■tai His will ' (Gamaliel, I.e. II. 4). These are Christian sentiments ; they may or may not have been borrowed from the Talmud. They are rays from a sun that lighteth the whole world. Marcus Aurelius said : ' Love mankind, follow God' (vii. 31) ; Epictetus said : 'Dare to look up to God and say: Do with me henceforth as Thou wilt. I am of one mind with Thee. I am Thine. I decline nothing that seems good to Thee. Lead me whither Thou wilt. Clothe me as Thou wilt. Wilt thou that I take office or live a private life, remain at home or go into exile, be poor or rich, I will defend Thy purpose with me in respect of all these ' (Discourses, II. 16). These are truly Christian sentiments, Christian, because eternal and universal ; but it would be very difBcult to prove that they were borrowed either from or by Christianity. And why should every truth be borrowed from Christianity 1 Why should not Christianity also have borrowed ? THE HISTOEICAL STUDY OF EELIGIO^T. 11 And why should not certain truths be world-wide and universal ? To me these truths seem to gain rather than to lose in power, if we accept them as springing up spontaneously in different minds, than if we main- tain that they were conceived once only, and then borrowed by others. The reason why people will not see the identity of a truth as enuntiated in different religions, is generally the strangeness of the garb in which it is clothed. No doubt the old heathen names of the Gods, even of their Supreme God, are often offensive to us by what they imply. But is it not all the more interesting to see how, for instance, Aristides the Sophist (176 A.D.), though retaining the name of Jupiter, is striving with all his might for a higher conception of the Deity, purer even than what we find in many portions of the Old Testament. This is how Aristides speaks of Jupiter : ' Jupiter made all things ; all things whatever are the works of Jupiter — rivers, and the earth, and the sea, and the heaven, and whatever is between or above, or beneath them, and gods and men, and all living things, and all things visible and intelligible. First of all, he made himself ; nor was he ever brought up in the caverns of Crete ; nor did Saturn ever intend to devour him ; nor did he swallow a stone in his stead ; nor was Jupiter ever in any danger, nor will he ever be. . . . But he is the First, and the most ancient, and the Prince of all things, and Himself from Himself.' Why should we be less able and willing to see through the mists of mythology than those who were brought up with a belief in their own mythological gods 1 Why should we decline to recognise the higher 13 INTRODUCTOEY LECTURE. purpose that waa in these divine names from the beginning, and which the best among the pagans never failed to recognise ? Ancient Prayers. It has often been said that what we mean by prayer does not or even cannot exist in any of the pagan religions. It may be true that the loving re- lation between man and God is absent in the prayers of the heathen world. It is certainly true that there are some religions unfavourable to prayer, particularly if prayer is taken in the sense of praying for worldly blessings. The Buddhists in general know of no prayer addressed to a superintendent deity, because they deny the existence of such a deity ; but even prayers addressed to the Euddhas or Buddhist Saints are never allowed to assume the character of petitions. They are praises and meditations rather than solicita- tions. Prayers in the sense of petitions are considered actually sinful by the Sin-shiu sect of Buddhists in Japan. It is different with the followers of Confucius. They believe in a God to whom prayers might be addressed. But Professor Legge tells us that we look in vain for real prayers in their ancient literature, and this is most likely due to that sense of awe and reverence which Confucius himself expressed when he said that wo should respect spii-itual beings, but keep aloof from them ^. It is true also that when man has once arrived at a philosophical conception of the Deity, his prayers assume a form very different from the prayers ad- dressed by a child to his Father in heaven. Still even such prayers are full of interest. Almost the last ' Confucian Analects, VI. 20. THE HISTOEICAL STUDY OF RELIGION. 13 word which Greek philosophy has said to the world, is a prayer which we find at the end of the commen- tary of Simplicius on Epictetns, a prayer full of honest purpose : ' I beseech Thee, Lord, the Father, Guide of our reason, to make us mindful of the noble origin Thou hast thought worthy to confer upon us ; and to assist us to act as becomes free agents ; that we may be cleansed from the irrational passions of the body and may subdue and govern the same, using them as in- struments in a fitting manner ; and to assist us to the right direction of the reason that is in us, and to its participation in what is real by the light of truth. And thirdly, I beseech Thee, my Saviour, entirely to remove the darkness from the eyes of our souls, in order that we may know aright, as Homer says, both God and men.' (See J. A. Farrer, Paganism and Christianity, p. 44.) I shall devote the rest of this introductory lecture to reading some extracts which will show, I hope, that the heathen also could utter prayers, and some prayers which require but little modification before we ourselves can join in them. Egyptian Prayer. ' Hail to Thee, raaker of all beings. Lord of law, Father of the Gods ; maker of men, creator of beasts ; Lord of grains, making food for the beasts of the field The One alone without a second King alone, single among the Gods ; of many names, unknown is their number. I come to Thee, O Lord of the Gods, who hast existed from the beginning, eternal God, who hast made all things that are. Thy name be my protection ; prolong my term of life 14 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. to a good age ; may my son be in m}' place (after me) ; may my dignity remain with him (and his) for ever, as is done to the righteous, who is glorious in the house of his Lord. Who then art Thou, O my father Amon 1 Doth a father forget his son? Surely a wretched lot awaitetli him who opposes Thy will ; hut blessed is he who knoweth Thee, for Thy deeds proceed from a heart full of love. I call upon Thee, O my fatlier Amon ! behold me in the midst of many peoples, unknown to me ; all nations are united against me, and I am alone ; no other is with me. My many warriors have abandoned me, none of my horsemen hath looked towards me ; and when I called them, none hath listened to my voice. But I believe that Amon is worth more to me than a million of wari-iors, than a hundred thousand horse- men and ten thousands of brothers and sons, even were they all gathered together. The work of many men is nought ; Amon will prevail over them.' (From L. Page Renouf, Hibberi Lectures, p. 227.) An Accadian Prayer. " O my God, the lord of prayer, may my prayer address thee ! O my goddess, the lady of supplication, may my supplica- tion address thee ! O Mato (Matu), the lord of the mountain, may my prayer address thee ! O Gubarra, lady of Eden (sic), may my prayer address thee ! O Lord of heaven and earth, lord of Eridu, may my supplication address thee ! Merodach (Asar-mula-dag), lord of Tin-tir (Babylon) may my prayer addiess thee ! O wife of him, (the princely offspring (?) of heaven and earth), may my supplication address thee ! O (messenger of the spirit) of the god who proclaims (the good name), may my prayer address thee! THE HISTOEICAL STUDY OF EELIGION. 15 O (bride, first-born of) Uras (1), may my supplication address thee ! O (lady, who binds the hostile (?) mouth), may my prayer address thee ! (exalted one, the great goddess, my lady Nana) may my supplication address thee ! May it say to thee : ' (Direct thine eye kindly unto me).' May it say to thee : ' (Turn thy face kindly to me).' (May it say to thee : ' Let thy heart rest.') (May it say to thee : ' Let thy liver be Cjuieted.') (May it say to thee : ' Let thy heart, like the heart of a mother who has borne children, be gladdened.') (' As a mother who has borne children, as a father who has begotten a child, let it be gladdened.') " (Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 336.) A Babylonian Prayer. ' my God who art violent (against me), receive (my supplication). my Goddess, thou who art fierce (towards me), accept (my prayer). Accept my prayer, (may thy liver be quieted). O my lord, long-suffering (and) merciful, (may thy heart be appeased). By day, directing unto death that which destroys me, O my God, interpret (the vision). my goddess, look upon me and accept my prayer. May my sin be forgiven, may my transgression be cleansed. Let the yoke be unbound, the chain be loosed. Jlay the seven winds carry away my groaning. May I strip off my evil so that the bird bear (it) up to heaven. May the fish carry away my trouble, may the river bear (it) along. May the reptile of the field receive (it) from me ; may the waters of the river cleanse me as they flow. 16 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. Make me shine as ei mask of gold. May I be precious in thy sight as a goblet (1) of glass. Bum iip(1) my evil, knit together my life; bind together thy altar, that I may set up thine image. Let me pass from my evil, and let me be kept with thee. Enlighten me and let me dream a favourable dream. May the dream that I dream be favourable ; may the dream that I dieam, be established. Turn the dream that I dream into a blessing. Maj Makhir the god of dreams rest upon my head. Yea, let me enter into E-Sagil, the palace of the gods, the temple of life. To Merodach, the merciful, to blessedness, to prospering hands, entrust me. Let me exalt thy greatness, let me magnify thy divinity. Let the men of my city honour thy mighty deeds.' (Sayce, H'Mert Lectures, p. 355.) A Vedio Prayer. Eig-veda VII. 89 : 1. Let me not yet, Varuna, enter into the house of clay ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 2. If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 3. Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god, have I gone to the wrong shore ; have mercy, almightj', have mercy ! 4. Thirst came upon tlie worshipper, though he stood in the midst of the waters ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! 5. Whenever we men, O Varuiia, commit an offence before the heavenly host ; whenever we break the law- through thoughtlessness ; have mercy, almighty, have mercy ! (M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 540.) THE HrSTOPJCAL STUDY OF EELIGION. 17 Another Vedic Prayer. ' Let us be blessed in thy service, O Varima, for we always think of thee and praise thee, greeting thee day by day, like the fires lighted on the altar, at the approach of the rich dawns.' 2. ' Varirrea, our guide, let us stand in thy keeping, thou who art rich in heroes and praised far and wide ! And you, unconquered sons of Aditi, deign to accept us as your friends, gods ! ' 3. ' Aditya, the ruler, sent forth these rivers ; they follow the law of Varuna. They tire not, they cease not ; like birds they fly quickly everywhere.' 4. ' Take from me my sin, like a fetter, and we shall increase, Varuma, the spring of thy law. Let not the thread (of life) be cut while I weave my song ! Let not the form of the workman break before the time ! ' 5. ' Take far away from me this terror, O Varuwa ! Thou, O righteous king, have mercy on me ! Like as a rop)e from a calf, remove from me my sin ; for away from thee I am not master even of tlie twinkbng of an eye.' 6. ' Do not strike us, Varuwa, with weapons wliich at thy will hurt the evil-doer. Let us not go where tlie light has vanished ! Scatter our enemies, that we may live.' 7. ' We did formeily, O Varuwa, and do now, and shall in future also, sing praises to thee, O mighty one ! Lor on thee, unconquerable hero, rest all statutes, immovable, as if established on a rock.' 8. 'Move far away from me all self-committed guilt, and may I not, O king, suffer for what others have committed ! Many dawns have not yet dawned ; grant us to live in them, O Varuna.' 9. (M. M., India, p. 195, from Rig-veda II. 28.) (4) C INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. An Avestlc Prayer. 1. 'Blessed is he, blessed is every one, to whom Ahura- mazda, ruling by his own will, shall gi-ant the two ever- lasting powers (health and immortality). For this very good I beseech Thee. Mayest Thou through Thy angel of piety, give me happiness, the good true things, and the possession of the good mind. 2. I believe Thee to be the best being of all, the source of light for the world. Every one shall believe in Thee as the source of light; Thee, O Mazda, most beneficent spirit! Thou createdst all good true things by means of the power of Thy good mind at any time, and promisedst us a long life. 4. I will believe Thee to be the jiowerfal benefactor, O Mazda ! For Thou givest with Thy hand, filled with helps, good to the righteous man, as well as to the wicked, by means of the warmth of the fire strengthening the good things. For this reason the vigour of the good mind has fallen to my lot. 5. Thus I believed in Thee, Ahuramazda ! as the furtherer of what is good ; because I beheld Thee to be the primeval cause of life in the creation ; for Thou, who hast rewards for deeds and words, hast given evil to the bad and good to the good. I will believe in Thee, O Ahura ! in the last period of the world. 6. In whatever period of my life I believed in Thee, Mazda, munificent spiirit ! in that Thou earnest with wealth, and with the good mind througli whose actions our settle- ments thrive ' (M. Haug, Essays on the Parsis, p. 155 seq., from Yasna XLIII. 1-6 ; see also Mills, S. B. B., vol. xxsi. p. 98.) THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION. 19 Verses from Zoroaster's Gathas. ' This I ask Thee, O Ahura ! tell me aright : When pi aise is to be offered, how (shall I complete) the 25raise of One like You, O Mazda 1 Let one like Thee declai-e it earnestly to the friend who is such as I, thus through Tliy righteous- ness to offer friendlj' help to us, so that One like Tliee may draw near us through Thy good mind. 1. This I ask Thee, O Ahura ! tell me ai'ight : Who by genera- tion was the first father of the righteous oi-der 1 Who gave the (recurring) sun and stars their (undeviating) way t Who established that whereby the moon waxes, and whereby she wanes, save Thee 1 These things, Great Creator ! would I know, and others likewise still. 3. This I ask Thee, O Ahura ! tell me aright : Who from beneath hath sustained the earth and the clouds above that they do not fall ? Who made the waters and the plants 1 Who to the wind has yoked on the storm-clouds, the swift and fleetest 1 Who, O Great Creator ! is the inspirer of the good thoughts (within our souls) 1 4. This I ask Thee, Ahura ! tell me aright : AVho, as a skilful artizan, hath made tlie lights and the darkness t Who, as thus skilful, has made sleep and the zest (of waking hours) 1 Who spread the dawns, the noontides, and the mid- night, monitors to discerning (man), duty's true (guides) 1 5. This I ask Thee, O Ahura ! tell me aright : These things which I shall speak forth, if they are truly thus. Doth the piety (which we cherish) increase in reality the sacred orderliness within our actions ? To these Thy true saints hath she given the realm through the Good Mind. For whom hast Thou made the mother-kine, the producer of joy? 6. This I ask Thee, Ahura ! tell me aright, that I may ponder these which are Thy revelations, O Mazda ! and the C 2 20 INTRODUCTOEY LECTURE. words wliicli M-ei-e asked (of Tliee) by Thy Good mud (wltlihi us), and that whereby we may attain through Thine order, to this life's perfection. Yea, how may my sonl with joy- fulness increase in goodness t Let it thus be. 8. This I ask Thee, O Ahura ! tell us aright : How shall I banish this Demon of the Lie from us hence to those beneath who are filled with rebellion 1 The friends of righteousness (as it lives in Thy saints) gain no light (from their teachings), nor have they loved the questions which Thy Good Mind (asks in the soul).' 13. (Yasna XLIV : L. H. Mills, S. B. E., vol. xxxi. pp. Ill seq.) Chinese Prayer. The Emperor's Prayer. ' To Thee, O mj'steriouslj'-working Maker, I look up in thought. How imperial is the expansive arch, where Thou dwellest . . . Thy servant, I am but a reed or willow ; my heart is but as that of an ant ; yet have I received Thy favouring deciee, appointing me to the government of the empire. I deeply oheiish a sense of m}^ ignorance and blind- ness, and am afraid lest I prove unworthj^ of Thy great favours. Therefore will I observe all the rules and statutes, striving, insignificant as I am, to discharge my loyal duty. Far distant here, I look up to Thy heavenlj' palace. Come in Thy precious chariot to the altar. Thy servant, I bow my head to the earth, reverently expecting Thine abundant grace. All my officers are here arranged along with me, joyfully worsliijjpilig before Thee. All the spirits accom- pany Thee as guards, (filling the air) from the East to the West. Thy servant, I prostrate myself to meet Thee, and reverently look up for Thy coming, O god. O that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to accept our offerings, and regard us, while thus we worship Thee, whose goodness is inexhaus- tible ! ' THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF BELTGION. 21 ' Thon hast vouchsafed, O God, to hear us, for Thou regardest us as a Father. I, Thy child, dull and unen- lightened, am unable to show forth my dutiful feelings. I thank Thee that Thou hast accepted the intimation. Honourahle is Thy great name. With reverence we spread out these gems and silks, and, as swallows rejoicing in the spring, praise Thine abundant love.' (From the Imperial Prayer-book in the time of the Emperor Kea- tsing. See James Legge, On the Notions of the Chinese conceriiing God and spirits, Hong-kong, 1852, p. 24. The date of this prayer is modern.) Mohammedan Profession. Quran, II. 255-256 : ' ye who believe ! expend in alms of what we have he- stowed upon you, before the day comes in which is no barter, and no friendship, and no intercession; and the misbelievers, they are the unjust. God, there is no god but He, the living, the self-sub- sistent. Slumber takes Him not, nor sleep. His is what is in the heavens and what is in the earth. Who is it that intercedes with Him save by His permission ? He knows what is before them and what behind them, and they com- prehend not aught tf h's knowledge but of what He jileases. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and it tires Him not to guard them both, for He is high and grand.' (Palmer, S. B. E., vi. 39 seq.) Modern Hindu Prayer. 1. ' Whatsoever hath been made, God made. Whatsoever is to be made, God will make. Whatsoever is, God maketh, — then why do any of ye afflict yourselves t 2. Dadu sayeth. Thou, O God ! art the author of all things which have been made, and from thee will originate all things which are to be made. Thou art the maker, and the cause of all things made. There is none other but Thee. 22 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 3. He is my God, who maketli all things perfect. jNIeditate upon him in whose hands are life and death. 4. He is my God, who created heaven, earth, hell, and the intermediate space ; who is the beginning and end of all creation ; and who provideth for all. 5. I believe that God made man, and that he maketh everything. He is my friend. 6. Let faith in God characterize all your thoughts, words, and actions. He who serveth God, places confidence in nothing else. 7. If the remembrance of God be in your hearts, ye will be able to accomplish things which are impracticable. But those who seek the paths of God are few ! 8. He who understandeth how to render his calling sinless, shall be happy in that calling, provided he l)e with God. 9. foolish one ! God is not far from you. He is near you. You are ignorant, but he knoweth everything, and is careful in bestowing. 10. Whatever is the will of God, will assuredly happen; therefore do not destroy yourselves by anxiety, but listen. 11. Adversity is good, if on account of God; but it is useless to pain the body. Without God, the comforts of wealth are unprofitable. 12. He that believeth not in the one God, hath an un- settled mind ; he will be in sorrow, though in the pos- session of riches : but God is witliout price. 13. God is my clothing and my dwelling. He is my ruler, my body, and my soul. 14. God ever fostereth his creatures; even as a mother serves her offspring, and keepeth it from harm. 15. O God, thou who art the truth, grant me content- ment, love, devotion, and faith. Thy servant Dadu prayeth for true patience, and that he may be devoted to thee.' (Verses from D;idu, the founder of the Dadupanthi sect, about 1600 A.D.) THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION. 23 I confess that my heart beats with joy whenever I meet with such utterances in the Sacred Books of the East. A sudden brightness seems to spread over the darkest valleys of the earth. We learn that no human soul was ever quite forgotten, and that there are no clouds of superstition through which the rays of eternal truth cannot pierce. Such moments are the best rewards to the student of the religions of the world — they are moments of true revelation, revealing the fact that God has not forsaken any of his children, if only they feel after Him, if haply they may find him. I am quite aware how easy it is to find fault with these childish gropings, and how readily people join in a laugh when some strange and to us grotesque expres- sion is pointed out in the prayers of the old world. We know how easy it is to pass from the sublime to the ridiculous, and nowhere is this more the case than in religion. Perhaps Jelaleddin's lesson in his Mesnevi may not be thrown away even on modern scoffers. Moses and the Sheplierd. " Moses once heard a shepherd praying as follows : ' God, show me where Thou art, that I may become Thy servant. I will clean Thy shoes and comb Thy hair, and sew Thy clothes, and fetch Thee milk.' When Moses heard him praying in this senseless manner, he rebuked him, saying, ' foolish one, though your father was a Mussulman, you have be- come an infidel. God is a Spirit, and needs not such gross ministrations as, in your ignorance, you suppose.' The shepherd was abashed at his rebuke, and tore his clothes and fled away into the desert. Then a voice from heaven was heard, saying, ' O Moses, wherefore have you driven away my servant ? Your office is to 24 INTBODUCTOEY LECTURE. reconcile my people with me, not to drive them away from me. I have given to each race different usages and forms of praising and adoring me. I have no need of their praises, being exalted above all such needs. I regard not the words that are spoken, but the heart that offers them. I do not require fine words, but a burning heart. Men's ways of showing de- votion to me are various, but so long as the devotions are genuine, they are accepted.' " Advautaig-es of a Comparative Study of Bell^ous. I have never disguised my conviction that a com- parative study of the religions of the world, so far from undermining the faith in our own religion, serves only to make us see more clearly what is the distinctive and essential character of Christ's teaching, and helps us to discover the strong rock on which the Christian as well as every other religion must be founded. But as a good general, if he wishes to defend a fortress, has often to insist that the surrounding villas and pleasure grounds should be razed, so as not to serve as a protection to the enemy, those also who wish to defend the stronghold of their own religion have often to insist on destroying the outlying in- trenchments and useless ramparts which, though they may be dear to many from long association, offer no real security, nay, are dangerous as lending a support to the enemy, that is to say, to those who try to sap the rock on which all true religion, call it natural or supernatural, must be founded. It is quite true, for instance, that the fact that we meet with so-called miracles in almost every religion, cannot but tell upon us and change our very concep- THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION. 25 tion of a miracle. If Comparative Theology has taught us anything, it has taught us that a belief in miracles, so far from being impossible, is almost inevitable, and that it springs everywhere from the same source, a deep veneration felt by men, women, and children for the founders and teachers of their religion. This gives to all miracles a new, it may be, a more profound meaning. It relieves us at once from the never-ending discussions of what is possible, probable, or real, of what is rational, irrational, natural, or supernatural. It gives us true mira, instead of small miracula, it makes us honest towards ourselves, and honest towards the founder of our own religion. It places us in a new and real world where all is miraculous, all is admirable, but where there is no room for small surprises, a world in which no sparrow can fall to the ground without the Father, a world of faith, and not of sight '^. If we compare the treatment which miracles received from Hume with the treatment which they now receive from students of Comparative Theology, we see that, after all, the world is moving, nay even the theological world. Few only will now deny that Christians can be Chris- tians without what was called a belief in miracles; nay, few will deny that they are better Christians without, than with that belief. What the students of Comparative Theology take away with one hand, they restore a hundredfold with the other. That in our time a man like Professor Huxley should have had to waste his time on disproving the miracle of the Gergesenes by scientific arguments, will I'ank hereafter as one of the most curious survivals in the history of theology. ^ See some excellent remarks on this point in the Rev. Charles Gore's Bampton Lectures. D. 1.30. 26 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. When delivering these lectures, I confess that what I feared far more than the taunts of those who, like Henry VIII, call themselves the defenders of the faith, were the suspicions of those who might doubt my perfect fairness and impartiality in defending Chris- tianity by showing how, if only properly understood, it is infinitely superior to all other religions. A good cause and a sacred cause does not gain, it is onlj^ damaged, by a dishonest defence, and I do not blame those who object to a Christian Advocate, an office till lately maintained at Cambridge, pleading the cause of Christianity against all other religions. It is on that account that the attacks of certain Christian Divines have really been most welcome to me, for they have shown at all events that I hold no brief from them, and that if I and those who honestly share my con- victions claim a perfect right to the name of Chris- tians, we do so with a good conscience. We have sub- jected Christianity to the severest criticism and have not found it wanting. We have done what St. Paul exhorts every Christian to do, we have proved every- thing, we have not been afraid to compare Christianity with any other religion, and if we have retained it, we have done so, because we found it best. All religions, Christianity not excepted, seem really to have suffered far more from their defendei's than from their assail- ants, and I certainly know no greater danger to Christianity than that contempt of Natural Religion which has of late been expressed with so much vio- lence by those who have so persistently attacked both the founder of this lectureship on Natural Religion and the lecturers, nay even those who have ventured to attend their lectures. LECTURE II. THE TRUE VALUE OP THE SACBED BOOKS EXAMINED. Historical Documents for Studying tlie Origin of Eelig'ion. ORIENTAL scholars have often been charged with exaggerating the value of the Sacred Books of the East for studying the origin and gi'owth of religion. It cannot be denied that these books are much less perfect than we could wish them to be. They are poor fragments only, and the time when they were collected and reduced to writing is in most cases far removed from the date of their original composition, still more from the times which they profess to describe. All this is true ; but my critics ought to have known that, so far from wishing to hide these facts, I have myself been the first to call attention to them again and again. Wherever we meet with a religion, it has always long passed its childhood ; it is generally full-grown, and presup- poses a past which is far beyond the reach of any historical plummet. Even with regard to modern religions, such as Christianity and Islam, we know very little indeed about their real historical begin- nings or antecedents. Though we may know their cradle and those who stood around it^ the powerful 28 LECTURE ir. personality of the founders seems in each case to have overshadowed all that was around and before them ; nay, it may sometimes have been the object of their disciples and immediate followers to represent the new rehgion as entirelj^ new. as really the creation of one mind, though no historical religion can ever be that ; and to ignore all historical influences that are at work in forming the mind of the real founder of an historical religion'. With regard to more ancient religions, we hardly ever reach their deepest springs, as little as we can hope to reach the lowest strata of ancient languages. And yet religion, like language, exhibits everywhere the clear traces of historical an- tecedents and of a continuous development. Keligioiis Langnag'e. It has been my object in my former lectures to show that thei-e is but one way by which we may get, so to say, behind that phase of a religion which is represented to us in its sacred or canonical books. Some of the most valuable historical documents of religion lie really imbedded in the language of re- ligion, in the names of the various deities, and in the name which survives in the end as that of the one true God. Certain expi-essions for sacrifice also, for sin, for breath and soul and all the rest, disclose occa- sionally some of the religious thoughts of the people among whom these Sacred Books grew up. I have also tried to show how much may be gained by a comparison of these ancient religious terminologies, and how more particularly the religious terminology ' See Kuenen, HMai Lectures, p. 189 seq. THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACRED BOOKS. 29 of ancient India sheds the most welcome light on many of the religid^ expressions that have become obscure or altogethelEunmeaning even in Greek and Latin. How should we hafH, known that Zeus meant originally the bright light* of the sky, and that d e u s was at first an adjective meaning bright, but for the evidence supplied to us in the Vedal This lesson of Zeus or Jupiter cannot be dinned too often into the ears of the incredulous, or rather the ignorant, who fail to see that the Pantheon of Zeus cannot be separated from Zeus himself, and that the other Olym- pian gods must have had the same physical beginnings as Zeus, the father of gods and men. There are still a few unbelievers left who shake their wise heads when they are told that Erinnys meant the dawn, Agni fire, and Marut or Mars the stormwind, quite as cer- tainly as that Eos meant the dawn, Helios the sun, and Selene the moon. If they did not, what did these names mean, unless they meant nothing at all! When we have once gained in this, the earliest germinal stage of religious thought and language, a real historical background for the religions of India, Greece, and Rome, we have learnt a lesson which we may safely apply to other religions also, though no doubt with certain modifications, namely that there is a meaning in every divine name, and that an intimate relation exists between a religion and the language in which it was born and sent out into the world. When that is done, we may proceed to the Sacred Books and collect from them as much in- formation as we can concerning the great religions of the world in their subsequent historical development. 30 LECTUKE TI. Iiiterary Documents. And here, whatever may be said to the contrary, we have nothing more important, nothing that can more safely be relied upon than the literary docu- ments which some of the ancient religions of the world have left us, and which wei'e recognised as authoritative by the ancients themselves. These materials have become accessible of late years only, and it has been my object, with the assistance of some of my friends, to bring out a very large collection of translations of these Sacred Books of the East. That collection amounts now to forty-two volumes, and will in future enable every student of Comparative Theology to judge for himself of the true nature of the religious beliefs of the principal nations of antiquity. Modern Date of Sacred Books. If people like to call these books modern, let them do so, but let them remember that at all events there is nothing more ancient in any literature. In almost every country it may be said that the history of literature begins with Sacred Books, nay, that the very idea of literature took its origin from these Sacred Books. Literature, at least a written literature, and, most of all, a literature in alphabetic writing is, according to its very nature, a very modern inven- tion. There can be no doubt that the origin of all the ancient religions of the world goes back to a time when writing for literary purposes was as j'et entirely unknown. I still hold that book-writing or writing for literary purposes does not appear any- where in the history of the world much before the THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACRED BOOKS. 31 seventh century e.g. I know that I stand almost alone in dating the existence of a written literature, of real books that were meant to be read by the people at large, from so late a period. But I do not know of any facts that enable us to speak with confidence of a literature, in the true sense of the word, before that date. I have been told that the very latest date unanimously assigned by all com- petent Semitic scholars to the E documents of the O.T. is 750 B.C. But no one has shown in what alpha- bet, nay, even in what dialect they were then written. I have been reminded also of the much earlier date of an Egyptian and Babylonian literature, but I thought I had carefully guarded against such a reminder, by speaking of books in alphabetic wiiting only. Books presuppose the existence not only of people who can write, but likewise of people who can read, and their number in the year 750 B.C. must have been very small indeed. To those who are not acquainted with the powers of the human memory when well disciplined, or rather when not systematically ruined, as ours has been, it may seem almost incredible that so much of the ancient traditional literature should have been com- posed, and should have survived during so many centuries, before it was finally consigned to writing. Still we have got so far, that everybody now admits that the poets of the Veda did not write their hymns, and that Zoroaster did not leave any written documents. There is no word for writing in the Veda, neither is there, as Dr. Haug {Essays on the Parsis, p. 136 n.) has shown, in the Avesta. I have myself pointed out how familiar the idea of writing seems to have been to 32 LECTURE 11. the authors of some of the books of the Old Testament, and how this affects the date of these books. We read in the First Book of Kings iv. 3, of scribes and recorders at the court of King Solomon, and the same officers are mentioned again in 2 Kings xviii. 18, at the court of Hezekiah, while in the reign of Josiah we actually read of the discovery of the Book of the Law. But we find the same anachronisms elsewhere. Thrones and sceptres are ascribed to kings who never had them, and in the Shahnameh (910, 5) we read of Feridfin as having not only built a fii-e-temple in Baikend, but as having deposited there a copy of the Avesta written in golden (cuneiform ?) letters, Kir- jath-sepher, the city of letters, mentioned in the Book of Joshua XV. 15, refers probably to some inscription, in the neighbourhood, not to books. Of Buddha also it may now be asserted without fear of contradiction that he never left any MSS: of his discourses 1. If it had been otherwise, it would cer- tainly have been mentioned, as so many less important things concerning Buddha's daily life and occupations have been mentioned in the Buddhist canon. And although to us it may seem almost impossible that long compositions in poetry, nay even in prose, should have been elaborated and handed down by oral tradition only, it is important to observe that the ancients themselves never express any surprise at the extraordinary achievements of the human memory, whereas the very idea of an alphabet, of alphabetic writing, or of paper and ink, is entirely absent from their minds. I readily admit therefore that whatever we possess ' See Der Buddhismus, von Wassiljew, p. 247. THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACKED BOOKS. 83 of sacred literature in writing is comparatively modern ; also that it represents a very small por- tion only of what originally existed. We know that even after a book had been written, the danger of loss was b}' no means past. We know how much of Greek and Latin literature that was actually consigned to writing has been lost. Aeschylus is said to have composed ninety plaj's. We possess MSS. of seven only. And what has become of the works of Berosus, Manetho, Sanchoniathan? What of the complete MSS. of Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Diony.sius of Halicarnassus, Dio Cassius? what of those of Livy and Tacitus 1 If therefore people will have it that what we possess of sacred books is modern, I do not object, if only they will define what they mean by modern. And if they insist on calling what has been saved out of the general shipwreck mere flotsam and jetsam, we need not quarrel about such names. Much has been lost of the ancient literary monuments of almost every religion, but that makes what is left all the more valuable to us. Fragmentary Character of the Sacred Books of India. In Sanskrit literature we frequently meet with references to lost books. It is not an uncommon practice in theological controversy in India to appeal to lost /S'akhas of the Veda, particularly when customs for which there is no authority in the existing Vedas have to be defended. When, for instance, European scholars had proved that there was no authority for the burning of widows in the Veda, as known to us, native scholars appealed to lost jS'akhas of the Veda (4) D 34 LECTURE II. in support of this cruel custom. However, native casuists themselves have supplied us with the right answer to this kind of argument. They call it ' the argument of the skull,' and they remark with great shrewdness that you might as well bring a skull into court as a witness, as appeal to a lost chapter of the Veda in support of any prevailing custom or doctrine. ^S'akha means a branch, and as the Veda is often represented as a tree, a /Sakha of the Veda is what we also might call a branch of the Veda. We must not imagine, however, that what we now possess of Vedic literature is all that ever existed, or that it can give us anything like a complete image of Vedic religion. The Buddhists are likewise in the habit of speaking of some of the words or sayings of Buddha as being lost, or not recorded. In the Old Testament we have the well-known allusions to the Book of Jasher (2 Sam. i. 18), and the Wars of God (Num. xxi. 14), the Chronicles of David, and the Acts of Solomon, which prove the former existence, if not of books, at least of popular songs and legends under those titles. And with regard to the New Testament also, not only does St. Luke tell us that ' many had taken in liand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them unto us. which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,' but we know that there existed in the early centuries other Gospels and other Epistles which have either been lost or have been declared apocryphal by later authorities, such as the Gospels according to the THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACKED BOOKS. 35 Hebrews and the Egyptians, the Acts of Andrew, John, and Thomas, the Epistles of St. Paul to the Laodiceans, the Epistles of Barnabas and of St. Clement, &c.i We read besides, at the end of the Fourth Gospel, that 'there were also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they .should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written.' This may be an exaggeration, but it ought to be at the same time a warning against the supposi- tion that the New Testament can ever give us a com- plete account of the religious teaching of Christ. Iioss of tile Sacred IiiteratTire of Persia. There is no religion, however, where Ave can study the loss of a great portion of its sacred literature so closely as in the religion of Zoroaster and his disciples, and it is well that we should learn a lesson from it. What by a very erroneous name we call the Zend Avesta is a book of very moderate dimensions. I explained to you, I believe, in a former lecture, why Zend Avesta is an erroneous name. The Persians call their sacred writings not Zend Avesta, but Avesta Zend, or in Pehlevi Avistak va Zand, and this means simply text and commentary. Avesta is the text, Zend the commentary. Avesta is probably derived from vid, to know, from which, you may remember, we have also the name Veda^. But avesta is a participle passive, originally a + vista (for vid-ta), and meant therefore what is known or ' See J. E. Carpenter, The First Three Gospels, p. 3. '' Oppert. (Jourii.. Asiat, 1872, March) compares tlie old Persian abasta, law. D 2 36 LECTURE II. what has been made known, while Zend is derived from the Aryan root *zeno, to know, in Sanskrit gnk, Greek yi-yvd-aKO}, and meant therefore originally likewise knowledge or understanding of the Avesta. While avista was used as the name of Zarathushtra's ancient teachings, Zend was applied to all later explanations of those sacred texts, and particularly to the translations and explanations of the old text in Pehlevi or Pahlavi, the Persian language as spoken in the Sassanian kingdom. In spite of this, it has become the custom to call the ancient language of Zarathushtra Zend, literally, commentary, and to speak of what is left us of the sacred code of the Zoroastrians as the Zend Avesta. This is one of those mistakes which it will be difficult to get rid of; scholars seem to have agreed to accept it as inevitable, and they will probably continue to speak of the Zend Avesta, and of the Zend language. Some writers, who evidently imagine that Zoroaster wor- shipped the fire instead of Ormazd, his supreme deity, and who suppose that Vesta was originally a deity of the fire, have actually gone so far as to spell Zenda Vesta as if Vesta was the name of the sacred fire of the Parsis. If we wish to be correct, we should speak of the Avesta as the ancient texts of Zarathushtra, and we should call Zend all that has been written at a later time, whether in the ancient Avestic language or in Pehlevi, by way of translation and interpreta- tion of the Avesta. This Pehlevi is simply the old name for the Persian language, and there can be little doubt that Pehlevi, which is the Persian name for what is ancient, was derived from pahlav, a hero- warrior, which pahlav again is a regular modification THE TRXJE VALUE OF THE SACKED BOOKS. 37 of parthav, the name of the Parthians who were the rulers of Persia for nearly five hundred years (256 B.C.-226 A.D.). But though Pehlevi would thus seem to mean the language of the Parthians, it is really the name of the Persian language, as spoken in Persia when under Parthian rule. It is an Aryan language written in a peculiar Semitic alphabet and mixed with many Semitic words. The first traces of Pehlevi have been discovered on coins referred to the third or fourth century b. c, possibly even on some tablets found in Nineveh, and ascribed to the seventh century B.C. (Haug's Essaj's, p. 81). We find Pehlevi written in two alphabets, as in the famous inscrii^tions of Hajiabad (third century A.D.), found near the ruins of Persepolis^. Besides the language of the Avesta, which we call Zend, and the language of the glosses and translations, which we call Pehlevi, there is the Pazend, originally not the name of a language, as little as Zend was, but the name of a commentary on a commentary. There are such Pazends written in Avestic^ or in Pehlevi. But when used as the name of a language, Pazend means mediaeval Iranian, used chiefly in the transcriptions of Pehlevi texts, written either in Avestic or Persian characters, and freed from all Semitic ingredients. In fact the language of the great epic poet Pirdusi (1000 a.d.) does not differ much from that of Pazend ; and both are the lineal descendants of Pehlevi and ancient Persian. One thing, however, is quite certain, namely, that the sacred hterature which once existed in these three ' See Haug, 1. c. p. 87, and Friedrich Muller, Die Pahlawi Inschriften ran Hadsidbdd. 2 Haug, 1. c. p. 122. 38 LECTURE II. successive languages, Avestic, Pehlevi, and Pazend. must have been infinitely larger than what we now possess. It is important to observe that the existence of this much larger ancient sacred literature in Persia was known even to Greeks and Romans, such as Her- mippos\ who wrote his book 'On the Magi' while residing at Smyrna. He lived in the middle of the third century B.C. Though this book is lost, it is quoted by Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Pliny. Pliny {H. N. xxx. 2) tells us that Hermippos studied the books of Zoroaster, which were then said to comprise two millions of lines. Even so late an authority as Abu Jafir Attavari (an Arabic historian) assures us that Zoroaster's writings covered twelve hundred cowhides (parchments). These statements of classical writers are confirmed to a great extent by the traditions current among the followers of Zoroaster in Persia, who agree in accusing Alexander the Great of having destroyed or carried off their sacred MSS. We read in the DinkarcZ (West, p. 412) that the first collection of the sacred texts of Zoroaster took place at the time of Vi.stasp, the mythical ruler who accepted the religion of Zoroaster. Afterwards, we are told, Darai commanded that two complete copies of the whole Avesta and Zend should be preserved, one in the treasury of Shapigan, and one in the fortre&s of written documents. This Darai is likewise more or less mythical, but he is generally considered by the Persian poets as the predecessor of Alexander. We are on more historical ground when we are told in the DinkairZ (West, p. xxxi) that the ' Diogenes Laertius, Prooem. 6, THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACKED BOOKS. 39 MS. which was in the fortress of documents came to be burnt, while that in the treasury of Shapigan fell into the hands of the Greeks and was translated by or for Alexander into the Greek language, as ' information connected with ancient times.' Now the fact that the Royal Palace at Persepolis was burnt by Alexander in a drunken frolic is confirmed by Greek historians, though nothing is said by them of a Greek translation of the Avestic writings. It is quite possible, however, that Hermippos had before him the very MS. that had been carried away from the treasury of Shapigan by Alexander's soldiers. We hear nothing more about the Avesta till we come to the time of Valkhas, evidently a Vologeses. possibly Vologeses I, the contemporary of Nero. Though he was a Parthian ruler, we are told in the Dinkaiv/ that he ordered ' the careful preservation and making of memoranda for the royal city, of the Avesta and Zend as it had purely come unto them, and also of whatever instruction, due to it, had remained written about, as well as deliverable by the tongue through a high-priest, in a scattered state in the country of Iran, owing to the ravages and devastations of Alex- ander, and the cavalry and infantry of the Arumans (Greeks).' Whatever the exact meaning of these words may be, they clearly imply that an attempt had been made, even before the rise of the Sassanian dynasty, to collect what could still be collected of the old sacred writings, either from scattered fragments of MSS. or from oral tradition. It does not appear that any attempt of the same kind had been made before that time, and after the devastations ascribed to Alexander. 40 LECTURE II. It does not seem to me to follow that, as M. Dar- mesteter suggests {S. B. E. iv. Introd.), the Parthian rulers had actually embraced Zoroastrianism as the state-religion of their kingdom. That was reserved for the Sassanians. But it shows at all events that they valued the ancient faith of their subjects, and it is a fact that some of the Philhellenic Parthian princes had actually adopted it. The real revival, however, of Zoroastrianism as the national religion of Persia and the final constitution of the Avestic canon were due, no doubt, to the Sassanians. Wo read in the Dinkajvi that Arta- kshatar (Ardeshir), the son of Papak, king of kings (a.d. 226-240), summoned Tosar and other priests to the capital to settle the true doctrine of the old religicn. His son, Shahpuhar (a.d. 240-271). followed his example, and brought together a number of secular writings also, scattered about, as we are told, in the country, in India, Greece, and elsewhere, and ordered their collocation with the Avesta. After that a correct copy was deposited once more in the treasury of iShapigan. Shahpuhar 11 (Sapores), the son of Auharmazd (a.d. 309-379), seems to have done for the Avestic religion ver j' much what Constantine was doing about the same time for Christianity. He convoked a ' tribunal for the conti-oversy of the inhabitants of all regions, and brought all statements to proper con- sideration and investigation.' The heresy with which Shahpuhar II and Aturpad had to deal was probably that of Manichaeisra. The docti-ines of Mani had been spreading so widely during the third century that even a king, Shahpuhar I, was supposed to have THE TRUE VALUE OP THE SACKED BOOKS. 41 embraced them. Thus while Constantine and Atha- nasius settled the orthodox doctrines of Christianity at Nicaea, 325 a.d., Shahpuhar II and Aturpad, the son of Maraspand, were engaged in Persia in extinguishing the heresy of Mani and restoring Mazdaism to its original purity. The collecting of the Nasks and the num- bering of them as twenty-one, is ascribed to Aturpad. Prof. Darmesteter (Introd. p. xxxix) supposes that at his time it was still possible to make additions to the Avestic texts, and he points out passages in the Vendidad which may have reference to the schism of Mani, if not even to Christianity, as known in the East. At a still later time, under Khusroi (Khosroes), called Anosharuvan, the son of Kavad (a.d. 531-579), we read that new heresies had to be suppressed, and that a new command was given for ' the proper con- sideration of the Avesta and Zend of the primitive Magian statements.' Soon after followed the Arab conquest, when we are told that the archives and treasures of the realm were once more devastated. Still the Mohammedan conquerors seem to have been far less barbarous than Alexander and his Greek soldiers, for when, after the lapse of three centuries, a new effort was made to collect the Avestic writings, Atur-farnbagi Farukho- zacZan was able to make a very complete collection of the ancient Nasks. Nay, even at the end of the ninth century, when another high-priest, Aturpad, the son of Himid, the author, or, at all events, the finisher of the Dmka.rd, made a final collection of the Avesta and Zend, MSS. of all the Nasks seem to have been forthcoming with very few exceptions, whether in the 42 LEOTDRE II. ancient Avestic language or in Pehlevi, so that Atiarpai 1 could give in his DinkarcZ an almost complete ac- count of the Zoroastrian rehgion and its sacred literature. According to some authorities it was Atur-farnbagi Farukho-zMan who began the Dinkart/, while Aturpad, the son of Himid, finished it. This would place the work between 820 and 890 A.D. Atijrpad, or whoever he was, speaks of the twenty-one Nasks or books of the Avesta, as if he had read them either in the original language or in their Pehlevi translation. The only Nask he failed to obtain was the Vastag Nask, and the Pehlevi version of the Nadar Nask. We owe all this information partly to Dr. Haug. partly to Dr. West, who has recovered large portions of the MS. of the Dink&rd and translated them in volume xxxvii of the Sacred Books of the East. Of these twenty-one Nasks which, since the days of Aturpad, the son of Maraspand, constituted the Avestic canon, and which are reckoned to have con- sisted of 345,700 words in Zend, and of 2,094,200 words of Pehlevi (West, 1. c. p. xlv), three only, the I4th, 19th, and 21st, have been saved complete. We are told in one of the Persian Rivayats (»S'. B. E. xxxvii. p. 437), that even at the time when the first attempt was made to collect the sacred literature which had escaped the soldiers of Alexander, portions only of each Nask were forthcoming, and none in its original completeness, except the Vindad, i. e. the Vendidad. If we could trust to this statement, it would prove that the division in the Nasks existed even before the time of Aturpad, the son of Maraspand (32.5 A.D.), and was possibly of Achaemenian origin. There are fragments of some other Nasks in exist- THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACRED BOOKS. 43 ence, such as the Vistasp sasto, Hac/okhto and Bako, but what the Parsis now consider as their sacred canon, consists, besides the Vendidad, of no more than the Yasna, Vispered, Yashts, &c., which contain the bulk of the two other extant Nasks, the Stod and Bakan Yashts. The Vendidad contains religious laws and old legends. The Vispered contains litanies, chiefly for the celebration of the six season-festivals, the so-called Gahanbars. The Yasna also contains litanies, but its most important portion consists of the famous Gathas (stem gatha, nom. sing, gatha), metrical portions, written in a more ancient dialect, probably the oldest nucleus round which all the rest of the Avestic litera- ture gathered. The Gathas are found in the Yasna, xxviii-xxxiv, xliii-xlvi, xlvii-1, li, and liii. Each of these three collections, the Vendidad, Vispered, and Yasna, if they are copied singly, are generally accom- panied by a Pehlevi translation and glosses, the so- called Zend. But if they are all copied together, according to the order in which they are required for liturgical purposes, they are without the Pehlevi translation, and the whole collection is then called the Vendidad Sadah, i. e. the Vendidad pure and simple, i. 6. without commentary. The remaining fragments are comprehended under the name of Khorda Avesta or Small Avesta. They consist chiefly of prayers such as the five Gah, the Sirozeh, the three Afringan, the five Nyayish, the Yashts, lit. acts of worship, hymns addressed to the thirty Izads, of which twenty only have been pre- served, and some other fragments, for in,stance, the Hadhokht Nask (*S'. B. E. iv. p. xxx ; xxiii. p. 1). 44 LECTUEE II. The Parsis sometimes divide the twenty-one Nasks into three classes : (1) the Gathic, (2) the Hadha- mathric, (3) the Law. The Gathic portion represents the higher spiritual knowledge and spiritual dutj^ the Law the lower worldly duty, and the Hadha-mathric what is between the two (Dinkarrf, VIII. L 5). In many cases, however, these subjects are mixed. The Gathas are evidently the oldest fragments of the Avestic religion, when it consisted as yet in a simple belief in Ahuramazda as the Supreme Spirit, and in a denial of the Dacvas, most of them known to us as worshipped by the poets of the Veda. If Zara- thushtra was the name of the founder or reformer of this ancient religion, these Gathas may be ascribed to him. As their language differs dialectically from that of the Achaemenian inscriptions, and as the Pehlevi interpreters, though conversant with the ordinary Avestic language, found it difficult to interpret these Gathas, we are justified in supposing that the Gathic dialect may have been originally the dialect of Media, for it was from Media that the Masi ^, or the teachers and preachers of the religion of Ahuramazda, are said to have come -. It has been pointed out that certain deities, well known in the Veda, and in later Avestic texts, are absent from the Gathas ; for instance, Mithra and Homa ; also Anahita and the title of Ameshaspenta (Haug, 1. c. p. .259). Many abstract concepts, such as Asha, righteousness, Vohumano, good thought, have not yet assumed a definite mythological personality in ' Magi, tlie Magavas of the Gathas, the Magusli in the cuneiform inscription, the Mog of later times, Haug, p. 109 n., possibly the rab mag of Jerem. xxxix. 8. ^ Darmesteter, S. B. E., iv. p. xlvi, gives all the evidence for assigning the origin of Zoroaster's religion to Media. THE TEUE VALUE OF THE SACEED BOOKS. 45 the chapters composed in the Gathic dialect (Haug, p. 171). And what is more important still, the Angro Mainyu or Ahiiman of the later Avestic writings has in the Gathas not yet been invested with the character of the Evil Spirit, the Devil, the constant opponent of Ahuramazda^ (Haug, I.e. pp. 303-4) I call this important, because in the cuneiform inscriptions also this character does not, and we may probably be justi- fied in saying, does not yet occur. The early Greek writers also, such as Herodotos, Theopompos, and Her- mippos, though acquainted with the Magian doctrine of a dualism in nature and even in the godhead, do not seem to have known the name of Ahriman. Plato knew the name of Ahuramazda, for he calls Zoroaster the sou of Oromasos, which must be meant for Ahura- mazda, but he too never mentions the name of Angro Mainyu or Areimanios. Aristotle may have known the name of Areimanios as well as that of Oromasdes, though we have only the authority of Diogenes Laer- tius (Prooem. c. 8) for it. Later writers, both Greek and Roman, are well acquainted with both names. I mention aU this chiefly in order to show that there are signs of historical growth and historical decay in the various portions of what we call Avestic literature. If with Dr- Haug we place the earliest Gatha literature in about 1000 to 1.200 B.C., which of course is a purely hypothetical date, we can say at all events that the Gathas are in thought, if not in language also, older than the inscriptions of Darius; that they belonged to Media, and existed there probably before the time of Cyrus and his conquest of the Persian empire. When we come to the time of Alexander, we see ' Angra occurs in the Gathas in the sense of evil. 46 LECTUKE It. that there existed then so large an amount of sacred Hterature, that we cannot be far wrong in ascribing the whole of the twenty-one Nasks to a pre-Achae- menian period, before 500 B.C. Here we can dis- tinguish again between the old and the later Yasna. The Veudidad, Vispered, the Yashts, and the smaller prayers may be ascribed to the end of the Avestic period. Dr. Haug places the larger portion of the original Vendidad at about 1000-900 b. c, the com- jjosition of the later Yasna at about 800-700 e.g. The Pehlevi literature may have begun soon after Alexander. Linguistic chronology is, no doubt, of a very uncertain chai-acter. Still, that there is an his- torical progress both in language and thought from the Gathas to the Yasna, and from the Yasna to the Yashts, can hardly be doubted. Real historical dates are unfor- tunately absent, except the mention of Gaotama in the Fravardin Yasht (16). If this is meant for Gautama, the founder of Bviddhism, we can hardly be wrong in supposing that this name of Buddha had reached Bactria during the first century after Buddha's death, say 477-377 B.C. In later times the presence of Buddhists in Bactria cannot be doubted ^. About the same time coins had been struck with inscriptions in Pehlevi, which must have been the lauffuase of the ' The presence of Buddhists in Bactria in the first century e.g. is attested by several authorities. Alexander Polyhistor, wlio wrote between 80-60 b. c. (as cxuoted by Cyrillus contra Julian.), mentions among philosophers the Samanyioi among the Persian Bactrians, the Magoi among the Persians, and the Gymuosophists among the Indians. These Samanyioi were meant for Buddhists. Later still Clemens of Alexandria, Strom, i. p. 359, speaks of Samanaioi among the, Bactrians and of Gymnosophists among the Indians, while Euse- bius (Praep. Ev. vii. 10) speaks of thousands of Brahmans among Indians and Bactrians. See Lassen, Ind. AUerthumskunde, ii. p. 1075 ; Spiegel, Emu. Alterthiimsh-imde, i. 671. THE TRUE VALUE OE THE SACRED BOOKS. 47 people about the time of Alexander's conquests. The Avestic language, however, continued to be under- stood for a long time after, so that, under the Parthian and the Sassauian dj'nasties, interpreters could be found, able to translate and explain the ancient sacred texts. Nay, if M. Darmesteter is right, additions in Avestic continued to be made as late as the fourth century A. D., provided that the passages which he has pointed out in the Vendidad refer to the suppression of the heresy of Mani by king Shahpur II. The Belatlon between the Avesta and the Old Testament. I thought it necessary to enter thus fully into the history of the rise and decline of the sacred literature of Persia, because I wanted to show how impossible it is to institute a satisfactory comparison between the Persian and any other religion, unless we are fully aware of the historical growth of its sacred canon. Though much light had been shed on this subject by Dr. Haug, it is but lately that the valuable translation oitheDinka.rd, contributed by Mr. West to my Sacred Books of the East, has enabled us to form an indepen- dent judgment on that subject. The Persian religion has often been the subject of comparison both with the religion of India and with that of the Jews, par- ticularly after their return from the exile. The chief doctrines which the Jews are supposed to have bor- rowed from the followers of Zoroaster are a belief in the resurrection of the body, a belief in the immor- tality of the soul, and a belief in future rewards and punishments. It is well known that these doctrines were entirely, or almost entirely, absent from the oldest phase of religion among the Jews, so that their presence 48 LECTURE II. in some of the Psalms and the Prophets has often been used as an argument in support of the later date now assigned to these compositions. Here there are no chronological difficulties. These doctrines exist, as we shall see, at least in their germinal stage, in the Gathas, while of the more minute details added to these old doctrines in the later portions of the Avesta, or in the still later Pehlevi writings, there is no trace even in post-exilic books of the Old Testament. This point has been well argued by Prof. Cheyne in the Exposi- tory Times, June, July, August, 1891 ^. But there is another point on which we can observe an even more striking similarity between the Old Testa- ment and the Avesta, namely, the .strong assertion of the oneness of God. Here, however, it seems to me that, if there was any exchange of thought between the followers of Moses and of Zoroaster, it may have been the latter who were influenced. The sudden change from the henotheism of the Veda to the mono- theism of the Avesta has never been accounted for, and I venture to suggest, though not without hesitation, that it may have taken place in Media, in the original liome of the Zoroastrian religion. It was in the cities of Media that a large Jewish population was settled, after the king of Assyria had carried away Israel, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Modes (.2 Kings xviii. 11). Now, however difficult an exchange of religious ideas may be between people speaking different languages, the fact of their worshipping either one God or many gods could hardly fail to attract attention. If then the ^ On Pus^ible Zoroastrian Iv/hicnces on the Lcliijion of Jsrad. ,s,;e alsu Spiegel, Evani&che Alter/ tinmsktrnde, vol. i. ]i]i. 440 seq. THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACBEr BOOKS. 49 Jews impressed their neighbours with the conviction that there could be but one God, a conviction which in spite of many backslidings, seems never to have ceased altogether to form part of the national faith of Israel, everything else would naturally have followed, exactly as we find it in the Avesta, as compared with the Veda. One of the ancient gods, the Asura Varu-Jia, was taken as the one and supreme God, the God above all gods, under the name of Ahpra Mazda ; the other Devas, if they claimed to be gods, were renounced, and those only who could be treated as secondary spirits, were allowed to remain, nay, were increased in number by such spirits or angels as Ameretat, Haurvatat, Vohumano, and all the rest. I am far from saying that this can be strictly proved. Neither can it be proved that the belief in a resurrec- tion and immortality was necessarily borrowed-by the Jews fron\ the Zoroastrians. For, after all, people who deny the immortality of the soul, can also assert it. All I say is that such a supposition being his- torically possible, would help to explain many things in the Avesta and its development out of a Vedic or pre-Vedic elements, that have not yet any satisfactory explanation. I am that I am. But there is a still more starthng coincidence, 'i'ou may remember that the highest expression of this Supreme Being that was reached in India, was one found in the Vedic hymns, ' He who above all gods is the only God.' I doubt whether Physical Eeligion can reach a higher level. We must remember that each individual god had from the first been invested (4) E 50 LECTURE II. with a character high above any human character. Indra, Soma, Agni, and whatever other Devas there were in the Vedic Pantheon, had been described as the creators of the world, as the guardians of what is good and right, as all-powerful, all-wise, and victorious over all their enemies. What more then could human language and religious devotion achieve than to speak of one Supreme Being, high above all these gods, and alone worthy of the name of God ? We saw that in Greece also a similar exalted con- ception of the true God had at a very early time found expression in a verse of Xenophanes, who in the face of Zeus, and Apollo, and Athene ventured to saj^, 'There is hut one God, the best among mortals and immortals, neither in form nor in thought like unto mortals' This again seems to me to mark the highest altitude which human language can reach in its desire to give an adequate description of the one true God. For though the existence of other immortals is admitted, yet He is supposed to hold his own pre- eminent position among or above them, and even a similarity with anything human, whether in shape or thought, is distinctly denied, thus excluding all those anthropomorphic conceptions from which even in the best of religions the Deity seems unable altogether to divest itself The Hebrew Psalmist uses the same exalted language about Jehovah. 'Among the gods,' he says, as if admitting the possibility of other gods, 'there is none like unto Thee.' And again he calls Jehovah, the great King above all gods, using almost the same expressions as the Vedic Eishi and the old Greek philosopher. The conception of the Supreme Being as we find it in the Avesta, is by no means THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACEED BOOKS. 51 inferior to that of Jehovah in the Old Testament. Dr. Haug (Essays, p. 302) goes so far as to say that it is perfectly identical. Ahura Mazda is called by Zarathushtra 'the Creator of the earthly and spiritual life, the Lord of the whole universe, in whose hands are all creatures. He is the light and the source of light; he is the wisdom and intellect. He is in possession of all good things, spiritual and worldly, such as the good mind (vohu-mano), immortality (ameretac?), health (haurvatac?), the best truth (asha vahishta), devotion and piety (armaiti), and abundance of earthly goods (kshathra vairya), that is to say, he grants all these gifts to the righteous man, who is upright in thoughts, words, and deeds. As the ruler of the whole universe, he not only rewards the good, but he is a punisher of the wicked at the same time. All that is created, good or evil, fortune or misfortune, is his work. A separate evil spirit of equal power with Ahura Mazda, and always opposed to him, is foreign to the earlier portions of the Avesta, though the existence of such a belief among the Zoroastrians may be gathered from some of the later writings, such as the Vendidad.' Coincidences such as these are certainly startling, but to a student of comparative theology they only prove the universalitjr of truth ; they necessitate by no means the admission of a common historical origin or the borrowing on one side or the other. We ouglit in fact rejoice that with regard to these fundamental truths the so-called heathen religions are on a perfect level with the Jewish and the Christian religions. But suppose we found the same name, the same proper name of the Deity, say Jehovah in the Avesta, E 2 50 LECTURE II. with a character high above any human character. Indra, Soma, Agni, and whatever other Devas there were in the Vedic Pantheon, had been described as the creators of the world, as the guardians of what is good and right, as all-powerful, all-wise, and victorious over all their enemies. What more then could human language and religious devotion achieve than to speak of one Supreme Being, high above all these gods, and alone worthy of the name of God ? We saw that in Greece also a similar exalted con- ception of the true God had at a verj^ early time found expression in a verse of Xenophanes, who in the face of Zeus, and Apollo, and Athene ventured to say, 'There is hut one God, the best among mortals and inwiiortals, neither in form nor in tJiought like tmto mortals! This again seems to me to mark the highest altitude which human language can reach in its desire to give an adequate description of the one true God. For though the existence of other immortals is admitted, yet He is supposed to hold his own pre- eminent position among or above them, and even a similarity with anything human, whether in shape or thought, is distinctly denied, thus excluding all those anthropomorjjhic conceptions from which even in the best of religions the Deity seems unable altogether to divest itself The Hebrew Psalmist uses the same exalted language about Jehovah. ' Among the gods,' he says, as if admitting the possibility of other gods, 'there is none like unto Thee.' And again he calls Jehovah, the great King above all gods, using almost the same expressions as the Vedic Rishi and the old Greek philosopher. The conception of the Supreme Being as we find it in the Avesta, is by no means THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACEED BOOKS. 51 inferior to that of Jehovah in the Old Testament. Dr. Haug (Essays, p. 302) goes so far as to say that it is perfectly identical. Ahnra Mazda is called by Zarathushtra 'the Creator of the earthly and spiritual life, the Lord of the whole universe, in whose hands are all creatures. He is the liglit and the source of light ; he is the wisdom and intellect. He is in possession of all good things, spiritual and worldly, such as the good mind (vohu-mano), immortality (ameretaf^), health (haurvatat/), the best truth (asha vahishta), devotion and piety (armaiti), and abundance of earthly goods (kshathra vairya), that is to say, he grants all these gifts to the I'ighteous man, who is upright in thoughts, words, and deeds. As the ruler of the whole universe, he not only rewards the good, but he is a punisher of the wicked at the same time. All that is created, good or evil, fortune or misfortune, is his work. A separate evil spirit of equal power with Ahura Mazda, and always opposed to him, is foreign to the earlier portions of the Avesta, though the existence of such a belief among the Zoroastrians may be gathered from some of the later writings, such as the Vendidad.' Coincidences such as these are certainly startling, but to a student of comparative theology they only prove the universality of truth ; they necessitate by no means the admission of a common historical origin or the borrowing on one side or the other. We ought in fact rejoice that with regard to these fundamental truths the so-called heathen religions are on a perfect level with the Jewish and the Christian religions. But suppose we found the same name, the same proper name of the Deity, say Jehovah in the Avesta, E 2 ■ri LECTURE II. or Ahura Mazda in the Old Testament, what should we say? We should at once have to admit a borrowing on one side or the other. Now it is true we do not find the name of Ahura Mazda in the Old Testament, but we find something equally surprising. You m&j remember how we rejoiced when in the midst of many imperfect and more or less anthropomorphic names H'iven to the deity in the Old Testament, we suddenly were met by that sublime and exalted name of Jehovah, ' I am that I am.' It seemed so different from the ordinary concepts of deity among the ancient Jews. What then should we say, if we met with exactly the same most abstract appellation of the deity in the Avesta? Yet, in the Avesta also there is amons- the twenty sacred names of God, the name 'Ahmi ya^ ah mi,' 'I am that I am.' Shall we read in this co- incidence also the old lesson that God has revealed Himself to all who feel after Him, if haply they may find him, or is the coincidence so minute that we have to admit an actual borrowing ? And if so, on which side is the borrowing likely to have taken place ? In the Avesta this name occurs in the Yashts. In the Old Testament it occurs in Exodus iii. 13. Chrono- logically therefore the Hebrew text is anterior to the Avestic text. In Exodus we read : 'And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come \mto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say to me. What is his name? what shall I say unto them 1 And God said unto Moses, 1 am that I am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.' This passage, as I am informed by the best authori- THE TEUE VALUE OF THE SACRED BOOKS. 53 ties, is now unanimously referred to the Elohistic section. Dillmann, Driver, Kuenen, Wellhausen, Cor- nill, Kittel, &c., all agree on that point. But does it not look like a foreign thought ? What we expect as the answer to the question of Moses, is really what follows in ver. 15, ' And God said [moreover] unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, ■the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me xmto you ; this is my name for ever. . . .' This is what we expect, for it was actually in the name of Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that Moses brought the people out of Egypt ; nor is there any trace of Moses having obeyed the divine command and having appealed to ' I am that I am,' as the God who sent him. Nay, there is never again any allusion to such a name in the Old Testament, not even where we might fully expect to meet with it. If we take ver. 14 as a later addition, and the Rev. J. Estlin Carpenter informs me that this is quite possible, in the Elohistic narrative, everything becomes clear and natural, and we can hardly doubt therefore that this addition came from an extraneous, and most likely from a Zoroastrian source. In Zend the connection between A/mra, the living god, and the verb ah, to be, might have been felt. In Sanskrit also the connection between asura and as, to be, could hardly have escaped attention, particularly as there was also the word as-u, breath. Now it is certainly very strange that in Hebrew also ehyeh seems to point to the same root as Jehovah, but even if this etymology were tenable historically, it does not seem to have struck the Jewish mind except in this passage. 54 LECTUKE II. But let us look now more carefully at our autho- rities in Zend. The passage in question occurs in the Ormazd Yasht, and the Yashts, as we saw, were some of the latest productions of Avestic literature, in some cases as late as the fourth century b. c. The Elohistic writer, therefore, who is supposed to be not later than 750 B.C., could not have borrowed from that Yasht. The interpolator, however, might have done so. Be- sides we must remember that this Ormazd Yasht is simply an enumeration of the names of Ahura. The twenty names of Ahura are given, in order to show their efficacy as a defence against all dangers. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that these names were recognised as sacred names, and that they had existed long before the time of their compilation. I shall subjoin the translation of the introductory para- graphs from the S. B. E., vol. xxiii. p. 23 : Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: ' O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit. IVfaker of the material world, thou Holy One, what Holy Word is the strongest? What is the most victorious? What is the most glorious"? What is the most effective'? What is the most fiond-smiting ? What is the best-healing'? What destroyeth best the malice of Daevas and men ? What maketh the material world best come to the fulfilment of its wishes'? What freeth the material world best from the anxieties of the heart 1 ' Ahura Mazda answered: 'Our name, Spitama Zara- thushtra, who are the Ameshaspentas, that is the strongest part of the Holy Word, that is the most victorious, that is the most glorious, that is the most (ifFectivc,' &c. Then Zarathushtra said : ' Eeveal unto me that name THE TRUE VALUE OF THE SACEED BOOKS. 55 of thine, O Ahura Mazda ! that is the greatest, the best, the fairest, the most effective,' &e. Ahura Mazda replied unto him : 'My name is the One of whom questions are asked, O Holy Zarathushtra ! ' Now it is curious to observe that Dr. Haug trans- lates the same passage freely, but not accurately, by : ' The first name is Ahmi, I am.' The text is Frakhshtya nama ahmi, and this means, ' One to be asked by name am I.' ' To ask ' is the recognised term for asking for revealed truth, so that spento frasna, the holy question, including the answer, came to mean with the Parsis almost the same as revelation. Dr. Haug seems to have overlooked that word, and his translation has therefore been wrongly quoted as showing that / am was a name of Ahura Mazda. But when we come to the twentieth name we find that Haug's translation is more accurate than Darme- steter's. The text is visastemo ahmi j&t ahmi Mazdau nama. This means, 'the twentieth, I am what I am, Mazda by name.' Here Darmesteter translates : ' My twentieth name is Mazda (the all- knowing one),' Dr. Haug more accurately : ' The twentieth (name is) I am who I am, Mazda ^.' Here then in this twentieth name of Ahura Mazda, 'I am that I am,' we have probably the source of the verse in Exodus iii. 14, unless we are prepared to ^ Another translation of the words visastemo alimi yai ahmi Mazdau nama has been suggested by West. Ahmi in Zend, he writes, is not only the same as Sk, a s m i, I am, but is used also as the locative of the first personal pronoun, corresponding to the Sk. mayi. It is possible, therefore, to translate 'the twentieth name for me is that I am Mazda,' though most scholars would prefer to take the two ahmi's for the same, and to translate, ' the twentieth is I am what I am, Mazda Ijy name.' 56 LECTUBE II. admit a most extraordinary coincidence, and that under circumstances where a mutual influence, nay actual borrowing, was far from difficult, and where the character of the passage in Exodus seems to give clear indication on which side the borrowing must liave taken place. I hope I have thus made it clear in what the real value of the Sacred Books of the East consists with regard to a comparative study of religions. We must freely admit that many litei-ary documents in which we might have hoped to find the traces of the earliest growth of a religion, are lost to us for ever. I have tried to show how, more particularly in the case of the Zoroastrian religion, our loss has been very great, and the recent publication of the Dinkart? by Mr. E. W. West (5'. -B. E., vol. xxxvii) has made us realise more fully how much of the most valuable information is lost to us for ever. We read, for instance (Book ix. cap. 31, 13), that in the Varstmansar Nask there was a chapter on ' the arising of the spiritual creation, the first thought of Auharmasri ; and, as to the creatures of Auharmac'fi, first the spiritual achievement, and then the material formation and the mingling of spirit with matter ; [the advancement of the creatures thereby, through his wisdom and the righteousness of Voljuman being lodged in the creatures,] and all the good creatures being goaded thereby into purity and joy fulness. This too, that a complete under- standing of thiugs arises through Vohuman having made a home in one's reason (varom).' To have seen the full treatment of these questions in the Avesta would have been of the greatest value to the students of the history of religions, whether THIS TRUE VALUE OF TflE SACRED BOOKS. 57 they admit a direct influence of Persian on Jewish and Christian thought, or whether they look upon the Zoroastrian idea of a spiritual followed by a material creation as simply an instructive parallel to the Philonic concept of the Logos, its realisation in the material world, or the crd/jf, and on Vohuman as a parallel to the Holy Ghost. But there is now no hope of our ever recovering what has been lost so long. We must admit, therefore, that, with all the Sacred Books of the East, our knowledge of ancient religions will alwaj's remain very imperfect, and that we are often forced to depend on writings, the date of which as writings is very late, if compared with the times which they profess to describe. It does not follow that there may not be ancient relics imbedded in modern books, but it does follow that these modern books have to be used with great caution, also that their translation can never be too literal. There is a dangerous tendency in Oriental scholarship, namely an almost unconscious inclination to translate certain passages in the Veda, the Zend Avesta, or the Buddhist Canon into language taken from the Old or New Testa- ment. In some respects this may be useful, as it brings the meaning of such passages nearer to us. But there is a danger also, for such translations are apt to produce an impression that the likeness is greater than it really is, so great in fact that it could be accounted for by actual borrowing only. It is right that we should try to bring Eastern thought and language as near as possible to our own thought and language, but we must be careful also not to obliterate the minute features peculiar to each, even though the English translation may sometimes sound strange and unidiomatic. LECTURE III. THE HISTOEICAL RELATIONSHIP OF ANCIENT RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOrHIES. How to compare Ancient Keligions and Ancient Philosophies. WE saw in the case of the Avesta how absolutely necessary it is that we should have formed to ourselves a clear conception of the relation in which the religions and philosophies of the ancient world stand to each other before we venture to compare them. In former days, when little was known of the more distant degrees of relationship by which the historical nations of the world were bound together, the tempta- tion was great, whenever some similarity was pointed out between the beliefs of different nations, to suppose that one had borrowed from the other. The Greeks, as we saw, actually persuaded themselves that they had borrowed the names of some of their gods from Egypt, because they discovered a certain similarity between their own deities and those of that ancient country. But we know now that there was no foundation whatever for such an opinion. Christian theologians, from the days of Clement of Alexandria to our own time, were convinced that any startling coin- ANCIENT RELIGIONS AND THILOSOPHIES. 59 cidences between the Bible and the Sacred Books of other religions could be due to one cause only, namely, to borrowing on the part of the Gentiles ; while there were not wanting Greek philosophers who accused Christian teachers of having taken their best doctrines from Plato and Aristotle. Common Humanity. We must therefore, at the very outset, try to clear our mind on this subject. We may distinguish, I believe, between four different kinds of relationship. The most distant relationship is that which is simply due to our common humanity. Homines sumus, nilnl humani a, nobis alietnim 'putamus. Much of what is possible in the Arctic regions is possible in the Antarctic regions also ; and nothing can be more interesting than when we succeed in discovering co- incidences between beliefs, superstitions, and customs, peculiar to nations entirely separated from each other, and sharing nothing but their common humanit}^ Such beliefs, superstitions, and customs possess a peculiar importance in the eye of the psychologist, because, unless we extend the chapter of accidents very far indeed, they can hardly be deprived of a claim of being founded in human nature, and, in that case, of being, if not true, at all events, humanly speaking, legitimate. It is true that it has been found very difScult to prove any belief or any custom to be quite universal. Speech, no doubt, and, in one sense, certain processes of grammar too, a conception of number and an acceptance of certain numerals, may be called universal ; a belief in gods or supernatural powers is almost universal, and so is a sense of shame 60 LECTURE II r. with regard to .sex, and a more or less accurate obser- vation of the changes of the moon and the seasons of the year. But there is one point which, as anthropologists, we ought never to forget. We gain nothing, or very little, by simply collecting similar superstitions or similar customs among different and widely distant nations. This amounts to little more than if, as com- parative philologists, we discover that to be in love is in French amoiireux and in Mandshu in Northern China umouroii. This is curious, but nothing more. Or, if we compare custom.s, it is well known that a very strange custom, the so-called Cotivade, has been discovered among different nations, both in ancient and modern times. It consists, as you know, in the father being put to bed when the mother has given birth to a child. But, besides the general likeness of the custom, which is certainly very extraordinary, its local varieties ought to have been far more carefully studied than they hitherto have been. In some cases it seems that the husband is most considerately nursed and attended to, in others he is simply kept quiet and prevented from maldng a noise in the house. In other countries, again, quite a new element comes in. The poor father is treated with the greatest malignity — is actually flogged by the female members of his household, and treated as a great criminal. Until we can discover the real motive of those strange varieties of the same custom, the mere fact that they have been met with in many places is no more than curious. It has no more scientific value than the coincidence between the French amoureux and the Mandshu amourou. Or, to take another instance. ANCIENT RELIGIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES. 61 the mere fact that the Sanskrit Haritus is letter by letter the same word as the Greek Chiirit