72 Evolution and Religion 



Sun Worship 



Herodotus, speaking of the Persian Magi, 450 B.C., 

 says : l 



"The Persians have no altars, no temples, nor 

 images; they worship on the tops of the mountains. 

 They adore the heavens, and sacrifice to the sun, moon, 

 earth, fire, water, and winds." 



Morality 



Enough, however, has been preserved of the ritual 

 of this religion to prove that it too was essentially moral. 

 Like Buddha, Zoroaster seems to have been a practical 

 reformer, likewise leading a revolt against the nebulous 

 Pantheism of India. His whole duty of man is summed 

 up in three cardinal principles: 



1. Pure thoughts. 



2 True words. 



3. Right actions. 



The substance of his law is, "Think purely, speak 

 purely, act purely." 



In his liturgy, the very oldest part of the Avesta, he 

 says : 2 



" I praise the good men and women of the whole world 

 of purity. I desire by my prayer with uplifted hands 

 this joy, — the pure works of the Holy Spirit, — Mazda 

 ... a disposition to perform good actions, . . . and 

 pure gifts for both worlds, the bodily and the spiritual. 



1 Clarke's Ten Great Religions, p. 175. Herodotus, I. 131. 



2 Ibid. p. 188. 



