We have already seen how valuable this custom of separating the words in their inscriptions has been to the modern investigator of the cuneiform writing. But for the fact of the Persian alphabet and the added fact of division of sentences into words in writing, the cuneiform script, on which the modern science of Assyriology is founded, might much longer have defied attempts to decipher it.
In the field of art, it has been said, with probable justice, the Persians were not originators, though they showed themselves actively receptive of the inventions of others. The relics of their art that have been preserved are very palpably based on Assyrian models. It is believed to have been chiefly through the Persians that Assyrian art was transmitted to Greece. In the following account we aim to give the reader a comprehensive view of Persian culture in all branches of civilisation.a
RELIGION AND SOCIAL ORDERS
Zoroaster made his appearance in the heart of Asia, among a people whose constitution, religion, and manners are completely different from our own. His doctrines, however, like those of every reformer, were occasioned by present circumstances, and adapted to the times in which he flourished; and consequently we form a just estimate of his character only by contemplating him with a reference to his age. We must forget that we are Europeans, and together with our more advanced knowledge, lay aside our prejudices also. It is no objection to his laws that they contain much that is strange, or even absurd; nay, this very circumstance rather confirms their authenticity, being precisely what was to be expected in a legislative system belonging to so remote an age and country.
In several parts of his writings, Zoroaster speaks of himself as a subject of one of those great despotic governments, which have always abounded in Asia, and consequently was more sensible than a European can be, of the advantages and evils which attend such a form of government in a civilised country.
He could not be blind to the beneficial effects of agriculture, and the other peaceful arts, which flourish only under the shelter of civil society, and his sense of these advantages must have been heightened by the contrast of the lawless and wandering hordes by which his country was overrun. The evils, also, which generally attend despotic governments, must have been no less strikingly presented to his observation: the intolerable oppression of satraps and their subalterns; luxury and debauchery, with the maladies and physical afflictions of another kind, which he himself enumerates and bewails, had so generally crept in, as to excite in him the desire to restore by his religious reform more fortunate and better days.
The picture which an Asiatic forms to himself of such happier days, is different from that which a European would conceive. Bowed down from his youth beneath the yoke of absolute authority, he does not presume to emancipate himself, even in idea; but takes another way of compensating his present grievances. He pictures to himself a despotic government in the hands, not of a tyrant, but a father of his people; under which every class of men and every individual might have his appropriate sphere of action, to which he confined himself, and the duties of which he fulfilled; under whom the peaceful arts of agriculture, tending of flocks, and commerce, were supposed to flourish, riches to increase and abound, as if the hands of the monarch, like those of a divinity, showered blessings on his people.
Such a government and such a sovereign are recorded in the Cyropædia itself; and their image has survived through all the periods of Asiatic history, still continuing to form, as it were, the central point of oriental tradition, and vividly impressed on the code of Zoroaster. According to that sage, the era of Jemshid, the ancient sovereign of Iran, was the golden age of his country. “Jemshid, the father of his people, the most glorious of mortals whom the sun ever beheld. In his days animals perished not: there was no want either of water, or of fruit-bearing trees, or of animals fit for the food of mankind. During the light of his reign there was neither frost nor burning heat, nor death, nor unbridled passions, the work of the Devs. Man appeared to retain the age of fifteen; the children grew up in safety, as long as Jemshid reigned, the father of his people.”
The restoration of such a golden age was the end of the legislation of Zoroaster, who, however, built his code on a religious foundation, agreeably to the practice of the East; and the multifarious ceremonies he prescribed had all reference to certain doctrines intimately associated with his political dogmata; and it is absolutely necessary to bear in mind this alliance, if we would not do injustice to one part or other of his system.
The philosophical system of Zoroaster set out with those speculations with which philosophy, in the infancy of nations, is apt to commence her career, being impelled thereto in the most lively and powerful manner, namely, with discussions respecting the origin of evil, which in so many forms oppresses human nature. It is indifferent to us, whether he was himself the first propounder of the doctrines he maintained on this subject, or whether he borrowed them from more ancient traditions of the East. It is sufficient that in this respect he assumed such high ground that all obscurity which involved the subject seemed to disappear, as long as no clouds of metaphysics obscured the horizon. The doctrine of a good and evil principle, the sources of all good and ill, is the foundation-stone of the whole structure, both of his religious and political philosophy.
This leading idea was, however, modified by the character of a legislator which its author assumed. He asserted the existence of a kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness: in the former reigns Ormuzd, the author and giver of all good; in the latter, Ahriman, the source of all evil, moral as well as physical. The throne of Ormuzd is surrounded by the seven Amshaspands, the princes of light, of whom the sage himself was the first. Subordinate to these are the Izeds, the genii of good, of whatever kind. The kingdom of darkness subject to Ahriman, contains the same sort of hierarchy; his throne being surrounded by the seven superior Devs, the princes of evil, while an infinite number of inferior Devs are subordinate to the former, as the Izeds to the Amshaspands. The kingdoms of Ormuzd and Ahriman are eternally opposed to each other, but at a future period Ahriman shall be overthrown, and the powers of darkness destroyed; the dominion of Ormuzd shall become universal, and the kingdom of light alone shall subsist and embrace the universe.
It is apparent that this ideal system was copied from the constitutions of the oriental monarchies, and conversely, the forms of the first were applied to the latter: the whole being obviously adapted to the place and circumstances of time in which the legislator appeared. He lived in a country situated on the borders of the nomad tribes, where he had opportunities of comparing the advantages of civil society with the striking contrast presented by the wandering and lawless hordes, which incessantly laid waste his native land. He beheld, as it were, his kingdoms of light and of darkness realised on the earth: Iran, the Medo-Bactrian kingdom, subject to Gustasp, being the image of the kingdom of Ormuzd, and the monarch, of Ormuzd himself; while Turan, the land of the nomad nations to the north, of which Afrasiab was king, was the picture of the kingdom of darkness under the rule of Ahriman. The leading ideas, originally distinct, have been so intimately mixed up together, that if not absolutely confounded, at all events many of the subordinate images have been transferred from one to the other. For instance, as Turan lay to the north of Iran, the kingdom of Ahriman is made to occupy the same relative position; thence descend the Devs, which at all times inflict infinite mischiefs on Iran. As the inhabitants of Turan led a lawless, unsettled life, causing continual mischief by their incursions, so the Devs wander in all directions from their abodes in the north, and seek occasions of inflicting mischief everywhere. Nevertheless, as Ahriman shall eventually be overcome, and his kingdom annihilated, so shall the power of the chiefs of the Turanians be broken; the laws of Zoroaster prevail, and the golden age of Jemshid return.