we seem to have the first beginnings of the Religion.  We may indeed go back by their aid to a time anterior to themselves—­a time when the Arian race was not yet separated into two branches, and the Easterns and Westerns, the Indians and Iranians, had not yet adopted the conflicting creeds of Zoroastrianism and Brahminism.  At that remote period we seem to see prevailing a polytheistic nature-worship—­a recognition of various divine beings, called indifferently Asuras (Ahuras) or Devas, each independent of the rest, and all seemingly nature-powers rather than persons, whereof the chief are Indra, Storm or Thunder; Mithra, Sunlight; Aramati (Armaiti), Earth; Vayu, Wind; Agni, Fire; and Soma (Homa), Intoxication.  Worship is conducted by priests, who are called kavi, “seers;” karapani, “sacriflcers,” or ricikhs, “wise men.”  It consists of hymns in honor of the gods; sacrifices, bloody and unbloody, some’ portion of which is burnt upon an altar; and a peculiar ceremony, called that of Soma, in which an intoxicating liquor is offered to the gods, and then consumed by the priests, who drink till they are drunken.

Such, in outline, is the earliest phase of Arian religion, and it is common to both branches of the stock, and anterior to the rise of the Iranic, Median, or Persian system.  That system is a revolt from this sensuous and superficial nature-worship.  It begins with a distinct recognition of spiritual intelligences—­real persons—­with whom alone, and not with powers, religion is concerned.  It divides these intelligences into good and bad, pure and impure, benignant and malevolent.  To the former it applies the term Asuras (Ahuras), “living” or “spiritual beings,” in a good sense; to the latter, the term Devas, in a bad one.  It regards the “powers” hitherto worshipped as chiefly Devas; but it excepts from this unfavorable view a certain number, and, recognizing them as Asuras, places them above the Izeds, or “angels.”  Thus far it has made two advances, each of great importance, the substitution of real “persons” for “powers,” as objects of the religious faculty, and the separation of the persons into good and bad, pure and impure, righteous and wicked.  But it does not stop here.  It proceeds to assert, in a certain sense, monotheism against polytheism.  It boldly declares that, at the head of the good intelligences, is a single great Intelligence, Ahuro-Mazdao, the highest object of adoration, the true Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe.  This is its great glory.  It sets before the soul a single Being as the source of all good and the proper object of the highest worship.  Ahuro-Mazdao is “the creator of life, the earthly and the spiritual;” “he has made the celestial bodies, earth, water, and trees, all good creatures,” and “all good, true, holy, pure, things.”  He is “the Holy God, the Holiest, the essence of truth, the father of all truth, the best being