82 THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



vate goodwill without measure unhindered love and 

 friendliness toward the whole world, above, below, 

 around. Standing, walking, sitting, or lying, let him 

 be firm in this mind so long as he is awake : this 

 state of heart, they say, is the best in the world." 



The Zend Avesta is the original document of the 

 religion of Zoroaster, and is still used by the Parsees 

 as their Bible and prayer book, and was written in 

 pahlavi. Pahlavi means Parthian. This fact points 

 to the conclusion that the system of writing was 

 developed in Parthian times, when the great nobles, 

 the Pahlavans ruled, and Media was their main seat, 

 "the Pahlav country." The political and military 

 institutions of the Persians are substantially those of 

 the Medes ; even the dress (of the Persian troops) was 

 borrowed from the Medes. 



The ideas indicated in the Vedas and Zend 

 Avesta, combined with a more primitive Animism, 

 and Shamanism, were more or less the ideas of the 

 peoples dwelling in the mountains of Media and the 

 valleys watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. 

 *About three thousand years before our era, the 

 fertile plain of Babylonia was under the domination 

 of the Accadians, though the Semitic nomad and 

 trader were already beginning to make their appear- 

 ance. The country was divided into two provinces, 

 the northern called Accadia, and the southern Sumir, 

 or Shinar, in which two separate though closely allied 

 dialects were spoken. About two thousand years 

 B.C., the Accadian was gradually superseded by the 

 Semite, and before long the Accadian language itself 

 * Rev. A. H. Sayce. 



