too powerful for his nerves, intensifying the excitability of his ardent temperament, and stimulating to intellectual efforts out of proportion to his physical strength. In the summer of 1875 he made a tour through the Swiss mountains, but over-taxed himself, and returned home sick and exhausted. During the following winter he was able to lecture only for a few weeks, fell into a rapid decline, and, by the advice of his physician, went to Ragatz in Switzerland, where, a few days after his arrival, he expired, June 3, 1876. There, too, he was buried, a delegation from the University of Munich attending his body to the grave, and paying him the last tribute of respect.

E. P. EVANS.

October 1883.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THE issue of a third edition of these Essays affords an opportunity, not only for briefly describing the recent progress of Zoroastrian studies, but also for mentioning several emendations of the text which have been suggested, and are more or less deserving of attention. For the convenience of the reader, these additions and suggested amendments are here given in the form of notes, with references to the pages of the text to which they relate, or in connection with which they should be read,

Pages 3, 4.—The existence of a chief of the Magi at the court of Nebuchadnezzar has been disputed, and the title Rab-mag is said to mean "commander of the fleet."

The recent discovery of two cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus, in which that king seems to proclaim his faith, and that of his son Cambyses, in the Babylonian gods, has also been considered a sufficient disproof of his having professed the religion of the Magi. But it appears from hieroglyphic inscriptions that Cambyses was likewise a devoted adherent of the Egyptian divinities; and yet the flattering language used by Isaiah in speaking of Cyrus is hardly such as could be justifiably applied to an idolator. The only reasonable way of reconciling these three contradictory facts seems to be the acceptance of all of them as being true from different points of view. These kings, like all great conquerors and statesmen, compelled to govern many different races and religions, found it necessary to conciliate all their loyal subjects in turn, and thus induced the priests of each

C

religion to applaud them as defenders and promoters of the particular faith which those priests advocated.

Page 5.-The identity of Hara, the Avesta name of the mountain supposed to encompass the earth, and Heb. har, "a mountain," may be disputed.

Page 53. The last six years have been a period of considerable activity among European investigators of the Parsi scriptures; and, in some cases, new views regarding the origin of Zoroastrianism have been advocated, which are so revolutionary in their character as to require much more adaptation to longrecognised facts than they have yet received before they can be safely adopted by careful scholars. Without attempting any exhaustive enumeration or analysis of the works and essays that have been published, the following may be mentioned as best known to the writer :

M. C. DE HARLEZ has not only completed his French translation of the Avesta, mentioned in p. 51, but has also published a second edition of the work with an extended introduction to the study of the Avesta and the Mazdian religion, which, though disfigured by numerous misprints, and capable of improvement in many of its details, is a very instructive treatise on the history, scriptures, and dogmas of Zoroastrianism. Both in this treatise and in his essay "On the Origin of Zoroastrism," published in the Journal Asiatique, M. de Harlez expresses two opinions of some novelty, which require much more evidence to support them than he has yet been able to collect. One of these opinions is that Darius Hystaspes was not a Zoroastrian, although his cuneiform inscriptions proclaim his faith in Aûramazdâ. But, as Aûramazdâ is a compound name, traceable to the two terms Ahura and Mazda, used separately by Zarathushtra and his successors in the Gâthas, and never becoming an actual compound in any part of the Avesta, it is only reasonable to suppose that this compound must have originated at a later date than its component parts. In other words, we must continue to believe that Darius lived later than Zarathushtra, and professed the same religion as he did, unless it can be shown that faith in Aûramazdâ was something materially different from faith in

1 Des Origines du Zoroastrisme, par M. C. de Harlez, extrait du Journal Asiatique: Paris, 1879–80.

Ahuramazda, as stated in the Gâthas, the only portion of the Avesta that can be quoted as embodying the faith of Zarathushtra himself. The other novel opinion of M. de Harlez is that Zarathushtra may have come into contact with some of the captive Israelites in Media in the eighth century B.C., from whom he may have imbibed the monotheistic ideas and general tone of morality which he adapted to his former faith. In other words, M. de Harlez wishes to believe that all the good in Zoroastrianism has sprung from Hebrew ideas. We know too little of Zarathushtra's real history to form any definite opinion as to the possibility of his being in Media at the time mentioned. But it would have been strange if a people who, like the Israelites, were led into captivity on account of their idolatry, should have become such ardent teachers of monotheism as to lay the foundation for a durable form of that faith differing materially from that professed by their own priesthood.

M. de Harlez has also published useful French manuals, both of the Avesta and Pahlavi languages, containing grammars and selections for reading with the necessary glossaries.2

A very different view of the origin of Zoroastrianism has been adopted by M. JAMES DARMESTETER, in his English translations. of the Vendidad, Sîrozah, Yashts, and Nyâyish, published in the series of "Sacred Books of the East" (vols. iv. and xxiii.) The translations themselves are of a very masterly character, giving full weight to the teachings of tradition; but they might, in many cases, have been made more literal, and, in some places, rather too much consideration has been paid to traditional renderings that are probably later than the Pahlavi versions. Notwithstanding this tendency to give an almost undue consideration to tradition in his translations, the views adopted by M. Darmesteter in his introduction as to the origin of Zoroastrianism would trace all its legends, and even the person of its founder, to a series of meteorological myths altogether inconsistent with tradition, but affording ample scope for the exercise

1 It is usual to assume that the laws relating to ceremonial impurity, the disposal of the dead, and similar matters, are Zoroastrian; but we have no real authority for tracing them to Zarathushtra himself, and they have more the appearance of being

either later sacerdotal developments or mere tolerations of older customs.

2 Manuel de la Langue de l'Avesta ; grammaire, anthologie, lexique : Paris, 1878. Manuel du Pehlevi des Manuscrits; grammaire, anthologie, lexique, légendes: Paris, 1880.