568 ANCIENT RELIGION OF THE PERSIANS. 
of Justice , commenced a new religion, or rather added to the 
old ; for, “ discovering the element of fire, in an accidental col¬ 
lision of flint stones,” he supposed it an emanation of the sun, 
imparted to those earthly substances; and calling it the Nour-e- 
khodah , or light of God, ordered it to be worshipped. This 
innovation was followed in the next reign by another, for his 
son Tahamurs introduced the idolatry of images. This latter 
monarch is mentioned as the uncle of Jemsheed, the great 
founder of Persepolis, and ancestor of Cyrus. I have referred to 
these native writers, who, though full of confusion in their ac¬ 
counts of persons, places, and times, yet afford us some satisfac¬ 
tion, by shewing that a vague memory of actual events has sur¬ 
vived amongst them, through all the changes of their country; 
and that the Greek accounts of what happened before and after 
the era of Cyrus, though dispersed by these writers into totally 
different periods, may derive elucidation from even their scattered 
lights. Hence, I would deem it probable that when the mountain- 
altars, or other high places, were open to the air, as they cer¬ 
tainly were in the time of Cyrus, that the sacred fire was not an 
object of adoration in itself, but only considered holy as an ele¬ 
ment first kindled by the sun, and by whose consuming agency the 
sacrifices were offered to that orb, or rather to the Divine In¬ 
telligence it contained. In this view we find the fire borne 
to the sacrificial altars in the processions recorded by Xeno¬ 
phon, in the eighth book of the Cyropedia. But when Zo¬ 
roaster (or Zerdusht) pretended to bring the sacred flame direct 
from the presence of God, then what was before only sanctified, 
became divine; and henceforward it appears to have shared 
the honours of worship. We find that it was by the suggestion 
of this new prophet, that Darius Hystaspes made so great 
an alteration in the religious rites of his kingdom; “ that 
