From the facts to be gleaned concerning this people during the
seventh and eighth centuries B.C., it is quite probable that they
still had a faint knowledge of a former age of intellectual and
moral greatness, and that it was their object, at that time, to
return to the purer principles which characterized it. That
their efforts were subsequently copied by surrounding nations is
shown in the facts connected with their history.
Soon leading Syrians and Jews began to learn from their Eastern
neighbor that the worship of images could scarcely be acceptable
to a god which they were beginning to invest with a certain
degree of spirituality. There is little doubt, at the present
time, that the attempt to spiritualize the religion of the Jews
was due to the influence of the Persians. However, the length of
time required to effect any appreciable improvement in an
established form of worship is shown by the fact that, two
hundred years later, little change for the better was observed in
the temples, in which licentiousness had become a recognized
religious rite. Even at the present time, it is reported that in
many places of worship in the East there still reside "holy women
--god's women," who, like those in Babylon, described by various
writers, are devoted to the "god of fire."
In a comparison made between the religion of Persia and the
doctrines said to have been taught by Moses, Inman remarks:
"The religion of Persia as reformed by Zoroaster so closely
resembles the Mosaic, that it would be almost impossible to
decide which has the precedence of the other, unless we knew how
ancient was the teaching of Zoroaster, and how very recent was
that said to be from Moses. Be this as it may, we find the
ancient Persians resemble the Jews in sacrificing upon high
places, in paying divine honor to fire, in keeping up a sacred
flame, in certain ceremonial cleansings, in possessing an
hereditary priesthood who alone were allowed to offer sacrifices,
and in making their summum bonum the possession of a numerous
offspring."[108]
[108] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii., p. 64.
It is quite plain that by both these nations the wisdom of an
earlier race was nearly forgotten. Seven hundred years B.C. the
Persians had doubtless already adopted the worship of "One God"
who was the Regenerator or Destroyer, a Deity which, as we have
