for every one with thoughts," etc.

"With all good deeds am I in agreement, with all sins am I not in
agreement, for the good am I thankful, with iniquity am I contented.
With the punishment at the bridge, with the bonds and tormentings and
chastisements of the mighty of the law, with the punishment of the
three nights (after) the fifty-seven years am I contented and
satisfied."

The Avesta, then, is not a system of dogmatics, but a book of worship. It
is to be read in private by the laity, or to be recited by the priests in
public. Nevertheless, just such a book may be the best help to the
knowledge of the religious opinions of an age. The deepest convictions
come to light in such a collection, not indeed in a systematic statement,
but in sincerest utterance. It will contain the faith of the heart rather
than the speculations of the intellect. Such a work can hardly be other
than authentic; for men do not forge liturgies, and, if they did, could
hardly introduce them into the worship of a religious community.

The Avesta consists of the Vendidad, of which twenty-two Fargards, or
chapters, have been preserved; the Vispered, in twenty-seven; the Yacna,
in seventy; and the Khordah Avesta, or Little-Avesta, which contains the
Yashts, Patets, and other prayers for the use of the laity. Of these,
Spiegel considers the Gathas of the Yacna to be the oldest, next the
Vendidad, lastly, the first part of the Yacna, and the Khordah Avesta.

Sec. 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch.

The Bundehesch is a book later than these, and yet, in its contents,
running back to a very early period. Windischmann,[140] who has recently
given us a new translation of this book, says: "In regard to the
Bundehesch, I am confident that closer study of this remarkable book, and
a more exact comparison of it with the original texts, will change the
unfavorable opinion hitherto held concerning it into one of great
confidence. I am justified in believing that its author has given us
mainly only the ancient doctrine, taken by him from original texts, most
of which are now lost. The more thoroughly it is examined the more
trustworthy it will be found to be."

The following summary of the Parsi system is mostly derived from the
Bundehesch, and the later writings of the Parsis. We have abridged it from
Rhode. In the time of Zoroaster himself, it was probably far from being so
fully elaborated. Only the germs of