at the
female attributes had not become wholly subject to male power.

Had we no other evidence of the comparatively exalted character of the
religion of the Persians than the history of the lives of such men
as Darius, Cyrus, Artaxerxes, and others, we should conclude,
notwithstanding the similarity in the ceremonials of these two
religions, that some influence had been at work to preserve them from
the cruelty and licentiousness which prevailed among the Jews. It is
related of Cyrus that he used to wish that he might live long enough to
repay all the kindness which he had received. It is also stated that on
account of the justice and equity shown in his character, a great number
of persons were desirous of committing to his care and wisdom "the
disposal of their property, their cities, and their own persons."

In striking contrast to the mild and humane character of Cyrus stands
that of the licentious and revengeful David, a "man after God's own
heart."

"As for the heads of those that compass me about, let the mischief of
their own lips cover them."

"Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into
deep pits, that they rise not up again."(109)

"Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the
stones."(110)

109) Psalms cxl.

110) Ibid., cxxxvii.

No one I think can read the Avestas without being impressed by the
prominence there given to the subjects of temperance and virtue. In
their efforts to purify religion, and in the attempts to return to
their more ancient faith, the disciples of Zoroaster, as early as
eight hundred years before Christ, had adopted a highly spiritualized
conception of the Deity. They had taught in various portions of Asia
Minor the doctrine of one God, a dual entity by means of which all
things were created. They taught also the doctrine of a resurrection
and that of the immortality of the soul. It was at this time that they
originated, or at least propounded, the doctrine of hell and the
devil, a belief exactly suited to the then weakened mental condition
of mankind, and from which humanity has not yet gained sufficient
intellectual and moral strength to free itself. This Persian devil,
which had become identified with winter or with the absence of the sun's
rays, was now Aryhman, or the "powers of darkness," and was doubtless
the source whence sprang the personal devil elaborated at a later age by
Laotse in China.

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