loved another-and he had been
very much aware that it was so. The indignities of stupidity,
and the disappointments of selfish passion, can excite little pity.
His punishment followed his conduct, as did a deeper punish-
ment the deeper guilt of his wife. He was released from the
engagement, to be mortified and unhappy till some other pretty
girl could attract him into matrimony again, and he might set
forward on a second, and it is to be hoped more prosperous
trial of the state-if duped, to be duped at least with good
humor and good luck; while she must withdraw with infinitely
stronger feelings, to a retirement and reproach which could allow
no second spring of hope or character.
Where she could be placed, became a subject of most melan-
choly and momentous consultation. Mrs. Norris, whose attach-
ment seemed to augment with the demerits of her niece, would
have had her received at home and countenanced by them all.
Sir Thomas would not hear of it; and Mrs. Norris's anger
against Fanny was so much the greater, from considering her
residence there as the motive. She persisted in placing his
scruples to her account, though Sir Thomas very solemnly
assured her that had there been no young woman in question,
had there been no young person of either sex belonging to him,
to be endangered by the society or hurt by the character of
Mrs. Rushworth, he would never have offered so great an insult
to the neighborhood as to expect it to notice her. As a daugh-
ter he hoped a penitent one-she should be protected by him,
and secured in every comfort and supported by every encourage-
ment to do right which their relative situations admitted; but
farther than that he would not go. Maria had destroyed her
own character; and he would not, by a vain attempt to restore
what never could be restored, be affording his sanction to vice,
or, in seeking to lessen its disgrace, be anywise accessory to
introducing such misery in another man's family as he had
known himself.
-
Henry Crawford, ruined by early independence and bad
domestic example, indulged in the freaks of a cold-blooded
vanity a little too long. Once it had, by an opening undesigned
and unmerited, led him into the way of happiness. Could he
have been satisfied with the conquest of one amiable woman's
affections, could he have found sufficient exultation in overcom-
## p. 1078 (#504) ###########################################
1078
JANE AUSTEN
ing the reluctance, in working himself into the esteem and
tenderness of Fanny Price, there would have been every proba-
bility of success and felicity for him. His affection had already
done something. Her influence over him had already given him.
some influence over her. Would he have deserved more, there
can be no doubt that more would have been obtained; especially
when that marriage had taken place, which would have given
him the assistance of her conscience in subduing her first incli-
nation, and brought them very often together. Would he have
persevered, and uprightly, Fanny must have been his reward-
and a reward very voluntarily bestowed-within a reasonable
period from Edmund's marrying Mary. Had he done as he
intended, and as he knew he ought, by going down to Evering-
ham after his return from Portsmouth, he might have been
deciding his own happy destiny. But he was pressed to stay for
Mrs. Fraser's party: his staying was made of flattering conse-
quence, and he was to meet Mrs. Rushworth there. Curiosity
and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of immediate
pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make any sacrifice
to right; he resolved to defer his Norfolk journey, resolved that
writing should answer the purpose of it, or that its purpose was
unimportant—and staid. He saw Mrs. Rushworth, was received
by her with a coldness which ought to have been repulsive, and
have established apparent indifference between them for ever:
but he was mortified, he could not bear to be thrown off by the
woman whose smiles had been so wholly at his command; he
must exert himself to subdue so proud a display of resentment:
it was anger on Fanny's account; he must get the better of it,
and make Mrs. Rushworth Maria Bertram again in her treatment
of himself.
In this spirit he began the attack; and by animated persever-
ance had soon re-established the sort of familiar intercourse
of gallantry-of flirtation-which bounded his views: but in
triumphing over the discretion, which, though beginning in
anger, might have saved them both, he had put himself in the
power of feelings on her side more strong than he had sup-
posed. She loved him; there was no withdrawing attentions
avowedly dear to her. He was entangled by his own vanity,
with as little excuse of love as possible, and without the smallest
inconstancy of mind towards her cousin. To keep Fanny and
the Bertrams from a knowledge of what was passing became his
-
## p. 1079 (#505) ###########################################
AVERROËS
1079
first object. Secrecy could not have been more desirable for
Mrs. Rushworth's credit than he felt it for his own. When he
returned from Richmond, he would have been glad to see Mrs.
Rushworth no more. All that followed was the result of her
imprudence; and he went off with her at last because he could
not help it, regretting Fanny even at the moment, but regret-
ting her infinitely more when all the bustle of the intrigue was
over, and a very few months had taught him, by the force of
contrast, to place a yet higher value on the sweetness of her
temper, the purity of her mind, and the excellence of her
principles.
That punishment, the public punishment of disgrace, should
in a just measure attend his share of the offense, is, we know,
not one of the barriers which society gives to virtue. In this
world, the penalty is less equal than could be wished; but with-
out presuming to look forward to a juster appointment hereafter,
we may fairly consider a man of sense, like Henry Crawford,
to be providing for himself no small portion of vexation and
regret - vexation that must rise sometimes to self-reproach, and
regret to wretchedness-in having so requited hospitality, so
injured family peace, so forfeited his best, most estimable, and
endeared acquaintance, and so lost the woman whom he had
rationally as well as passionately loved.
AVERROES
(1126-1198)
VERROËS (Abu 'l Walid Muhammad, ibn Achmad, ibn Muham-
mad, IBN RUSHD; or more in English, Abu 'l Walid Muham-
med, the son of Achmet, the son of Muhammed, the son
of Rushd) was born in 1126 at Cordova, Spain. His father and
grandfather, the latter a celebrated jurist and canonist, had been
judges in that city. He first studied theology and canon law, and
later medicine and philosophy; thus, like Faust, covering the whole
field of mediæval science. His life was cast in the most brilliant
period of Western Muslim culture, in the splendor of that rationalism
which preceded the great darkness of religious fanaticism.
As a
young man, he was introduced by Ibn Tufail (Abubacer), author of
## p. 1080 (#506) ###########################################
1080
AVERROËS
the famous 'Hayy al-Yukdhan,' a philosophical 'Robinson Crusoe,' to
the enlightened Khalif Abu Ya'kub Yusuf (1163-84), as a fit expounder
of the then popular philosophy of Aristotle. This position he filled.
with so much success as to become a favorite with the Prince, and
finally his private physician. He likewise filled the important office
of judge, first at Seville, later at Cordova.
He enjoyed even greater consideration under the next Khalif,
Ya'kub al-Mansur, until the year 1195, when the jealousy of his
rivals and the fanaticism of the Berbers led to his being accused of
championing philosophy to the detriment of religion. Though Aver-
roës always professed great respect for religion, and especially for
Islâm, as a valuable popular substitute for science and philosophy,
the charge could hardly be rebutted (as will be shown later), and
the Amir of the Faithful could scarcely afford openly to favor a
heretic. Averroës was accordingly deprived of his honors, and ban-
ished to Lacena, a Jewish settlement near Cordova-a fact which
gives coloring to the belief that he was of Jewish descent. To
satisfy his fanatical subjects for the moment, the Khalif published
severe edicts not only against Averroës, but against all learned men
and all learning as hostile to religion. For a time the poor philoso-
pher could not appear in public without being mobbed; but after
two years, a less fanatical party having come into power, the Prince
revoked his edicts, and Averroës was restored to favor. This event he
did not long survive. He died on 10th December 1198, in Marocco.
Here too he was buried; but his body was afterward transported to
Cordova, and laid in the tomb of his fathers. He left several sons,
more than one of whom came to occupy important positions.
Averroes was the last great Muslim thinker, summing up and
carrying to its conclusions the thought of four hundred years. The
philosophy of Islâm, which flourished first in the East, in Basra and
Bagdad (800-1100), and then in the West, Cordova, Toledo, etc. (1100–
1200), was a mixture of Aristotelianism and Neo-Platonism, borrowed,
under the earlier Persianizing Khalifs, from the Christian (mainly
Nestorian) monks of Syria and Mesopotamia, being consequently a nat-
uralistic system. In it God was acknowledged only as the supreme
abstraction; while eternal matter, law, and impersonal intelligence
played the principal part. It was necessarily irreconcilable with
Muslim orthodoxy, in which a crudely conceived, intensely personal
God is all in all. While Persian influence was potent, philosophy
flourished, produced some really great scholars and thinkers, made
considerable headway against Muslim fatalism and predestination,
and seemed in a fair way to bring about a free and rational civiliza-
tion, eminent in science and art. But no sooner did the fanatical or
scholastic element get the upper hand than philosophy vanished,
## p. 1081 (#507) ###########################################
AVERROËS
1081
and with it all hope of a great Muslim civilization in the East.
This change was marked by Al-Ghazzali, and his book The Destruc-
tion of the Philosophers. ' He died in A. D. 1111, and then the works
of Al-Farabi, Ibn-Sina, and the "Brothers of Purity," wandered out to
the far West, to seek for appreciation among the Muslim, Jews, and
Christians of Spain. And for a brief time they found it there, and in
the twelfth century found also eloquent expounders at the mosque-
schools of Cordova, Toledo, Seville, and Saragossa. Of these the
most famous were Ibn Baja, Ibn Tufail, and Ibn Rushd (Averroës).
During its progress, Muslim philosophy had gradually been elimi-
nating the Neo-Platonic, mystic element, and returning to pure Aris-
totelianism. In Averroës, who professed to be merely a commentator
on Aristotle, this tendency reached its climax; and though he still
regarded the pseudo-Aristotelian works as genuine, and did not en-
tirely escape their influence, he is by far the least mystic of Muslim
thinkers. The two fundamental doctrines upon which he always
insisted, and which long made his name famous, not to say notori-
ous, the eternity of matter and of the world (involving a denial of
the doctrine of creation), and the oneness of the active intellect in
all men (involving the mortality of the individual soul and the impos-
sibility of resurrection and judgment), are both of Aristotelian origin.
It was no wonder that he came into conflict with the orthodox Muslim;
for in the warfare between Arab prophetism, with its shallow apolo-
getic scholasticism, and Greek philosophy, with its earnest endeavor
to find truth, and its belief in reason as the sole revealer thereof, he
unhesitatingly took the side of the latter. He held that man is made
to discover truth, and that the serious study of God and his works is
the noblest form of worship.
However little one may agree with his chief tenets, there can be
no doubt that he was the most enlightened man of the entire Middle
Age, in Europe at least; and if his spirit and work had been con-
tinued, Western Islâm might have become a great permanent civiliz-
ing power. But here again, after a brief period of extraordinary
philosophic brilliancy, fanaticism got the upper hand. With the
death of Averroës the last hope of a beneficent Muslim civilization
came to an end. Since then, Islâm has been a synonym for blind
fanaticism and cruel bigotry. In many parts of the Muslim world,
"philosopher" is a term of reproach, like "miscreant. "
But though Islâm rejected its philosopher, Averroës's work was by
no means without its effect. It was through his commentaries on
Aristotle that the thought of that greatest of ancient thinkers became
known to the western world, both Jewish and Christian. Among the
Jews, his writings soon acquired almost canonical authority. His
system found expression in the works of the best known of Hebrew
## p. 1082 (#508) ###########################################
1082
AVERROËS
thinkers, Maimonides (1135-1204), "the second Moses"; works which,
despite all orthodox opposition, dominated Jewish thought for nearly
three hundred years, and made the Jews during that time the chief
promoters of rationalism. When Muslim persecution forced a large
number of Jews to leave Spain and settle in Southern France, the
works of Averroes and Maimonides were translated into Hebrew,
which thenceforth became the vehicle of Jewish thought; and thus
Muslim Aristotelianism came into direct contact with Christianity.
Among the Christians, the works of Averroës, translated by
Michael Scott, "wizard of dreaded fame," Hermann the German, and
others, acted at once like a mighty solvent. Heresy followed in their
track, and shook the Church to her very foundations. Recognizing
that her existence was at stake, she put forth all her power to crush
the intruder. The Order of Preachers, initiated by St. Dominic of
Calahorra (1170-1221), was founded; the Inquisition was legalized
(about 1220). The writings of Aristotle and his Arab commentators
were condemned to the flames (1209, 1215, 1231). Later, when all
this proved unavailing, the best intellects in Christendom, such as
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), and Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), under-
took to repel the new doctrine with its own weapons; that is, by
submitting the thought of Aristotle and his Arab commentators to
rational discussion. Thus was introduced the second or palmy period
of Christian Scholasticism, whose chief industry, we may fairly say,
was directed to the refutation of the two leading doctrines of Aver-
roës. Aiming at this, Thomas Aquinas threw the whole dogmatic
system of the Church into the forms of Aristotle, and thus produced
that colossal system of theology which still prevails in the Roman
Catholic world; witness the Encyclical Æterni Patris of Leo XIII. ,
issued in 1879.
By the great thinkers of the thirteenth century, Averroës, though
regarded as heretical and dangerous in religion, was looked up to as
an able thinker, and the commentator par excellence; so much so that
St. Thomas borrowed from him the very form of his own Comment-
aries, and Dante assigned him a distinguished place, beside Plato and
Aristotle, in the limbo of ancient sages ('Inferno,' iv. 143). But in the
following century—mainly, no doubt, because he was chosen as the
patron of certain strongly heretical movements, such as those insti-
gated by the arch-rationalist Frederic II. - he came to be regarded
as the precursor of Antichrist, if not that personage himself: being
credited with the awful blasphemy of having spoken of the founders
of the three current religions-Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad — as
"the three impostors. " Whatever truth there may be in this, so much
is certain, that infidelity, in the sense of an utter disbelief in Christ-
ianity as a revealed religion, or in any sense specially true, dates
## p. 1083 (#509) ###########################################
AVERROËS
1083
from the thirteenth century, and is due in large measure to the influ-
ence of Averroës. Yet he was a great favorite with the Franciscans,
and for a time exercised a profound influence on the universities of
Paris and Oxford, finding a strong admirer even in Roger Bacon.
His thought was also a powerful element in the mysticism of Meister
Eckhart and his followers; a mysticism which incurred the censure
of the Church.
Thus both the leading forms of heresy which characterized the
thirteenth century-naturalism with its tendency to magic, astrology,
alchemy, etc. , etc. , and mysticism with its dreams of beatific visions,
its self-torture and its lawlessness (see Görres, 'Die Christliche Mys-·
tik') were due largely to Averroës. In spite of this, his com-
mentaries on Aristotle maintained their credit, their influence being
greatest in the fourteenth century, when his doctrines were openly
professed. After the invention of printing, they appeared in number-
less editions, several times in connection with the text of Aristotle.
As the age of the Renaissance and of Protestantism approached, they
gradually lost their prestige. The chief humanists, like Petrarch, as
well as the chief reformers, were bitterly hostile to them. Never-
theless, they contributed important elements to both movements.
Averroism survived longest in Northern Italy, especially in the
University of Padua, where it was professed until the seventeenth
century, and where, as a doctrine hostile to supernaturalism, it paved
the way for the study of nature and the rise of modern science.
Thus Averroës may fairly be said to have had a share in every
movement toward freedom, wise and unwise, for the last seven hun-
dred years. In truth, free thought in Europe owes more to him than
to any other man except Abélard. His last declared follower was
the impetuous Lucilio Vanini, who was burned for atheism at Tou-
louse in 1619.
The best work on Averroes is Renan's Averröes et l'Averroïsme >
(fourth edition, Paris, 1893). This contains, on pages 58-79, a com-
plete list both of his commentaries and his original writings.
## p. 1084 (#510) ###########################################
1084
THE AVESTA
(From about B. C. Sixth Century)
BY A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON
VESTA, or Zend-Avesta, an interesting monument of antiquity,
is the Bible of Zoroaster, the sacred book of ancient Iran,
and holy scripture of the modern Parsis. The exact mean-
ing of the name "Avesta" is not certain; it may perhaps signify
"law," "text," or, more doubtfully, "wisdom," "revelation. "
The
modern familiar designation of the book as Zend-Avesta is not strictly
accurate; if used at all, it should rather be Avesta-Zend, like "Bible
and Commentary," as zand signifies "explanation," "commentary,"
and Avesta u Zand is employed in some Persian allusions to the Zoro-
astrian scriptures as a designation denoting the text of the Avesta
accompanied by the Pahlavi version or interpretation.
The story of the recovery of the Avesta, or rather the discovery
of the Avesta, by the enthusiastic young French scholar Anquetil du
Perron, who was the first to open to the western world the ancient
records of Zoroastrianism, reads almost like a romance. Du Perron's
own account of his departure for India in 1754, of his experiences
with the dasturs (or priests) during a seven years' residence among
them, of his various difficulties and annoyances, setbacks and suc-
cesses, is entertainingly presented in the introductory volume of his
work 'Zend-Avesta, Ouvrage de Zoroastre (3 Vols. , Paris, 1771).
This was the first translation of the ancient Persian books published
in a European language. Its appearance formed one of those epochs
which are marked by an addition to the literary, religious, or philo-
sophical wealth of our time; a new contribution was added to the
riches of the West from the treasures of the East. The field thus
thrown open, although worked imperfectly at first, has yielded abund-
ant harvests to the hands of later gleaners.
With the growth of our knowledge of the language of the sacred
texts, we have now a clear idea also of the history of Zoroastrian
literature and of the changes and chances through which with vary-
ing fortunes the scriptures have passed. The original Zoroastrian
Avesta, according to tradition, was in itself a literature of vast dimen-
sions. Pliny, in his 'Natural History,' speaks of two million verses
of Zoroaster; to which may be added the Persian assertion that the
original copy of the scriptures was written upon twelve thousand
parchments, with gold illuminated letters, and was deposited in the
library at Persepolis. But what was the fate of this archetype?
Parsi tradition has an answer. Alexander the Great-"the accursed
## p. 1085 (#511) ###########################################
AVESTA
1085
Iskander," as he is called—is responsible for its destruction. At the
request of the beautiful Thais, as the story goes, he allowed the pal-
ace of Persepolis to be burned, and the precious treasure perished in
the flames. Whatever view we may take of the different sides of
this story, one thing cannot be denied: the invasion of Alexander
and the subjugation of Iran was indirectly or directly the cause of a
certain religious decadence which followed upon the disruption of the
Persian Empire, and was answerable for the fact that a great part
of the scriptures was forgotten or fell into disuse. Persian tradi-
tion lays at the doors of the Greeks the loss of another copy of the
original ancient texts, but does not explain in what manner this
happened; nor has it any account to give of copies of the prophet's
works which Semitic writers say were translated into nearly a dozen
different languages. One of these versions was perhaps Greek, for
it is generally acknowledged that in the fourth century B. C. the
philosopher Theopompus spent much time in giving in his own
tongue the contents of the sacred Magian books.
Tradition is unanimous on one point at least: it is that the
original Avesta comprised twenty-one Nasks, or books, a statement
which there is no good reason to doubt. The same tradition which
was acquainted with the general character of these Nasks professes
also to tell exactly how many of them survived the inroad of Alex-
ander; for although the sacred text itself was destroyed, its contents
were lost only in part, the priests preserving large portions of the
precious scriptures. These met with many vicissitudes in the five
centuries that intervened between the conquest of Alexander and
the great restoration of Zoroastrianism in the third century of our
era, under the Sassanian dynasty. At this period all obtainable Zoro-
astrian scriptures were collected, the compilation was codified, and a
detailed notice made of the contents of each of the original Nasks
compared with the portions then surviving. The original Avesta
was, it would appear, a sort of encyclopædic work; not of religion
alone, but of useful knowledge relating to law, to the arts, science,
the professions, and to every-day life. If we may judge from the
existing table of contents of these Nasks, the zealous Sassanians, even
in the time of the collecting (A. D. 226-380), were able to restore but
a fragment of the archetype, perhaps a fourth part of the original
Avesta. Nor was this remnant destined to escape misfortune. The
Mohammedan invasion, in the seventh century of our era added a
final and crushing blow. Much of the religion that might otherwise
have been handed down to us, despite "the accursed Iskander's"
conquest, now perished through the sword and the Koran. Its loss,
we must remember, is in part compensated by the Pahlavi religious
literature of Sassanian days.
## p. 1086 (#512) ###########################################
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Fragmentary and disjointed as are the remnants of the Avesta,
we are fortunate in possessing even this moiety of the Bible of Zoro-
aster, whose compass is about one tenth that of our own sacred book.
A grouping of the existing texts is here presented:- 1. Yasna (in-
cluding Gathas). 2. Visperad. 3. Yashts. 4. Minor Texts. 5. Ven-
didad. 6. Fragments.
Even these texts no single manuscript in our time contains com-
plete. The present collection made by combining various Avestan
codexes. In spite of the great antiquity of the literature, all the
existing manuscripts are comparatively young. None is older than
the thirteenth century of our own era, while the direct history of
only one or two can be followed back to about the tenth century.
This mere external circumstance has of course no bearing on the
actual early age of the Zoroastrian scriptures. It must be kept in
mind that Zoroaster lived at least six centuries before the birth of
Christ.
Among the six divisions of our present Avesta, the Yasna, Vis-
perad, and Vendidad are closely connected. They are employed in
the daily ritual, and they are also accompanied by a version or inter-
pretation in the Pahlavi language, which serves at the same time as
a sort of commentary. The three divisions are often found combined
into a sort of prayer-book, called Vendidad-Sadah (Vendidad Pure);
i. e. , Avesta text without the Pahlavi rendering. The chapters in
this case are arranged with special reference to liturgical usage.
Some idea of the character of the Avesta as it now exists may be
derived from the following sketch of its contents and from the illus-
trative selections presented:-
1. Yasna (sacrifice, worship), the chief liturgical work of the
sacred canon. It consists mainly of ascriptions of praise and of
prayer, and corresponds nearly to our idea of a prayer-book. The
Yasna comprises seventy-two chapters; these fall into three nearly
equal parts. The middle, or oldest part, is the section of Gathas
below described.
The meaning of the word yasna as above gives at once some con-
ception of the nature of the texts. The Yasna chapters were recited
at the sacrifice; a sacrifice that consisted not in blood-offerings, but
in an offering of praise and thanksgiving, accompanied by ritual
observances. The white-robed priest, girt with the sacred cord and
wearing a veil, the paitidana, before his lips in the presence of the
holy fire, begins the service by an invocation of Ahura Mazda
(Ormazd) and the heavenly hierarchy; he then consecrates the zaothra
water, the myazda or oblation, and the baresma or bundle of sacred
twigs. He and his assistant now prepare the haoma (the soma of the
Hindus), or juice of a sacred plant, the drinking of which formed
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part of the religious rite. At the ninth chapter of the book, the
rhythmical chanting of the praises of Haoma is begun. This deified.
being, a personification of the consecrated drink, is supposed to have
appeared before the prophet himself, and to have described to him
the blessings which the haoma bestows upon its pious worshiper.
The lines are metrical, as in fact they commonly are in the older
parts of the Avesta, and the rhythm somewhat recalls the Kalevala
verse of Longfellow's 'Hiawatha. ' A specimen is here presented in
translation:-
At the time of morning-worship
Haoma came to Zoroaster,
Who was serving at the Fire
And the holy Psalms intoning.
"What man art thou (asked the Prophet),
Who of all the world material
Art the fairest I have e'er seen
In my life, bright and immortal? »
The image of the sacred plant responds, and bids the priest pre-
pare the holy extract.
Haoma then to me gave answer,
Haoma righteous, death-destroying:
« Zoroaster, I am Haoma,
Righteous Haoma, death-destroying.
Do thou gather me, Spitama,
And prepare me as a potion;
Praise me, aye as shall hereafter
In their praise the Saviors praise me. »
-
Zoroaster again inquires, wishing to know of the pious men of old
who worshiped Haoma and obtained blessings for their religious zeal.
Among these, as is learned from Haoma, one was King Yima, whose
reign was the time of the Golden Age; those were the happy days
when a father looked as young as his children.
In the reign of princely Yima,
Heat there was not, cold there was not,
Neither age nor death existed,
Nor disease the work of Demons;
Son and father walked together
Fifteen years old, each in figure,
Long as Vivanghvat's son Yima,
The good Shepherd, ruled as sovereign.
For two chapters more, Haoma is extolled. Then follows the
Avestan Creed (Yasna 12), a prose chapter that was repeated by
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those who joined in the early Zoroastrian faith, forsook the old
marauding and nomadic habits that still characterize the modern
Kurds, and adopted an agricultural habit of life, devoting them-
selves peaceably to cattle-raising, irrigation, and cultivation of the
fields. The greater part of the Yasna book is of a liturgic or ritual-
istic nature, and need not here be further described. Special men-
tion, however, must be made of the middle section of the Yasna,
which is constituted by "the Five Gathas" (hymns, psalms), a
division containing the seventeen sacred psalms, sayings, sermons, or
teachings of Zoroaster himself. These Gathas form the oldest part
of the entire canon of the Avesta. In them we see before our eyes
the prophet of the new faith speaking with the fervor of the Psalmist
of the Bible. In them we feel the thrill of ardor that characterizes
a new and struggling religious band; we are warmed by the burning
zeal of the preacher of a church militant. Now, however, comes a
cry of despondency, a moment of faint-heartedness at the present
triumph of evil, at the success of the wicked and the misery of the
righteous; but this gives way to a clarion burst of hopefulness, the
trumpet note of a prophet filled with the promise of ultimate victory,
the triumph of good over evil. The end of the world cannot be
far away; the final overthrow of Ahriman (Anra Mainyu) by Ormazd
(Ahura Mazda) is assured; the establishment of a new order of things
is certain; at the founding of this "kingdom" the resurrection of the
dead will take place and the life eternal will be entered upon.
The third Gatha, Yasna 30, may be chosen by way of illustration.
This is a sort of Mazdian Sermon on the Mount. Zoroaster preaches
the doctrine of dualism, the warfare of good and evil in the world,
and exhorts the faithful to choose aright and to combat Satan. The
archangels Good Thought (Vohu Manah), Righteousness (Asha), King-
dom (Khshathra), appear as the helpers of Man (Maretan); for whose
soul, as in the old English morality play, the Demons (Dævas) are
contending. Allusions to the resurrection and final judgment, and to
the new dispensation, are easily recognized in the spirited words
of the prophet. A prose rendering of this metrical psalm is here
attempted: the verse order. however, is preserved, though without
rhythm.
A PSALM OF ZOROASTER: YASNA 30
Now shall I speak of things which ye who seek them shall bear in mind,
Namely, the praises of Ahura Mazda and the worship of Good Thought,
And the joy of [lit. through' Righteousness which is manifested through
Light.
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2
Hearken with your ears to what is best; with clear understanding per-
ceive it,
Awakening to our advising every man, personally, of the distinction
Between the two creeds, before the Great Event [i. e. , the Resurrection].
3
Now, Two Spirits primeval there were-twins which became known
through their activity,
To wit, the Good and the Evil, in thought, word, and deed.
The wise have rightly distinguished between these two; not so the
unwise.
4
And, now, when these Two Spirits first came together, they established
Life and destruction, and ordained how the world hereafter shall be,
To wit, the Worst World [Hell] for the wicked, but the Best Thought
[Heaven] for the righteous.
5
The Wicked One [Ahriman] of these Two Spirits chose to do evil,
The Holiest Spirit [Ormazd]—who wears the solid heavens as a robe-
chose Righteousness [Asha],
And [so also those] who zealously gratified Ormazd by virtuous deeds.
6
Not rightly did the Demons distinguish these Two Spirits; for Delusion
came
Upon them, as they were deliberating, so that they chose the Worst
Thought [Hell].
And away they rushed to Wrath [the Fiend] in order to corrupt the life
of Man [Maretan].
7
And to him [i. e. , to Gaya Maretan] came Khshathra [Kingdom], Vohu
Manah [Good Thought] and Asha [Righteousness],
And Armaiti [Archangel of Earth] gave [to him] bodily endurance
unceasingly;
Of these, Thy [creatures], when Thou camest with Thy creations, he
[i. e. , Gaya Maretan] was the first.
8
But when the retribution of the sinful shall come to pass,
Then shall Good Thought distribute Thy Kingdom,
Shall fulfill it for those who shall deliver Satan [Druj] into the hand of
Righteousness [Asha].
11-69
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9
And so may we be such as make the world renewed,
And may Ahura Mazda and Righteousness lend their aid,
That our thoughts may there be [set] where Faith is abiding.
ness.
10
For at the [final] Dispensation, the blow of annihilation to Satan shall
come to pass;
But those who participate in a good report [in the Life Record] shall
meet together
In the happy home of Good Thought, and of Mazda, and of Righteous-
II
If, O ye men, ye mark these doctrines which Mazda gave,
And [mark] the weal and the woe-namely, the long torment of the
wicked,
And the welfare of the righteous-then in accordance with these [doc-
trines] there will be happiness hereafter.
The Visperad (all the masters) is a short collection of prosaic invo-
cations and laudations of sacred things. Its twenty-four sections
form a supplement to the Yasna. Whatever interest this division of
the Avesta possesses lies entirely on the side of the ritual, and not
in the field of literature. In this respect it differs widely from the
book of the Yashts, which is next to be mentioned.
The Yashts (praises of worship) form a poetical book of twenty-one
hymns in which the angels of the religion, "the worshipful ones"
(Yazatas, Izads), are glorified, and the heroes of former days. Much
of the material of the Yashts is evidently drawn from pre-Zoroastrian
sagas which have been remodeled and adopted, worked over and
modified, and incorporated into the canon of the new-founded reli-
gion. There is a mythological and legendary atmosphere about the
Yashts, and Firdausi's 'Shah Nameh' serves to throw light on many
of the events portrayed in them, or allusions that would otherwise
be obscure. All the longer Yashts are in verse, and some of them
have poetic merit. Chiefly to be mentioned among the longer ones
are: first, the one in praise of Ardvi Sura Anahita, or the stream
celestial (Yt. 5); second, the Yasht which exalts the star Tishtrya
and his victory over the demon of drought (Yt. 8); then the one
devoted to the Fravashis or glorified souls of the righteous (Yt. 13)
as well as the Yasht in honor of Verethraghna, the incarnation of
Victory (Yt. 14). Selections from the others, Yt. 10 and Yt. 19,
which are among the noblest, are here given.
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The first of the two chosen (Yt. 10) is dedicated to the great
divinity Mithra, the genius who presides over light, truth, and the
sun (Yt. 10, 13).
Foremost he, the celestial angel,
Mounts above Mount Hara (Alborz)
In advance of the sun immortal
Which is drawn by fleeting horses;
He it is, in gold adornment
First ascends the beauteous summits
Thence beneficent he glances
Over all the abode of Aryans.
As the god of light and of truth and as one of the judges of the
dead, he rides out in lordly array to the battle and takes an active
part in the conflict, wreaking vengeance upon those who at any time
in their life have spoken falsely, belied their oath, or broken their
pledge. His war-chariot and panoply are described in mingled lines
of verse and prose, which may thus be rendered (Yt. 10, 128-132):—
By the side of Mithra's chariot,
Mithra, lord of the wide pastures,
Stand a thousand bows well-fashioned
(The bow has a string of cowgut).
By his chariot also are standing a thousand vulture-feathered, gold-
notched, lead-poised, well-fashioned arrows (the barb is of iron); likewise a
thousand spears well-fashioned and sharp-piercing, and a thousand steel bat-
tle-axes, two-edged and well-fashioned; also a thousand bronze clubs well-
fashioned.
And by Mithra's chariot also
Stands a mace, fair and well-striking,
With a hundred knobs and edges,
Dashing forward, felling heroes;
Out of golden bronze 'tis molded.
The second illustrative extract will be taken from Yasht 19, which
magnifies in glowing strains the praises of the Kingly Glory. This
"kingly glory» (kavaem hvareno) is a sort of halo, radiance, or mark
of divine right, which was believed to be possessed by the kings and
heroes of Iran in the long line of its early history. One hero who
bore the glory was the mighty warrior Thraetaona (Feridun), the
vanquisher of the serpent-monster Azhi Dahaka (Zohak), who was
depopulating the world by his fearful daily banquet of the brains of
two children. The victory was a glorious triumph for Thraetaona
(Yt. 19, 37):-
He who slew Azhi Dahaka,
Three-jawed monster, triple-headed,
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With six eyes and myriad senses,
Fiend demoniac, full of power,
Evil to the world, and wicked.
This fiend full of power, the Devil
Anra Mainyu had created,
Fatal to the world material,
Deadly to the world of Righteousness.
Of equal puissance was another noble champion, the valiant
Keresaspa, who dispatched a raging demon who, though not yet
grown to man's estate, was threatening the world. The monster's
thrasonical boasting is thus given (Yt. 19, 43):-
I am yet only a stripling,
But if ever I come to manhood
I shall make the earth my chariot
And shall make a wheel of heaven.
I shall drive the Holy Spirit
Down from out the shining heaven,
I shall rout the Evil Spirit
Up from out the dark abysm;
They as steeds shall draw my chariot,
God and Devil yoked together.
Passing over a collection of shorter petitions, praises, and blessings
which may conveniently be grouped together as 'Minor Prayers,' for
they answer somewhat to our idea of a daily manual of morning
devotion, we may turn to the Vendidad (law against the demons), the
Iranian Pentateuch. Tradition asserts that in the Vendidad we have
preserved a specimen of one of the original Nasks. This may be
true, but even the superficial student will see that it is in any case
a fragmentary remnant. Interesting as the Vendidad is to the stu-
dent of early rites, observances, manners, and customs, it is never-
theless a barren field for the student of literature, who will find in it
little more than wearisome prescriptions like certain chapters of
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It need only be added that
at the close of the colloquy between Zoroaster and Ormazd given in
Vend. 6, he will find the origin of the modern Parsi "Towers of
Silence. »
Among the Avestan Fragments, attention might finally be called
to one which we must be glad has not been lost. It is an old metri-
cal bit (Frag. 4, 1-3) in praise of the Airyama Ishya Prayer (Yt. 54, 1).
This is the prayer that shall be intoned by the Savior and his com-
panions at the end of the world, when the resurrection will take
place; and it will serve as a sort of last trump, at the sound of which
the dead rise from their graves and evil is banished from the world.
Ormazd himself says to Zoroaster (Frag. 4, 1-3):—
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The Airyama Ishya prayer, I tell thee,
Upright, holy Zoroaster,
Is the greatest of all prayers.
Verily among all prayers
It is this one which I gifted
With revivifying powers.
This prayer shall the Saoshyants, Saviors,
Chant, and at the chanting of it
I shall rule over my creatures,
I who am Ahura Mazda.
Not shall Ahriman have power,
Anra Mainyu, o'er my creatures,
He (the fiend) of foul religion.
In the earth shall Ahriman hide,
In the earth the demons hide.
Up the dead again shall rise,
And within their lifeless bodies
Incorporate life shall be restored.
Inadequate as brief extracts must be to represent the sacred books
of a people, the citations here given will serve to show that the
Avesta which is still recited in solemn tones by the white-robed
priests of Bombay, the modern representatives of Zoroaster, the
Prophet of ancient days, is a survival not without value to those who
appreciate whatever has been preserved for us of the world's earlier
literature. For readers who are interested in the subject there are
several translations of the Avesta. The best (except for the Gathas,
where the translation is weak) is the French version by Darmesteter,
'Le Zend Avesta,' published in the 'Annales du Musée Guimet >
(Paris, 1892-93). An English rendering by Darmesteter and Mills is
contained in the Sacred Books of the East,' Vols. iv. , xxiii. , xxxi.
A. r. Williams
A PRAYER FOR KNOWLEDGE
is Jackans
THIS
HIS I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: when praise is to
be offered, how shall I complete the praise of the One like
You, O Mazda ? Let the One like Thee declare it earnestly
to the friend who is such as I, thus through Thy Righteousness
within us to offer friendly help to us, so that the One like Thee
may draw near us through Thy Good Mind within the Soul.
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2. This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright how, in pleas-
ing Him, may we serve the Supreme One of the better world;
yea, how to serve that chief who may grant us those blessings
of his grace and who will seek for grateful requitals at our
hands; for He, bountiful as He is through the Righteous Order,
will hold off ruin from us all, guardian as He is for both the
worlds, O Spirit Mazda! and a friend.
3. This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: Who by gen-
eration is the first father of the Righteous Order within the
world? Who gave the recurring sun and stars their undeviating
way?
Who established that whereby the moon waxes, and
whereby she wanes, save Thee? These things, O Great Creator!
would I know, and others likewise still.
4. This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: Who from
beneath hath sustained the earth and the clouds above that they
do not fall? Who made the waters and the plants? Who to the
wind has yoked on the storm-clouds the swift and fleetest two?
Who, O Great Creator! is the inspirer of the good thoughts
within our souls?
5. This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: Who, as a
skillful artisan, hath made the lights and the darkness? Who, as
thus skillful, hath made sleep and the zest of waking hours?
Who spread the Auroras, the noontides and midnight, monitors to
discerning man, duty's true guides?
6.
