ment of dead bodies. The two
determining principles are--1. That a dead body is impure. 2. The
elements earth, fire, and water, are absolutely pure and sacred. Bodies
are not, therefore, to be buried, or they would pollute the earth; nor
are they to be burnt, or they would pollute fire, nor thrown into water
of any kind. They must be carried up to a lofty mountain, placed on
stones, or iron plates, and exposed to dogs and vultures. Impurity from
contact with a dead body, etc., is removed by pure water (Cf. the water
of baptism). Then there follow laws prescribing the counter-charms to be
used against evil spirits; the methods by which the sacred fire must be
made and used, and so forth.

FARGAD 19, treats of the fate of the soul after death.

The Aprocryphal or Khorda Avesta

[The Yashts resemble closely the prayers of the Yasnas and the
Vispereds, differing only in this, that each one of the twenty-four
extant is devoted to the traits of a single deity, or at least of one
class of divine beings (the bountiful immortals, and so forth). The
usual word in the Yashts for the superhuman beings at rest is Yazads.]

YASHT I. The names of Ahura-Mazda and their efficacy.

Asked Zarathustra, "What, O Most High, are the most effective
counter-charms (mantras) against evil spirits?" He received for answer
that the pronunciation of the twenty different names of Ahura-Mazda are
the best and strongest spells. These are the following:--1. The
Revealer. 2. The Herd-giver, etc., etc. The twentieth and last is Mazda,
the All-knowing One.

* * * * *

_PHILOSOPHY_

* * * * *

ARISTOTLE

THE ETHICS OF ARISTOTLE

Aristotle was born at Stagira, a Greek colony on the
Macedonian frontier, in 384 B.C., when Plato was forty-three,
fifteen years after the death of Socrates. Going to Athens, he
became one of Plato's pupils in philosophy at the age of
twenty. In 342 he became tutor to the future Alexander the
Great, and some years later opened, again at Athens, his own
school, whose disciples were called the Peripatetics. He died
in 322 B.C. His works laid the systematic foundations of every
science known in his time. His various treatises on logic were
comprised in the "Organon"; he dealt with psychology and
metaphysics; with rhetoric and the principles of literary
criticism. He also systema