his was wrangling for victory, and not
arguing for truth, and that no real scholar would admit that the
Avesta, in its original form, did not go back to a much earlier date
than the third century before Christ. Yet, when such a general
principle is to be laid down, that all that Genesis and Avesta share
in common must belong to a time before Abraham had started for Canaan,
and Zoroaster for Balkh, other possible means of later intercourse
should surely not be entirely lost sight of.

For what happens? The very first tradition that is brought forward as
one common to both these ancient works--namely, that of the Four Ages
of the World--is confessedly found in the later writings only of the
Parsis, and cannot be traced back in its definite shape beyond the
time of the Sassanians (Eran, p. 275). Indications of it are said to
be found in the earlier writings, but these indications are extremely
vague. But we must advance a step further, and, after reading very
carefully the three pages devoted to this subject by Dr. Spiegel, we
must confess we see no similarity whatever on that point between
Genesis and the Avesta. In Genesis, the Four Ages have never assumed
the form of a theory, as in India, Persia, or perhaps in Greece. If we
say that the period from Adam to Noah is the first, that from Noah to
Abraham the second, that from Abraham to the death of Jacob the third,
that beginning with the exile in Egypt the fourth, we are transferring
our ideas to Genesis, but we cannot say that the writer of Genesis
himself laid a peculiar stress on this fourfold division. The Parsis,
on the contrary, have a definite system. According to them the world
is to last 12,000 years. During the first period of 3,000 years the
world was created. During the second period Gayo-maratan, the first
man lived by himself, without suffering from the attacks of evil.
During the third period of 3,000 years the war between good and evil,
between Ormuzd and Ahriman, began with the utmost fierceness; and it
will gradually abate during the fourth period of 3,000 years, which is
still to elapse before the final victory of good. Where here is the
similarity between Genesis and the Avesta? We are referred by Dr.
Spiegel to Dr. Windischmann's 'Zoroastrian Studies,' and to his
discovery that there are ten generations between Adam and Noah, as
there are ten generations between Yima and Thraetaona; that there are
twelve generations between Shem and Isaac, as there a