mental books (Zend-Avesta) of that people by the Frenchman Anquetil du Perron:[1] these books are written in the ancient Zend language, a sister language to Sanscrit.
Light, which is worshipped in this religion, is not a symbol of the Good, an image or figure by which the Good is represented; it might, on the contrary, just as well be said that the Good is the symbol of light. Neither of the two is outward sign or symbol, but they are directly identical.
Here among the Parsis worship makes its appearance. Substantiality here exists for the subject in its particularity: man as a particular form of the Good stands over against the universal Good, over against light in its pure, as yet undisturbed, manifestation, which the Good as natural concrete existence is.
The Parsis have also been called fire-worshippers. This designation is to a certain degree incorrect, for the Parsis do not direct their worship to fire as devouring material fire, but only to fire as light, which as the truth of the material appears in an outward form.
The Good as an object, as something having a sensuous shape, which corresponds with the content which is as yet abstract, is Light. It has essentially the signification of the Good, the Righteous; in human form it is known as Ormazd, but this form is as yet a superficial personification here. Personification exists, that is to say, so long as the form as representing the content is not as yet inherently developed subjectivity. Ormazd is the Universal, which in an external form acquires subjectivity; he is light, and his kingdom is the realm of light.
The stars are lights appearing singly. What appears being something particular, natural, there at once springs up a difference between that which appears and that
- ↑ It was in 1754 that Anquetil du Perron saw a facsimile of four leaves of the Oxford MS. of the Vendêdâd Sâdah, and after years of heroic effort and persevering toil, in 1771 he published the first European translation of the Zend-Avesta—Tr. S.
