OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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“ tops of the highest mountains are the places chap.“ chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers VIir ’

“ are the principal worship ; the supreme God “ who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the ob-“ ject to whom they are addressed.” Yet, atthe same time, in the true spirit of a polytheist,he accuses them of adoring earth, water, fire, thewinds, and the sun and moon. But the Per-sians of every age have denied the charge, andexplained the equivocal conduct, which mightappear to give a colour to it. The elements, andmore particularly fire, light, and the sun, whomthey called Mithra, were the objects of their re-ligious reverence, because they considered themas the purest symbols, the noblest productions,and themost powerful agents of the divine powerand nature."

Every mode of religion, to make a deep and Ceremo-lasting impression on the human mind, must moi^'pre-exercise our obedience, by enjoining practices of cepts ‘devotion, for which we can assign no reason; andmust acquire our esteem, by inculcating moralduties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts.

The religion of Zoroaster was abundantly pro-vided with the former, and possessed a sufficientportion of the latter. At the age of puberty,the faithful Persian was invested with a mysteri-ous girdle, the badge of the divine protection ;and from that moment, all the actions of his life,even the most indifferent, or the most necessary,

" Hyde de Relig. Pers. c. 8. Notwithstanding all their distinctionsand protestations, which seem sincere enough, their tyrants, the maho-metans, have constantly stigmatised them as idolatrous worshippersof fire.

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