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GENERAL TENDENCIES SINCE
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See also:GENERAL TENDENCIES SINCE See also:DARWIN
Darwin may be said to have founded the See also:science of bionomics, and at the same See also:time to have given new stimulus and new direction to morphography, See also:physiology, and plasmology, by uniting them as contributories to one See also:common biological doctrine—the See also:doctrine of organic evolution—itself but a See also:part of the wider doctrine of universal See also:evolution based on the See also:laws of physics and See also:chemistry. The immediate result was, as pointed out above, a reconstruction of the See also:classification of animals upon a genealogical basis, and an investigation of the individual development of animals in relation to the steps of their See also:gradual See also:building up by See also:cell-See also:division, with a view to obtaining See also:evidence of their genetic relationships. On the other See also:hand, the studies which occupied Darwin himself so largely subsequently to the publication of the Origin of See also:Species, viz. the explanation of See also:animal (and See also:vegetable) mechanism, colouring, habits, &c., as advantageous to the species or to its ancestors, are only gradually being carried further. The most important See also:work in this direction has been done by Fritz See also: Mendel made his See also:chief experiments with cultivated varieties of the self-fertilizing edible See also:pea. He selected a variety with some one marked structural feature and crossed it with another variety in which that feature was absent. Instances of his selected varieties are the tall variety which he hybridized with a See also:dwarf variety, a yellow-seeded variety which he hybridized with a See also:green-seeded variety, and again a smooth-seeded variety which he hybridized with a wrinkle-seeded variety. In each set of experiments he concentrated his attention on the one See also:character selected for observation. Having obtained a first hybrid See also:generation, he allowed the hybrids to self-fertilize, and recorded the result in a large number of instances (a thousand or more) as to the number of individuals in the first, second, third and See also:fourth generations in which the character selected for experiment made its See also:appearance. In the first hybrid gene-ration formed by the See also:union of the reproductive germs of the See also:positive variety (that possessing the structural character selected for observation) with those of the negative variety, it is not surprising that all or nearly all the individuals were found to exhibit, as a result of the mixture, the positive character. In subsequent generations produced by self-fertilization of the hybrids it was found that the positive character was not See also:present in all the individuals, but that a result was obtained showing that in the formation of the reproductive cells (ova and sperms) of the hybrid, See also:half were endowed with the positive character and half with the negative. Consequently the result of the haphazard pairing of a large number of these two See also:groups of reproductive cells was to yield, according to the See also:regular See also:law of See also:chance See also:combination, the proportion IPP, 2PN, See also:INN, where P stands for the positive character and N for its See also:absence or negative character—the positive character being accordingly present in three-fourths of the offspring and absent from one-fourth. The fact that in the formation of the reproductive cells of the hybrid generation the material which carries the positive quality is not subdivided so as to give a half-quantity to each reproductive cell, but on the contrary is apparently distributed as an undivided whole to half only of the reproductive cells and not at all to the See also:remainder, is the important inference from Mendel's experiments. Whether this inference is applicable to other classes of cases than those studied by Mendel and his followers is a question which is still under investigation. The failure of the material carrying a positive character to See also:divide so as to distribute itself among all the reproductive cells of a hybrid individual, and the See also:limitation of its See also:distribution to half only of those cells, must prevent the " swamping " of a newly appearing character in the course ofthe inter-breeding of those individuals possessed of the character with those which do not possess it. The tendency of the See also:pro-portions in the offspring of IPP, 2PN, INN is to give in a See also:series of generations a regular reversion from the hybrid See also:form PN to the two pure races, viz. the See also:race with the positive character simply and the race with the See also:total absence of it. It has been maintained that this tendency to a severance of the hybrid stock into its components must favour the persistence of a new character of large See also:volume suddenly appearing in a stock, and the observations of Mendel have been held to favour in this way the views of those who hold that the See also:variations upon which natural selection has acted in the See also:production of new species are not small variations but large and " discontinuous." It does not, however, appear that " large " variations would thus be favoured any more than small ones, nor that the eliminating See also:action of natural selection upon an unfavourable variation could be checked. A See also:good See also:deal of confusion has arisen in the discussions of this latter topic, owing to defective nomenclature. By some writers the word " mutation " is applied only to large and suddenly appearing variations which are found to be capable of hereditary transmission, whilst the See also:term " fluctuation " is applied to small variations whether capable of transmission or not. By others the word " fluctuation " is apparently applied only to those small " acquired " variations due to the See also:direct action of changes in See also:food, moisture and other features of the environment. It is no discovery that this latter See also:kind of variation is not hereditable, and it is not the fact that the small variations, to which Darwin attached great but not exclusive importance as the material upon which natural selection operates, are of this latter kind. The most instructive classification of the " variations " exhibited by fully formed organisms consists in the separation in the first place of those which arise from antecedent congenital, innate, constitutional or germinal variations from those which arise merely from the operation of variation of the environment or the food-See also:supply upon normally constituted individuals. The former are " innate " variations, the latter are " superimposed " variations (so-called " acquired variations "). Both innate and superimposed variations are capable of division into those which are more and those which are less obvious to the human See also:eye. Scarcely perceptible variations of the innate class are regularly and in-variably present in every new generation of every species of living thing. Their greatness or smallness so far as human See also:perception goes is not of much significance; their real importance in regard to the origin of new species depends on whether they are of value to the organism and therefore capable of selection in the struggle for existence. An absolutely imperceptible physiological difference arising as a variation may be of selective value, and it may carry with it correlated variations which See also:appeal to the human eye but are of no selective value themselves. The present writer has, for many years, urged the importance of this See also:consideration. The views of de Vries and others as to the importance of "saltatory variation," the soundness of which was still by no means generally accepted in 1910, may be gathered from the articles MENDELISM and VARIATION. A due appreciation of the far-reaching results of " correlated variation " must, it appears, give a new and distinct explanation to the phenomena which are referred to as " large mutations," discontinuous variation " and " saltatory evolution." Whatever value is to be attached to Mendel's observation of the breaking up of self-fertilized hybrids of cultivated varieties into the two See also:original See also:parent forms according to the See also:formula " IPP, ON, INN," it cannot be considered as more than a contribution to the extensive investigation of heredity which still remains to be carried out. The See also:analysis of the specific variations of organic form so as to determine what is really the nature and limitation of a single " character " or " individual variation," and whether two such true and strictly defined single variations of a single structural unit can actually " blend " when one is transmitted by the male parent and the other by the See also:female parent, are matters which have yet to be determined. We do not yet know whether such See also:absolute blending is possible or not, or whether all apparent blending is only a more or less minutely subdivided " See also:mosaic" of non-combinable characters of the parents, in fact whether the combinations due to heredity in See also:reproduction are ever analogous to chemical compounds or are always comparable to particulate mixtures. The attempt to connect Mendel's observation with the structure of the sperm-cells and egg-cells of plants and animals has already been made. The See also:suggestion is obvious that the halving of the number of nuclear threads in the reproductive cells as compared with the number of those present in the See also:ordinary cells of the tissues—a phenomenon which has now been demonstrated as universal —may he directly connected with the facts of segregation of hybrid characters observed by Mendel. The suggestion requires further experimental testing, for which the See also:case of the parthenogenetic production of a portion of the offspring, in such insects as the See also:bee, offers a valuable opportunity for research. Another important development of Darwin's conclusions deserves See also:special notice here, as it is the most distinct advance See also:Varia- in the See also:department of bionomics since Darwin's own See also:lion. writings, and at the same time touches questions of fundamental See also:interest. The matter strictly relates to the consideration of the " causes of variation," and is as follows. The fact of variation is a See also:familiar one. 'No two animals, even of the same brood, are alike: whilst exhibiting a See also:close similarity to their parents, they yet present See also:differences, sometimes very marked differences, from their parents and from one another. See also:Lamarck had put forward the See also:hypothesis that structural alterations acquired by (that is to say, superimposed upon) a parent in the course of its See also:life are transmitted to the offspring, and that, as these structural alterations are acquired by an animal or plant in consequence of the direct action of the environment, the offspring inheriting them would as a consequence not unfrequently start with a greater fitness for these conditions than its parents started with. In its turn, being operated upon by the conditions of life, it would acquire a greater development of the same modification, which it would in turn transmit to its offspring. In the course of several generations, Lamarck argued, a structural alteration amounting to such difference as we See also:call " specific " might be thus acquired. The familiar See also:illustration of Lamarck's hypothesis is that of the See also:giraffe, whose long See also:neck might, he suggested, have been acquired by the efforts of a primitively See also:short-necked race of herbivores who stretched their necks to reach the foliage of trees in a See also:land where grass was deficient, the effort producing a distinct See also:elongation in the neck of each generation, which was then transmitted to the next. This process is known as " direct See also:adaptation "; and there is no doubt that such structural adaptations are acquired by an animal in the course of its life, though such changes are strictly limited in degree and rare rather than frequent and obvious. Whether such acquired characters can be transmitted to the next generation is a See also:separate question. It was not proved by Lamarck that they can be, and, indeed, never has been proved by actual observation. Nevertheless it has been assumed, and also indirectly argued, that such acquired characters must be transmitted. Darwin's great merit was that he excluded from his theory of development any necessary See also:assumption of the transmission of acquired characters. He pointed to the admitted fact of congenital variation, and he showed that See also:con-genital variations are arbitrary and, so to speak, non-significant. causes of Their causes are extremely difficult to trace in detail, congeal- but it appears that they are largely due to a " shaking oaf varia- up " of the living matter which constitutes the dO°' fertilized germ or embryo-cell, by the process of mixture in it of the substance of two cells—the germ-cell and the sperm-cell—derived from two different individuals. Other See also:mechanical disturbances may assist in this production of congenital variation. Whatever its causes, Darwin showed that it is all-important. In some cases a pair of animals pro-duce ten million offspring, and in such a number a large rangeof congenital variation is possible. Since on the See also:average only two of the See also:young survive in the struggle for existence to take the place of their two parents, there is a selection out of the ten million young, none of which are exactly alike, and the selection is determined in nature by the survival of the congenital variety which is fittest to the conditions of life. Hence there is no See also:necessity for an assumption of the perpetuation of direct adapta-
tions. The selection of the fortuitously (fortuitously, Trans.
that is to say, so far as the conditions of survival are See also:mission
concerned) produced varieties is sufficient, since it of ax-
is ascertained that they will tend to transmit those qufred
and in-
characters with which they themselves were See also:born, herded although it is not ascertained that they could transmit See also:char-characters acquired on the way through life. A "lers. See also:simple illustration of the difference is this: a See also:man born with four fingers only on his right hand is ascertained to be likely to transmit this peculiarity to some at least of his offspring; on the other hand, there is not the slightest ground for supposing that a man who has had one See also:finger chopped off, or has even lost his See also:arm at any See also:period of his life, will produce offspring who are defective in the slightest degree in regard to fingers, hand or arm. Darwin himself, influenced by the consideration of certain classes of facts which seem to favour the Iamarckian hypothesis, was of the opinion that acquired characters are in some cases transmitted. It should be observed, however, that Darwin did not attribute an essential part to this Lamarckian hypothesis of the transmission of acquired characters, but expressly assigned to it an entirely subordinate importance.
The new attitude which has been taken since Darwin's writings on this question is to ask for evidence of the asserted transmission of acquired characters. It is held 1 that the Darwinian doctrine of selection of fortuitous congenital variations is sufficient to See also:account for all cases, that the Lamarckian hypothesis of transmission cf acquired characters is not sup-ported by experimental evidence, and that the latter should therefore be dismissed. Weismann has also ingeniously argued from the structure of the egg-cell and sperm-cell, and from the way in which, and the period at which, they are derived in the course of the growth of the embryo from the egg—from the fertilized egg-cell—that it is impossible (it would be better to say highly improbable) that an alteration in parental structure could produce any exactly representative See also:change in the sub-stance of the germ or sperm-cells.
The one fact which the Lamarekians can produce in their favour is the account of experiments by See also: The See also:record of Brown-Sequard's original experiment is not satisfactory, and the subsequent attempts to obtain similar results have not been attended with success. On the other hand, the vast number of experiments in the cropping of the tails and ears of domestic animals, as well as of similar operations on man, are attended with negative results. No case of the transmission of the results of an injury can be produced. Stories of tailless kittens, puppies and calves, born from parents one of whom had been thus injured, are abundant, but they have hitherto entirely failed to stand before examination. Whilst simple evidence of the fact of the transmission of an acquired character is wanting, the a priori arguments in its favour break down one after another when discussed. The very cases which are advanced as only to be explained on the Lamarckian assumption are found on examination and experiment to be better explained, or only to be explained, by the Darwinian principle. Thus the occurrence of See also:blind animals in caves and in the deep See also:sea was a fact which Darwin himself regarded as best explained by the See also:atrophy of the See also:organ of See also:vision in successive generations through the absence of light and 1 Weismann, Vererbung, &c. (1886). consequent disuse, and the transmission (as Lamarck would have supposed) of a more and more weakened and structurally impaired eye to the offspring in successive generations, until the eye finally disappeared. But this instance is really fully explained (as the present writer has shown) by the theory of natural selection acting on congenital fortuitous variations. It is definitely ascertained that many animals are thus born with distorted or defective eyes whose parents have not had their eyes submitted to any See also:peculiar conditions. Supposing a number of some species of arthropod or See also:fish to be swept into a cavern or to be carried from less to greater depths in the sea, those individuals with perfect eyes would follow the glimmer of light and eventually See also:escape to the See also:outer See also:air or the shallower depths, leaving behind those with imperfect eyes to breed in the dark place. A natural selection would thus he effected. In every succeeding generation this would be the case, and even those with weak but still seeing eyes would in the course of time escape, until only a pure race of eyeless or blind animals would be See also:left in the cavern or deep sea. It is a remarkable fact that it was overlooked alike by the supporters and opponents of Lamarck's views until pointed out by the present writer (Nature, 1894,'p. 127), that the two statements called by Lamarck his first and second laws are contradictory one of the other. Lamarck's first law asserts that a past See also:history of indefinite duration is powerless to create educe- a See also:bias by which the present can be controlled. He bi&y declares that in spite of long-established conditions and correspondingly evoked characters new conditions will cause new responsive characters. Yet in the second law he asserts that these new characters will resist the action of yet newer conditions or a reversion to the old conditions and be maintained by heredity. If the earlier characters were not maintained by heredity why should the later be ? If a character of much longer See also:standing (certain properties of height, length, breadth, See also:colour, &c.) had not become fixed and con-genital after many thousands of successive generations of individuals had See also:developed it in response to environment, but gave place to a new character when new moulding conditions operated on an individual (Lamarck's first law), why should we suppose that the new character is likely to become fixed and transmitted by See also:mere heredity after a much shorter time of existence in response to environmental stimulus? Why should we assume that it will be able to escape the moulding by environment (once its evoking cause is removed) to which, according to Lamarck's first law, all parts of organisms are subject ? Clearly Lamarck gives us no See also:reason for any such assumption, and his followers or latter-See also:day adherents have not attempted to do so. His enunciation of his theory is itself destructive of that theory. Though an acquired or " superimposed " character is not transmitted to offspring as the consequence of the action of the See also:external agencies which determine the " acquirement," yet the tendency to react to such agencies possessed by the parent is transmitted and may be increased and largely developed by survival, if the character developed by the reaction is valuable. This newly discovered See also:inheritance of " variation in the tendency to react " has a wide application and has led the present writer to See also:coin the word " educability." It has application to all kinds of See also:organs and qualities, but is of especial significance in regard to the development of the See also:brain and the See also:mental qualities of animals and of man (see the See also:jubilee volume of the See also:Soc. de Biologie, 1899, and Nature, 1900, p. 624). It has been argued that the elaborate structural adaptations of the See also:nervous See also:system which are the corporeal correlatives of Theory complicated instincts must have been slowly built of trans- up by the transmission to offspring of acquired ex- mission perience, that is to say, of acquired brain structure. of In- At first sight it appears difficult to understand how sancta. the complicated series of actions which are definitely exhibited as so-called " instincts " by a variety of animals can have been due to the selection of congenital variations, or can be otherwise explained than by the transmission of habitsacquired by the parent as the result of experience, and continuously elaborated and added to in successive generations. It is, however, to be noted, in the first place, that the See also:imitation of the parent by the young possibly accounts for some part of these complicated actions, and, secondly, that there are cases in which curiously elaborate actions are performed by animals as a characteristic of the species, and as subserving the general See also:advantage of the race or species, which, nevertheless, can not be explained as resulting from the transmission of acquired experience, and must be supposed to be due to the natural selection of a fortuitously developed See also:habit which, like fortuitous colour or form variation, happens to prove beneficial. Such cases are the habits of " shamming dead " and the combined posturing and colour peculiarities of certain caterpillars (Lepidopterous larvae) which cause them to resemble dead twigs or similar surrounding' See also:objects. The advantage to the animal of this imitation of surrounding objects is that it escapes the pursuit of (say) a See also:bird which would, were it not deceived by the resemblance, attack and eat the See also:caterpillar. Now it is clear that preceding generations of caterpillars cannot have acquired this habit of posturing by experience. Either the caterpillar postures and escapes, or it does not posture and is eaten; it is not half eaten and allowed to profit by experience. We seem to be justified in assuming that there are many movements of stretching and posturing possible to caterpillars, and that some caterpillars had a congenital fortuitous tendency to one position, some to another, and, finally that among all the variety of habitual movements thus exhibited one has been selected and perpetuated because it coincided with the necessary conditions of safety, since it happened to give the caterpillar an increased resemblance to a twig. The view that See also:instinct is the hereditarily fixed result of habit derived from experience long dominated all inquiry into the subject, but we may now expect to see a renewed and careful study of animal instincts carried out with the view of testing the applicability to each instance of the pure Darwinian theory without the aid of Lamarckism. Nothing can be further from the truth than the once favourite theory that instincts are the survivals of lapsed reasoning processes. Instincts, or the inherited structural mechanisms of the nervous centres, are in antagonism to the results of the reasoning process, which are not capable of hereditary trans-mission. Every higher vertebrate animal possesses the See also:power of forming for itself a series of cerebral mechanisms or reasoned conclusions based on its individual experience, in proportion as it has a large cerebrum and has got rid of or has acquired the power of controlling its inherited instincts. Man, The compared with other animals, has the fewest inherited Record mental mechanisms or instincts and at the same time a the the largest cerebrum in proportion to the See also:size of his Past. See also:body. He builds up, from See also:birth onwards, his own mental mechanisms, and forms more of them, that is to say, is more " educable," and takes longer in doing so, that is to say, in growing up and maturing his experience, than any other animal. The later stages of evolution leading from his See also:ape-like ancestors to man have consisted definitely in the acquirement of a larger and therefore more educable brain by man and in the consequent See also:education of that brain. A new and. most important feature in organic development makes its appearance when we set out the facts of man's evolutional history. It amounts to a new and unprecedented See also:factor in organic development, external to the organism and yet produced by the activity of the organism upon which it permanently reacts. This factor is the Record of the Past, which grows and develops by laws other than those affecting the perishable bodies of successive generations of mankind, and exerts an incomparable See also:influence upon the educable brain, so that man, by the interaction of the Record and his educability, is removed to a large extent from the status of the organic See also:world and placed in a new and unique position, subject to new laws and new methods of development unlike those by which the See also:rest of the living world is governed. That which we term the Record of the Past comprises the " taboos," the customs, the traditions, the beliefs, the knowledge which Such considerations have the very greatest importance for the are handed on by one generation to another independently guidance of the action of civilized man in seeking the See also:health of organic See also:propagation. By it a new heredity, See also:free from the and happiness of the community. But it must not be forgotten limitations of protoplasmic continuity, is established. Its first that the problems presented by human communities are ex-beginnings are seen in the imitative tendencies of animals by tremely complex, and that the absence of any selection of healthy which the young of one generation acquire some of the habits or desirable stock in the breeding of human communities leads of their parents, and by which gregarious and social animals to undesirable consequences. The most thrifty and capable acquire a community of See also:procedure ensuring the advantage of sections of the See also:people at the present day are not (it has been the See also:group. " See also:Taboo," the systematic See also:imposition by the com- shown) in overcrowded areas, producing offspring at such a munity of restrictions upon the conduct of the individual, is See also:rate as to contribute to the increase of the population. That one of its earliest manifestations in See also:primitive man and can increase, it has been shown, is due to the See also:early See also:marriage and be observed even in animal communities. But with the de- excessive reproduction of the reckless and hopeless, the poorest, velopment of the power of inter-communication by the use of least capable, least desirable members of the community. The See also:language, the Record rapidly acquired an increased develop- questions raised by these considerations have attracted much ment, which was enormously extended by the continuous growth public attention under the newly invented name of "See also:eugenics," in mankind of the See also:faculty of memory. To the mere tradition but they are of an exceedingly difficult and delicate nature. preserved by memory and handed on by speech was then added (E. R. L.) the written record and its later multiplication by the mechanical ZORILLA, See also:MANUEL See also:RUIZ, See also:DoN (1834-1895), See also:Spanish arts of See also:printing, by which it acquired permanence and universal politician, was born at Burgo de Osma in 1834. He began his distribution. The result is the creation of an almost incon- education at See also:Valladolid, and studied law afterwards at See also:Madrid ceivably vast body of traditional See also:custom, law and knowledge University, where he leaned towards Radicalism in politics. into which every human being is born, less in the more isolated In 1856 he was elected See also:deputy, and soon attracted notice among and barbarous communities, but large everywhere. Educa- the most advanced Progressists and Democrats. He took tion is not in its essential nature a training administered to the part in the revolutionary propaganda that led to the military young by an older generation, but is the natural and unaided See also:movement in Madrid on the 22nd of See also:June 1866. He had to assimilation of the Record of the Past by the automatically take See also:refuge in See also:France for two years, like his See also:fellow-conspirators, educable brain—an assimilation which is always in all races and only returned to See also:Spain when the revolution of 1868 took very large but becomes far larger in civilized communities. It place. He was one of the members of the first See also:cabinet after is among them so important whilst the Record in all its details the revolution, and in 1869, under the regency of See also:Marshal is so far beyond the receptive capacity of the brain, that selec- Serrano, he became See also:minister of See also:grace and See also:justice. In 187o tion and guidance are employed by the elders in See also:order to enable he was elected See also:president of the See also:House of Deputies, and seconded the younger generation to benefit to the utmost by the absorp- See also:Prim in offering the See also:throne to Amadeus of See also:Savoy. He went to tion (so to speak) in the limited span of a lifetime of the most See also:Italy as president of the See also:commission, carrying to the See also:prince at valuable influences to be acquired from this prodigious envelope See also:Florence the See also:official See also:news of his See also:election. On the arrival of of Recorded Experience. The imperishable Record invests Amadeus in Spain, Ruiz Zorilla became minister of public, the human race like a protective See also:atmosphere, a new and yet See also:works for a short time, and resigned by way of protesting a natural See also:dispensation, giving to man, as compared with his against Serrano and See also:Topete entering the See also:councils of the new
animal ancestry, a new See also:heaven and a new See also:earth ! See also: Educability, defects or excellences, or departure of Amadeus, Ruiz Zorilla advocated the establish-peculiarities of mind or body, can be handed on from parent ment of a See also:republic, Notwithstanding this, he was not called to offspring by protoplasmic continuity in reproduction. But upon either by the Federal Republicans to help them during the results of education cannot be so handed on. The educated the See also:year 1873, or by Marshal Serrano during 1874 to join See also:Martos man who has acquired new experiences, new knowledge, can and See also:Sagasta in his cabinet. Immediately after the restoraplace these on the great Record for the benefit of future genera- tion of See also:Alphonso XII., early in 1875, Ruiz Zorilla went to tions of men, but he cannot bodily transmit his acquirements France. He was for nearly eighteen years the soul of the to his offspring. Were acquired (superimposed) characters republican conspiracies, the prompter of revolutionary propareally transmissible by breeding, then every See also:child born would ganda, the chief inspirer of intrigues concerted by disconinherit, more or less completely, the knowledge acquired by tented military men of all ranks. He gave so much trouble to both its parents. But we know this is not the case: the child the Madrid governments that they organized a See also:watch over him has to begin with a clean See also:slate and learn for itself. Aptitudes with the assistance of the See also:French See also:government and See also:police, and want of aptitude, which are innate and constitutional, especially when it was discovered that the two military move-are transmitted to offspring, but not the results of experience, ments of August 1883 and See also:September 1886 had been prepared education and training. Blemishes in the stock, defects of and assisted by him. During the last two years of his life Ruiz mind or body, though they may be to some extent corrected Zorilla became less active; failing health and the loss of his in the individual by training, cannot be got rid of from the stock wife had decreased his energies, and the Madrid government by any such process. A defective stock, if allowed to breed, allowed him to return to Spain some months before he died will perpetuate its defects, in spite of the concealment of those at See also:Burgos, on the 13th of June 1895, of See also:heart disease. defects in an individual by training or other treatment. Equally ZORNDORF, a See also:village of See also:Prussia, in the See also:Oder valley, See also:north-it must be concluded that the weakness and degradation pro- See also:east of Ciistrin. It is famous as the See also:scene of a See also:battle in which duced by semi-See also:starvation and insanitary conditions of life are the Prussians under See also:Frederick the Great defeated the Russians only an effect on the individual and cannot affect the stock. commanded by Fermor, on the 25th of August 1758 (see SEVEN The stock may be destroyed, killed out by adverse conditions, YEARS' See also:WAR). but its quality is not directly affected, and if removed to more ZOROASTER, one of the great teachers of the East, the favourable conditions it will show no hereditary results of the pre- founder of what was the See also:national See also:religion of the Perso-Iranian vious adversity; indeed it will probably have been strengthened people from the time of the Achaemenidae to the close of the in some ways by the destruction in severe conditions of its See also:Sassanian period. The name (Zcepoavrpr,r) is the corrupt weaker members and the survival of the stronger individuals. See also:Greek form of the old Iranian Zarathustra (new See also:Persian, Zardusht). Its signification is obscure; but it certainly contains the word ushtra, " See also:camel." Zoroaster was already famous in classical antiquity as the founder of the widely renowned See also:wisdom of the Magi. His Evidence name is not mentioned by See also:Herodotus in his See also:sketch far his of the Mcdo-Persian religion (i. 131 seq.). It occurs See also:fife. for the first time in a fragment of See also:Xanthus (29), and in the See also:Alcibiades of See also:Plato (i. p. 122), who calls him the son of Oromazdes. For occidental writers, Zoroaster is always the Magus, or the founder of the whole Magian system (Plut. de Is. et Osir. 46 ; Plat. loc. cit.; Diog. Laert. prooem. 2: other passages in See also:Jackson's Zoroaster, 6 seq.). They sometimes call him a Bactrian, sometimes a Median or Persian (cf. Jackson, op. cit. 186). The ancients also recount a few points regarding the childhood of Zoroaster and his See also:hermit-life. Thus, according to See also:Pliny (Nat. Hist. vii. 15), he laughed on the very day of his birth—a statement found also in the Zardusht-Ndma—and lived in the See also:wilderness upon See also:cheese (xi. 97). See also:Plutarch speaks of his intercourse with the deity, and compares him with See also:Lycurgus and Numa (Numa, 4). Dio See also:Chrysostom, Plutarch's contemporary, declares that neither See also:Homer nor See also:Hesiod sang of the See also:chariot and horses of See also:Zeus so worthily as Zoroaster, of whom the Persians tell that, out of love to wisdom and righteousness, he withdrew himself from men, and lived in solitude upon a See also:mountain. The mountain was consumed by See also:fire, but Zoroaster escaped uninjured and spoke to the multitude (vol. ii. p. 6o). Plutarch, See also:drawing partly on See also:Theopompus, speaks of his religion in his See also:Isis and See also:Osiris (cc. 46-47). He gives a faithful sketch of the doctrines, See also:mythology and dualistic system of the Magian Zoroaster. As to the period in which he lived, most of the Greeks have already lost the true See also:perspective. Hermodorus and See also:Hermippus of See also:Smyrna place him 500o ears before the Trojan war, Xanthus 6000 years before See also:Xerxes, See also:Eudoxus and See also:Aristotle 6000 years before the death of Plato. See also:Agathias remarks (ii. 24), with perfect truth, that it is no longer possible to determine with any certainty when he lived and legislated. " The Persians," he adds, " say that Zoroaster lived under See also:Hystaspes, but do not make it clear whether by this name they mean the See also:father of See also:Darius or another Hystaspes. But, whatever may have been his date, he was their teacher and instructor in the Magian religion, modified their former religious customs, and introduced a variegated and composite belief." He is nowhere mentioned in the See also:cuneiform See also:inscriptions of the Achaemeuidae, although Darius and his successors were without doubt devoted adherents of Zoroastrianism. The Avesta is, indeed, our principal source for the doctrine of Zoroaster; on the subject of his See also:person and his life it is comparatively reticent; with regard to his date it is, naturally enough, absolutely silent. The 13th section, or Spend Nask, which was mainly consecrated to the description of his life, has perished; while the See also:biographies founded upon it in the 7th See also:book of the Dinkard (9th See also:century A.D.), the Shah-_Noma, and the Zardusht-Norma (13th century), are thoroughly legendary—full of wonders, fabulous histories and miraculous deliverances. Under all circumstances we must imitate the See also:ancient authors in holding fast to the historic See also:personality of Zoroaster; though he—like many another name of the dim past—has failed to escape the See also:fate of being regarded as a purely mythical creation (for instance, by See also:Kern and by See also:Darmesteter, in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv. 188o, introd. 76). According to Darmesteter, the Zarathustra of the Avesta is a mere myth, a divinity invested with human attributes, an incarnation of the See also:storm-See also:god, who with his divine word, the See also:thunder, comes and smites the demons. Darmesteter has failed to realize sufficiently the distinction between the Zoroaster of the later Avesta and the Zoroaster of the Gathas. It cannot be denied that in the later Avesta, and still more in writings of more See also:recent date, he is presented in a legendary light and endowed with superhuman See also:powers. At his appearing all nature rejoices (Yoshi, 13, 93) ; he enters into conflict with the demons and rids the earth of their presence (Yasht, 17,19); Satan approaches him as tempter to make him renounce his faith (Vendidad, 19, 6). The Gathas alone within the Avesta make claim to be the ipsissima verba of the See also:prophet; in the rest of that work they are put into Zoroaster's own mouth (Yasna, 9, r) and are expressly called " the Gathas of the See also:holy Zoroaster " (Yasna, 57, 8). The litanies of the Yasna, and the Yashts, refer to him as a personage belonging to the past. The Vendidad also merely gives accounts of the dialogues between See also:Ormazd and Zoroaster. The Gathas alone claim to be See also:authentic utterances of Zoroaster, his actual expressions in presence of the assembled See also:congregation. They are the last genuine survivals of the doctrinal discourses with which—as the promulgator of a new religion—he appeared at the See also:court of King Vishtaspa The person of the Zoroaster whom we meet with in these See also:hymns differs toto coelo from the Zoroaster of the younger Avesta. He is the exact opposite of the miraculous personage of later legend—a mere man, standing always on the solid ground of reality, whose only arms are See also:trust in his God and the See also:protection of his powerful See also:allies, At times his position is See also:precarious enough. He whom we hear in the Gathas has had to See also:face, not merely all forms of outward opposition and the unbelief and lukewarmness of adherents, but also the inward misgivings of his own heart as to the truth and final victory of his cause. At one time See also:hope, at another despondency, now assured confidence, now doubt and despair, here a See also:firm faith in the speedy coining of the kingdom of heaven, there the thought of taking refuge by See also:flight---such is the range of the emotions which find their immediate expression in these hymns. And the whole breathes such a genuine originality, all is psychologically so accurate and just, the earliest beginnings of the new religious movement, the childhood of a new community of faith, are reflected so naturally in them all, that it is impossible for a moment to think of a later period of See also:composition by a priesthood whom we know to have been devoid of .any See also:historical sense, and incapable of reconstructing the spiritual conditions under which Zoroaster lived. So soon as the point of view is clear—that in the Gathas we have firm historical ground on which Zoroaster and his surroundings may rest, that here we have the beginnings of the Zoroastrian religion—then it becomes impossible to See also:answer otherwise than affirmatively every general question as to the historical character of Zoroaster. Yet we must not expect too much from the Gathas in the way of definite detail. They give no historical account of the life and teaching of their prophet, but rather are, so to say, versus memoriales, which recapitulate the See also:main points of interest, often again in brief outlines. They are more of general admonitions, asseverations, See also:solemn prophecies, sometimes directed to the faithful See also:flock or to the princes, but generally See also:cast in the form of dialogues with God and the See also:arch-angels, whom he repeatedly invokes as witnesses to his veracity. Moreover, they contain many allusions to See also:personal events which later generations have forgotten. It must be remembered, too, that their extent is limited, and their meaning, moreover, frequently dubious or obscure. The Person of the Prophet.—As to his birthplace the testimonies are conflicting. According to the Avesta (Yasna, 9, 17), Airyanem Vaejo, on the See also:river Da.itya, the old sacred See also:country of the gods, was the See also:home of Zoroaster, and the scene of his first appearance. There, on the river Darejya, assuming that the passage (Vend., 19, 4) is correctly interpreted, stood the house of his father; and the Bundahish (20, 32 and 24, 15) says expressly that the river Daraja See also:lay in Airan Vej, on its See also:bank was the dwelling of his father, and that there Zoroaster was born. Now, according to the Bundahish (29, 12), Airan Vej was situated in the direction of Atropatene, and consequently Airyanem Vaejo is for the most part identified with the See also:district of See also:Arran on the river See also:Aras (Araxes), close by the north-western frontier of See also:Media. Other traditions, however, make him a native of Rai (Ragha, `Payat). According to Yasna, 19, 18, the zarathushtrotema, or supreme See also:head of the Zoroastrian See also:priest-See also:hood, had at a later (Sasanian) time, his See also:residence in Ragha. The Arabic writer See also:Shahrastani endeavours to See also:bridge the divergence between the two traditions by means of the following theory: his father was a man of Atropatene, while the See also:mother was from Rai. In his home tradition recounts he enjoyed the See also:celestial visions and the conversations with the archangels and Ormazd which are mentioned already in the Gathas. There, too, according to Yasht, 5, 105, he prayed that he might succeed in converting King Vishtaspa. He then appears to have quitted his native district. On this point the Avesta is wholly silent: only one obscure passage (Yasna, 53, 9) seems to intimate that he found an See also:ill reception in Rai. Finally, in the person of Vishtaspa, who seems to have been a prince See also:resident in east See also:Iran, he gained the powerful See also:protector and faithful See also:disciple of the new religion whom he desired—though after almost super-human dangers and difficulties, which the later books depict in lively See also:colours. According to the epic See also:legend, Vishtaspa was king of See also:Bactria. Already in the later Avesta he has become a half-mythical figure, the last in the series of heroes of east Iranian legend, in the arrangement of which series priestly influence is unmistakably evident. He stands at the See also:meeting-point between the old world and the new era which begins with Zoroaster. In the Gathas he appears as a quite historical personage; it is essentially to his power and good example that the prophet is indebted for his success. In Yasna, 53, 2.
he is spoken of as a See also:pioneer of the doctrine revealed by Ormazd. In the relation between Zoroaster and Vishtaspa already lies the germ of the See also:state See also: His sons and daughters are repeatedly spoken of. His death is, for reasons easily intelligible, nowhere mentioned in the Avesta; in the Shah-Noma he is See also:reformation. While in See also:India the conception of the asura had said to have been murdered at the See also:altar by the Turanians in veered more and more towards the dreadful and the dreaded, Zoroaster elevated it again—at the cost, indeed, of the daivas (daevas), whom he degraded to the See also:rank of malicious powers and devils. In one Asura, whose See also:Aryan original was See also:Varuna, he concentrated the whole of the divine character, and conferred upon it the epithet of "the See also:wise" (mazddo). This culminating See also:stage in the asura-conception is the work of Zoroaster. The Wise See also:Lord (Ahuro Mazdao—later Ormazd) is the primeval spiritual being, the All-father, who was existent before ever the world arose. From him that world has emanated, and its course is governed by his foreseeing eye. His guiding spirit is the Holy Spirit, which See also:wills the good: yet it is not free, but restricted, in this temporal See also:epoch, by its antagonist and own twin-See also:brother (Yasna, 30, 3), the Evil Spirit (angro mainyush, See also:Ahriman), who in the beginning was banished by the Good Spirit by means of the famous See also:ban contained in Yasna, 45, 2, and since then drags out his existence in the darkness of See also:Hell as the principle of ill—the arch-See also:devil. In the Gathas the Good Spirit of Mazda and the Evil Spirit are the two great opposing forces in the world, and Ormazd himself is to a certain extent placed above them both. Later the Holy Spirit is made directly See also:equivalent to Ormazd; and then the great watchword is: " Here Ormazd, there Ahriman!" The very daevas are only the inferior See also:instruments, the corrupted See also:children of Ahriman, from whom come all that is evil in the world. The daevas, unmasked and attacked by Zoroaster. as the true enemies of mankind, are still, in the Gathas, without doubt the perfectly definite gods of old popular belief—the idols of the people. For Zoroaster they sink to the rank of See also:spurious deities, and in his eyes their priests and votaries are idolaters and heretics. In the later, developed system the daevas are the evil See also:spirits in general, and their number has increased to millions. Some few of these have names; and among those names of the old Aryan divinities emerge here and there, e.g. See also:Indra and Naonhaitya. With some, of course—such as the god of fire=the connexion with the good deity was a priori indissoluble. Other powers of light, such as See also:Mitra the god of day (Iranian Mithra), survived unforgotten in popular belief till the later system incorporated them in the angelic body. The authentic doctrine of the Gathas had no See also:room either for the cult of Mithra or for that of the Haoma. Beyond the Lord and his Fire, the Gathas only recognize the archangels and certain ministers of Ormazd, who are, without exception, personifications of abstract ideas. This hypostasization and all-egotization is especially characteristic of the Zoroastrian religion. The essence of Ormazd is Truth and Law asha=Vedic rta): this quality he embodies, and its personification (though conceived as sexless) is always by his See also:side, a See also:constant See also:companion and intimate. The essence of the wicked spirit is falsehood: and falsehood, as the embodiment of the evil principle, is much more frequently mentioned in the Gathas than Ahriman himself. Zoroaster says of himself that he had received from God a of God and the old religion of India lies in this, that while in the Avesta the evil spirits are called daeva (See also:Modern Persian div), the See also:Aryans of India, in common with the Italians, Celts and Letts, gave the name of dews to their good spirits, the spirits of light. An alternative designation for deity in the Rig-Veda is asura. In the more recent hymns of the Rig-Veda and in later India, on the other hand, only evil spirits are understood by asuras, while in Iran the corresponding word ahura was, and ever has continued to be, the designation of God the Lord. Thus ahura-daeva, See also:deva-asura in Zoroastrian and in later See also:Brahman See also:theology are in their meanings diametrically opposed.
Asura-daiva represent originally two distinct races of gods (like the See also:Northern Aser and Vaner)—two different aspects of the conception of deity, comparable to Saiµwv and &os. Asura indicates the more See also:sublime and awful divine character, for which man entertains the greater reverence and fear: daiva denotes the kind gods of light, the vulgar—more sensuous and anthropomorphic—deities. This twofold development of the See also:idea of God formed the point of leverage for Zoroaster's
the storming of See also:Balkh.
We are quite ignorant as to the date of Zoroaster; King Vishtaspa does not seem to have any place in any historical See also:chronology, and the Gathas give no hint on the subject. In former times the assertion often was, and even now is often put forward, that Vishtaspa was one and the same person with the historical Hystaspes, father of Darius I. This See also:identification can only be See also:purchased at the cost of a See also:complete renunciation of the Avestan See also:genealogy. Hutaosa is the same name as Atossa: but in history Atossa was the wife of See also:Cambyses and Darius. Otherwise, not one single name in the entourage of our Vishtaspa can be brought into See also:harmony with historical nomenclature. According to the Arda Viraf, 1, 2, Zoroaster taught, in See also:round See also:numbers, some 300 years before the invasion of See also: If these prove the name Mazdaka to have formed part of Median proper names in the year 715 B.C., Eduard See also:Meyer (v. Ancient See also:Persia) is justified in maintaining that the Zoroastrian religion must even then have been predominant in Media. Meyer, therefore, conjecturally puts the date of Zoroaster at See also:i000 B.C., as had already been done by See also:Duncker (Geschichte See also:des Altertums, 44, 78). This, in its turn, may be too high: but, in any case, Zoroaster belongs to a prehistoric era. Probably he emanated from the old school of Median Magi, and appeared first in Media as the prophet of a new faith, but met with sacerdotal opposition, and turned his steps eastward. In the east of Iran the novel creed first acquired a solid footing, and subsequently reacted with success upon the See also:West. Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster taught a new religion; but this must not be taken as meaning that everything he taught came, so to say, out of his own head. His doctrine was rooted in the old Iranian—or Aryan—folk-religion, of which we can only form an approximate See also:representation by comparison with the religion of the Veda. The newly discovered Hittite inscriptions have now thrown a welcome See also:ray of light on the primitive Iranian creed (Ed. Meyer, Sitzungsl erichie der Preuss. Akademie, igo8). In these inscriptions Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya are mentioned as deities of the Iranian See also:kings of Mitani at the beginning of the 14th century—all of them names with which we are familiar from the See also:Indian See also:pantheon. The Aryan folk-religion was polytheistic. See also:Worship was paid to popular divinities, such as the war-god and See also:dragon-slayer Indra, to natural forces and elements such as fire, but the Aryans also believed in the ruling of moral powers and of an eternal law in nature (v. Ed. Meyer in the See also:article PERSIA: History, § Ancient). On solemn occasions the inspiring drink See also:soma (haoma) ministered to the enjoyment of the devout. Numerous coincidences with the Indian religion survive in Zoroastrianism, side by side with astonishing diversities. The most striking difference between Zoroaster's doctrine commission to purify religion (Yasna, 44, 9). He purified it I from the grossly sensual elements of daeva worship, and up-lifted the idea of religion to a higher and purer See also:sphere. The See also:motley body of Aryan folk-belief, when subjected to the unifying thought of a speculative brain, was transformed to a self-contained theory of the universe and a logical dualistic principle. But this See also:dualism is a temporally limited dualism—no more than an See also:episode in the world-whole—and is destined to terminate in monotheism. Later sects sought to rise from it to a higher unity in other ways. Thus the Zarvanites represented Ormazd and Ahriman as twin sons proceeding from the fundamental principle of all—Zrvana Akarana, or limitless time. Ethically, too, the new doctrine stands on a higher See also:plane, and represents, in its moral laws, a See also:superior See also:civilization. The devil-worshippers, at their sacrifices, slay the ox; and this the daevas favour, for they are foes to the See also:cattle and to cattle-breeding, and See also:friends to those who work ill to the cow. In Zoroaster's eyes this is an See also:abomination: for the cow is a See also:gift of Ormazd to man, and the religion of Mazda protects the sacred animal. It is the religion of the settled grazier and the See also:peasant, while the ruder daeva-cult holds its ground among the uncivilized nomadic tribes. In an old See also:confession of faith, the convert is pledged to abjure the See also:theft and See also:robbery of cattle and the ravaging of villages inhabited by worshippers of Mazda (Yasna, i2, 2). Zoroaster's teachings show him to have been a man of a highly speculative turn, faithful, however, with all his originality, to the Iranian national character. With zeal for the faith, and boldness and See also:energy, he combined See also:diplomatic skill in his dealings with his exalted protectors. His thinking is consecutive, self-restrained, See also:practical, devoid of everything that might be called fantastic or excessive. His form of expression is tangible and See also:concrete: his system is constructed on a clearly conceived See also:plan and stands on a high moral level ; for its time it was a great advance in civilization. The doctrine of Zoroaster and the Zoroastrian Church may be summarized somewhat as follows: At the beginning of things there existed the two spirits who represented good and evil (Yasna, 30, 3). The existence of evil in the world is thus presupposed from the beginning. Both spirits possess creative power, which manifests itself positively in the one and negatively in the other. Ormazd is light and life, and creates all that is pure and good—in the ethical world of law, order and truth. His See also:antithesis is darkness, filth, death, and produces all that is evil in the world. Until then the two spirits had See also:counter-balanced one another. The ultimate See also:triumph of the good spirit is an ethical demand of the religious consciousness and the quint-essence of Zoroaster's religion. The evil spirit with his wicked hosts appears in the Gathas much less endowed with the attributes of personality and individuality than does Ahura Mazda. Within the world of the good Ormazd is Lord and God alone. In this sense Zoroastrianism is often referred to as the faith of Ormazd or as Mazdaism. Ormazd in his exalted See also:majesty is the ideal figure of an See also:Oriental king. He is not alone in his doings and conflicts, but has in See also:conjunction with himself a number of genii—for the most part personifications of ethical ideas. These are his creatures, his instruments, servants and assistants. They are comprehended under the general name of amesha spentd (" immortal holy ones ") and are the prototypes of the seven amshaspands of a later date. These are-(I) Vohu Maria (eGvora), good sense, i.e. the good principle, the idea of the good, the principle that works in man inclining him to what is good; (2) Ashem, afterwards Ashem Vahishtem (Plutarch's &.a+W alt), the See also:genius of truth and the embodiment of all that is true, good and right, upright law and rule—ideas practically identical for Zoroaster; (3) Khshathrem, after-wards Khshathrem Vairim (dwosaa), the power and kingdom of Ormazd, which have subsisted from the first but not in integral completeness, the evil having crept in like tares among the See also:wheat: the time is yet to come when it shall be fully manifested in all its unclouded majesty; (4) Armaiti (Bo&ia), due reverence for the divine, verecundia, spoken of as daughter of Ormazd and regarded as having her See also:abode upon the earth; (5) Haurvatat (,Xo"uros), perfection; (6) Ameretat, See also:immortality. Other ministering angels are Geush Urvan (" the genius and defender of animals "), and Sraosha, the genius of obedience and faithful See also:hearing.
As soon as the two separate spirits (cf. Bundahish, i, 4) encounter one another, their creative activity and at the same time their permanent conflict begin. The history of this conflict is the history of the world. A great cleft runs right through the world: all creation divides itself into that which is Ahura's and that which is Ahriman's. Not that the two spirits carry on the struggle in person; they leave it to be fought out by their respective creations and creatures which they sent into the See also: Armaiti searches, following thy spirt, where errors are found." Man takes part in this conflict by all his life and activity in the world. By a true confession of faith, by every good See also:deed, word and thought, by continually keeping pure his body and his soul, he impairs the power of Satan and strengthens the might of goodness, and establishes a claim for See also:reward upon Ormazd; by a false confession, by every evil deed, word and thought and defilement, he increases the evil and renders service to Satan. The life of man falls into two parts—its earthly portion and that which is lived after death is past. The See also:lot assigned to him after death is the result and consequence of his life upon earth. No religion has so clearly grasped the ideas of See also:guilt and of merit. On the works of men here below a strict reckoning will be held in heaven (according to later representations, by Rashnu, the genius of justice, and Mithra). All the thoughts, words and deeds of each are entered in the book of life as separate items--all the evil works, &c., as debts. Wicked actions cannot be undone, but in the heavenly account can be counterbalanced by a surplus of good works. It is only in this sense that an evil deed can be atoned for by a good deed. Of a real remission of sins the old doctrine of Zoroaster knows nothing, whilst the later Zoroastrian Church admits repentance, expiation and remission. ° After death the soul arrives at the cinvatO peretu, or accountant's bridge, over which lies the way to heaven. Here the statement of his life account is made out. If he has a See also:balance of good works in his favour, he passes forthwith into See also:paradise (See also:Gard demana) and the blessed life. If his evil works outweigh his good, he falls finally under the power of Satan, 'and the pains of hell are his portion for ever. Should the evil and the good be equally balanced, the soul passes into an intermediary stage of existence (the Hamestakans of the See also:Pahlavi books) and its final lot is not decided until the last See also:judgment. This court of reckoning, the judicium particulare, is called aka. The course of inexorable law cannot be turned aside by any See also:sacrifice or offering, nor yet even by the free grace of God. But man has been smitten with See also:blindness and See also:ignorance: he knows neither the eternal law nor the things which await him after death. He allows himself too easily to be ensnared by the See also:craft of the evil powers who seek to ruin his future existence. He worships and serves false gods, being unable to distinguish between truth and lies. Therefore it is that Ormazd in his grace deter-See also:mined to open the eyes of mankind by sending a prophet to See also:lead them by the right way, the way of salvation. According to later legend (Vd., 2, i), Ormazd at first wished to entrust this task to Yima (Jemshid), the ideal of an Iranian king. But Yima, the See also:secular man, See also:felt himself unfitted for it and declined it. He con-tented himself therefore with establishing in his paradise (vara) a heavenly kingdom in See also:miniature, to serve at the same time as a See also:pattern for the heavenly kingdom that was to come. Zorcaster at last, as being a spiritual man, was found See also:fit for the mission. He experienced within himself the inward call to seek the amelioration of mankind and their deliverance from ruin, and regarded this inner impulse, intensified as it was by long, contemplative solitude and by visions, as being the call addressed to him by God Him-self. Like Mahommed after him he often speaks of his conversations with God and the archangels. He calls himself most frequently manthran (" prophet "), ratu (" spiritual authority "), and saoshyant (" the coming helper "—that is to say, when men come to be judged according to their deeds). The full contents of his dogmatic and ethical teaching we cannot gather from the Gathas. He speaks for the most part only in general references of the divine commands and of good and evil works. Among the former those most inculcated are renunciation of Satan, See also:adoration of Ormazd, purity of soul and body, and care of the cow. We learn little otherwise regarding the practices connected with his doctrines. A ceremonial worship is hardly mentioned. He speaks more in the character of prophet than in that of lawgiver. The contents of the Gathas are essentially eschatological. Revelations concerning the last things and the future lot, whether See also:bliss or woe, of human souls, promises for true believers, threatenings for misbelievers, his firm confidence as to the future triumph of the good—such are the themes continually dwelt on with endless variations. It was not without special reason—so Zoroaster believed—that the calling of a prophet should have taken place precisely when it did. It was, he held, the final appeal of Ormazd to mankind at large. Like See also: The prophet and his princely patrons will be accorded special See also:honour. History and Later Development.—For the great See also:mass of the people Zoroaster's doctrine was too abstract and spiritualistic. The vulgar See also:fancy requires sensuous, plastic deities, which admit of visible representation; and so the old gods received honour again and new gods won See also:acceptance. They are the angels (yazala) of New Zoroastrianism. Thus, in the later Avesta, we find not only Mithra but also purely popular divinities such as the See also:angel of victory, Verethraghna, Anahita (Anaitis), the goddess of the See also:water, Tishrya (Sirius), and other heavenly bodies, invoked with special preference. The Gathas know nothing of a new belief which afterwards arose in the Fravashi, or See also:guardian angels of the faithful. Fravashi properly means " confession of faith," and when personified comes to be regarded as a protecting spirit. Unbelievers have no fravashi. On the basis of the new teaching arose a widely spread priest-hood (athravane) who systematized its doctrines, organized and carried on its worship, and laid down the minutely elaborated laws for the purifying and keeping clean of soul and body, which are met with in the Vendidad. To these ecclesiastical precepts and expiations belong in particular the numerous ablutions, bodily chastisements, love of truth, beneficial works, support of comrades in the faith, See also:alms, chastity, improvement of the land, See also:arboriculture, breeding of cattle, See also:agriculture, protection of useful animals, as the See also:dog, the destruction of noxious animals, and the See also:prohibition either to See also:burn or to See also:bury the dead. These are to be left on the appointed places (dakhmas) and exposed to the vultures and See also:wild See also:dogs. In the worship the drink prepared from the haoma (Indian soma) plant had a prominent place. Worship in the Zoroastrian Church was devoid of pomp; it was See also:independent of temples. Its centre was the holy fire on the altar. The fire altars afterwards developed to fire temples. In the See also:sanctuary of these temples the various sacrifices and high and See also:low masses were celebrated. As offerings See also:meat, See also:milk, show-See also:bread, fruits, See also:flowers and consecrated water were used. The priests were the privileged keepers and teachers of religion. They only performed the sacrifices (Herodotus, i. 132), educated the young See also:clergy, imposed the penances; they in person executed the circumstantial ceremonies of See also:purification and exercised a spiritual guardianship and See also:pastoral care of the laymen. Every young believer in Mazda, after having been received into the religious community by being girt with the holy See also:lace, had to choose a See also:confessor and a spiritual See also:guide (ratu). Also in See also:eschatology, as may be expected, a change took place. The last things and the end of the world are relegated to the close of a long period of time (3000 years after Zoroaster), when a new Saoshyant is to be born of the See also:seed of the prophet, the dead are to come to life, and a new incorruptible world to begin. Zoroastrianism was the national religion of Iran, but it was not permanently restricted to the Iranians, being professed by Turanians as well. The worship of the Persian gods spread to See also:Armenia and See also:Cappadocia and over the whole of the Near East (See also:Strabo, xv. 3, 14; xi. 8, 4; 14, 76). Of the Zoroastrian Church under the Achaemenides and Aeracides little is known. After the overthrow of the dynasty of the Achaemenides a period of decay seems to have set in. Yet the Aeracides and the Indo-Scythian kings as well as the Achaemenides were believers in Mazda. The national restoration of the Sasanides brought new life to the Zoroastrian religion and long-lasting sway to the Church. Protected by this dynasty, the priesthood developed into a completely organized state church, which was able to employ the power of the state in enforcing strict compliance with the religious law-book hitherto enjoined by their unaided efforts only. The head of the Church See also:Clara-Shushtrotema) had his seat at Rai in Media and was the first person in the state next to the king. The formation of sects was at this period not infrequent (cf. See also:MANICHAEISM). The Mohammedan' invasion (636), with the terrible persecutions of the following centuries, was the death-See also:blow of Zoroastrianism. In Persia itself only a few followers of Zoroaster. are now found (in See also:Kerman and See also:Yezd). The See also:PARSEES (q.v.) in and around Bombay hold by Zoroaster as their prophet and by the ancient religious usages, but their doctrine has reached the stage of a pure monotheism. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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