IN THE EAST. 
51 
object of life. In this state of accumulated corruption of doc¬ 
trine and practice, overwhelmed with a multitude of gods, and 
defaced with impious ceremonies, unchaste and odious, Zerdusht, 
(the Zoroaster of the Greeks,) found the religion of his coun¬ 
try. Moved by ambition, or, we may hope, a better principle, 
he exerted his influence as head of the magi, with Darius 
Hystaspes, then king of Persia, to sanction him in the restoration 
of the Persian faith in all its primitive simplicity: but, certainly, 
not the simplicity of the Kaiomur faith, which worshipped 
the paternal Deity alone ; but the apostate Mithratic creed of 
Houshung, who added to the adoration of the Creator, an 
idolatrous homage to the sun or the fire, as his emblem. From 
the time of Zerdusht, the religion of Persia continued nearly 
in the same reformed state in which he left it, till the invasion of 
the Greeks overwhelmed it again with all the gorgeous incum¬ 
brances of polytheism ; and the accession of the Arsacidag rather 
increased than subtracted from the load. But when, at the 
beginning of the third century, the Kaianian, or line of Cyrus, 
was revived in the person of Ardashir, a hero and a sage, he 
attempted to repeat the reformation of Zerdusht; and, though 
imperfectly accomplished, the Mithratic, henceforth, was re¬ 
garded as the established faith for three hundred succeeding 
years ; till the sacred flame, and the royal race, were finally ex¬ 
tinguished together, in the breast of Yezdijird at Merv in30io- 
rasan, where a traitor’s hand gave the last blow to the ancient 
religion and empire of Cyrus. 
The modem Persian Guebres, as well as their brethren in 
India, hold a mixed creed, apparently borrowed from both states 
of the Mithratic worship. It comprises a belief in one supreme 
God, who directs all things by his power, and preserves all 
h 2 
