tos 
Excursion throne. 
sows the ground with care and diligence, 
acquires a greater stock of religious 
merit, than he could gain hy the repe¬ 
tition of ten thousand prayers.” But 
this maxim is in itself an absurdity s 
for there is no religious merit whatever 
in agricultural pursuits; and to say 
that agriculture is more useful than 
vain repetitions of prayer, is a truism 
which may be affirmed equally of com¬ 
merce or manufactures; and Mr. G.'s 
pompous language, as on many other 
occasions, resol ves itself into mere com¬ 
mon-place. 
That every mode of religion requires 
practices of devotion not founded on 
reason , is an extravagance which it be¬ 
longs to the professed theologian to ex¬ 
pose. But of what nature those devo¬ 
tional practices enjoined by the magian 
religion were, we may form some idea 
when we are told that to kindle any of 
the sacred fires except from the sun, 
was death. On the advance of the 
Persian army under Xerxes to the 
Strymon, Herodotus informs us, 44 that 
the Magi offered a sacrifice of white 
horses to the river, and caused to be 
hurled alive nine youths and as many 
virgins; a custom common in Persia,” 
L. VII. c. 113. 
The same historian relates that (he 
Persian fleet, when stationed at Artemi- 
sium, being dreadfully shattered by a 
tempest which continued three clays 
and three nights, at length, on the 
fourth day, the Magi, those enlightened 
sages, 44 offered human victims , and in¬ 
cantations to the wind —after which it 
is certain that the tempest ceased.” 
L. VII. c. 191. 
The founder of the Persian religion, 
is by all the antients said to be Zoroas¬ 
ter, a philosopher who flourished at a 
very remote and indefinable peiiod. But 
in the reign of Darius Hystaspes ap¬ 
peared a celebrated personage cal led hy 
the Persians Zerdusht or Zaratusk, and 
often designated as the second Zoroas¬ 
ter, who is described as the great re¬ 
former of the Magian system, in oppo¬ 
sition to the Sabians, or the worship¬ 
pers of images. This famous system 
was founded on the basis of two origi¬ 
nal principles ; the causes of good and 
evil; and emblematically represented 
by light and darkness. To the first 
was given the name of Ormusd, to the 
latter that of Ahriman, softened in the 
liquid language of the Greeks, to Oro- 
masdes and Arimanius. To this con¬ 
flict of nature, were attributed all the 
disorder and misery existing in the mri- 
North Wales. [Oct. ], 
verse. In reference to this pernicious 
though plausible system, the Almighty 
is, hy the prophet Isaiah, represented 
assaying, 44 I am the Lord, and there 
is none else; I form the light, and I 
create the darkness. I the Lord do all 
these things.” And in the divine 
vision, de cribedby the prophet Ezekiel, 
(Chap, viii.) the Magian system is al¬ 
luded to in terms of ineffable abhor¬ 
rence; the twenty-five men who wor¬ 
shipped the sun with their faces totvards 
the east, being pronounced more deeply 
tainted with idolatry, than the women 
who wept for Thamuz.” Yet these 
are the persons, who in defiance of sacred 
and profane authority, are so generous¬ 
ly exculpated by Mr. Gibbon ! 
That historian concludes a high 
panegyric on the institutions of Zoro¬ 
aster, by declaring 44 that had he in¬ 
variably supported this exalted charac¬ 
ter, his name AA 7 ould deserve a place 
with those of Nutna and Confucius: 
and his system would be justly entitled 
to all the applause which it has pleased 
some of our divines, and even some 
of our philosophers, to bestow upon it.” 
But what divines or philosophers have 
surpassed, or equalled, the applause 
bestowed by Mr. G. himself on the Ma¬ 
gian system? As to Numa fin'd Con¬ 
fucius, it might be desirable to acquire 
a little farther knowledge of their genu¬ 
ine principles than any divine or phi¬ 
losopher can at present boast of, before 
we venture to assign the palm of reli¬ 
gious pre-eminence-. It is not denied, 
however, that, according to their creed, 
the omnipresent Deity might as rightly 
he adored in temples made with hands, 
as in the recesses of a grove, on the 
margin of a stream, or upon the sum¬ 
mit of a mountain. 
For the Moninlij Magazine. 
EXCURSION through NORTH WALES, 
in 1819. 
f Continued from No. 358, p. 119.^1 
N our walk towards the well, we 
passed close to what is called the 
summit of tile mountain.* It is a huge, 
* The proper Welsh name for this emi¬ 
nence is Pen-y-Cader, or the Top of the 
Fort, Cader Idris, signifying the fort or 
strong-hold of Idris, a giant of the early 
ag*es. The actual period when this worthy 
flourished is not known ; but that we 
might not doubt the authenticity of his 
giantship, our guide positively and seri¬ 
ously averred that there was such a mon¬ 
ster, and pointed out to us a large rock, 
not far from the summit,'which, he informed 
vs. 
