eris aetatibus tradunt.
Ex eo per saecula multa ad praesens, una eademque prosapia multitudo creata,
Deorum cultibus dedicatur. Feruntque, si justum est credi, etiam ignem
coelitus lapsum apud se sempiternis foculis custodiri, cujus portionem
exiguam ut faustam praeisse quondam Asiaticis Regibus dicunt: Hujus originis
apud veteres numerus erat exilis, ejusque mysteriis Persicae potestates in
faciendis rebus divinis solemniter utebantur. Eratque piaculum aras adire,
vel hostiam contrectare, antequam Magus conceptis precationibus libamenta
diffunderet praecursoria. Verum aucti paullatim, in amplitudinem gentis
solidae concesserunt & nomen: villasque inhabitantes nulla murorum
firmitudine communitas & legibus suis uti permissi, religionis respectu
sunt honorati_. So this Empire was at first composed of many nations, each
of which had hitherto its own religion: but now _Hystaspes_ and
_Zoroastres_ collected what they conceived to be best, established it by
law, and taught it to others, and those to others, 'till their disciples
became numerous enough for the Priesthood of the whole Empire; and instead
of those various old religions, they set up their own institutions in the
whole Empire, much after the manner that _Numa_ contrived and instituted
the religion of the _Romans_: and this religion of the _Persian_ Empire was
composed partly of the institutions of the _Chaldaeans_, in which
_Zoroastres_ was well skilled; and partly of the institutions of the
ancient _Brachmans_, who are supposed to derive even their name from the
_Abrahamans_, or sons of _Abraham_, born of his second wife _Keturah_,
instructed by their father in the worship of ONE GOD without images, and
sent into the east, where _Hystaspes_ was instructed by their successors.
About the same time with _Hystapes_ and _Zoroastres_, lived also _Ostanes_,
another eminent _Magus_: _Pliny_ places him under _Darius Hystaspis_, and
_Suidas_ makes him the follower of _Zoroastres_: he came into _Greece_ with
_Xerxes_, and seems to be the _Otanes_ of _Herodotus_, who discovered
_Smerdis_, and formed the conspiracy against him, and for that service was
honoured by the conspirators, and exempt from subjection to _Darius_.

In the sacred commentary of the _Persian_ rites these words are ascribed to
_Zoroastres_; [484] [Greek: Ho Theos esti kephalen echon hierakos. houtos
estin ho protos, aphthartos, aidios, agenetos, ameres, anomoiotatos,
heniochos pantos kalou, adorodoketos, ag