Beacon Lights of History, Volume 04 | Page 4

temperance, frugality, and bravery.
According to Herodotus, the Persians were especially instructed in
three things,--"to ride, to draw the bow, and to speak the truth." Their
moral virtues were as conspicuous as their warlike qualities. They were
so poor that their ordinary dress was of leather. They could boast of no
large city, like the Median Ecbatana, or like Babylon,--Pasargadae,
their ancient capital, being comparatively small and deficient in
architectural monuments. The people lived chiefly in villages and
hamlets, and were governed, like the Israelites under the Judges, by
independent chieftains, none of whom attained the rank and power of
kings until about one hundred years before the birth of Cyrus. These
pastoral and hunting people, frugal from necessity, brave from
exposure, industrious from the difficulty of subsisting in a dry and
barren country, for the most sort were just such a race as furnished a
noble material for the foundation of a great empire.
Whence came this honest, truthful, thrifty race? It is generally admitted
that it was a branch of the great Aryan family, whose original
settlements are supposed to have been on the high table-lands of
Central Asia east of the Caspian Sea, probably in Bactria. They
emigrated from that dreary and inhospitable country after Zoroaster had
proclaimed his doctrines, after the sacred hymns called the Gathas were
sung, perhaps even after the Zend-Avesta or sacred writings of the
Zoroastrian priests had been begun,--conquering or driving away
Turanian tribes, and migrating to the southwest in search of more
fruitful fields and fertile valleys, they found a region which has ever

since borne a name--Iran--that evidently commemorated the proud title
of the Aryan race. And this great movement took place about the time
that another branch of their race also migrated southeastwardly to the
valleys of the Indus. The Persians and the Hindus therefore had
common ancestors,--the same indeed, as those of the Greeks, Romans,
Sclavonians, Celts, and Teutons, who migrated to the northwest and
settled in Europe. The Aryans in all their branches were the noblest of
the primitive races, and have in their later developments produced the
highest civilization ever attained. They all had similar elements of
character, especially love of personal independence, respect for woman,
and a religious tendency of mind. We see a considerable similarity of
habits and customs between the Teutonic races of Germany and
Scandinavia and the early inhabitants of Persia, as well as great affinity
in language. All branches of the Aryan family have been warlike and
adventurous, if we may except the Hindus, who were subjected to
different influences,--especially of climate, which enervated their
bodies if it did not weaken their minds.
When the migration of the Iranians took place it is difficult to
determine, but probably between fifteen hundred and two thousand
years before our era, although it may have been even five hundred
years earlier than that. All theories as to their movements before their
authentic history begins are based on conjecture and speculation, which
it is not profitable to pursue, since we can settle nothing in the present
state of our knowledge.
It is very singular that the Iranians should have had, after their
migrations and settlements, religious ideas and systems so different
from those of the Hindus, considering that they had common ancestors.
The Iranians, including the Medes as well as Persians, accepted
Zoroaster as their prophet and teacher, and the Zend-Avesta as their
sacred books, and worshipped one Supreme Deity, whom they called
Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd),--the Lord Omniscient,--and thus were
monotheists; while the Hindus were practically poly-theists, governed
by a sacerdotal caste, who imposed gloomy austerities and sacrifices,
although it would seem that the older Vedistic hymns of the Hindus
were theistic in spirit. The Magi--the priests of the Iranians--differed

widely in their religious views from the Brahmans, inculcating a higher
morality and a loftier theological creed, worshipping the Supreme
Being without temples or shrines or images, although their religion
ultimately degenerated into a worship of the powers of Nature, as the
recognition of Mithra the sun-god and the mysterious fire-altars would
seem to indicate. But even in spite of the corruptions introduced by the
Magi when they became a powerful sacerdotal body, their doctrine
remained purer and more elevated than the religions of the surrounding
nations.
While the Iranians worshipped a supreme deity of goodness, they also
recognized a supreme deity of evil, both ruling the world--in perpetual
conflict--by unnumbered angels, good and evil; but the final triumph of
the good was a conspicuous article of their faith. In close logical
connection with this recognition of a supreme power in the universe
was the belief of a future state and of future rewards and punishments,
without which belief there can be, in my opinion, no high morality, as
men are constituted.
In process of time the priests