Excerpt from The Parsi Religion: As Contained in the Zand-Avasta, and Propounded and Defended by the Zoroastrians of India and Persia, Unfolded, Refuted, and Contrasted With Christianity A: Religion of the Persis, notwithstanding the puerilities and absurdities with which it is now associated, is substanti ally the same, in its general principles, at the present day, that it was in the ages of antiquity. As that of the united hosts of Medes and Persians, who were providentially instrumental in the destruction of the mighty power of Babylon, and the deliverance of the Jews, the favoured depositaries of divine knowledge during the general apostasy of the world from God, - who, in the noon-day splendour of their reign, ruled over the larger portion of the Greater and Lesser Asia - who attempted to crush the infant liberties of Europe in the Grecian States, - who carried their victorious arms to the north of Africa, and usurped for a season the rule of the Pharaohs in the land of Egypt, who, after having for centuries succumb ed to Macedonian and Parthian rule, recovered their frec dom, and first set limits to the Roman Empire in the East, who long formed a barrier to the irruption of the bar barous hordes of Scythians and Huns and Turks, by whom the civilized world was ultimately inundated, - and whose signal achievements and failures, from the very dawn of profane authentic record, have so much employed the pen of the historian, it is not without high interest in the history of the speculations and errors of the human mind. It did not. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.