ty of the soul, its
transmigration to places of pain or pleasure, its resurrection, the
final judgment, the good and bad angels, the revolt of the evil Genius,
and all the poetical belief of a world to come. And this highly-favored
people, whose perfection consists in a slight mutilation of their
persons,--this atom of a people, which forms but a small wave in the
ocean of mankind, and which insists that God has made nothing but for
them, will by its schism reduce to one-half, its present trifling weight
in the scale of the universe.

* The Sadducees and Pharisees.

He then showed me a neighboring group, composed of men dressed in white
robes, wearing a veil over their mouths, and ranged around a banner of
the color of the morning sky, on which was painted a globe cleft in two
hemispheres, black and white: The same thing will happen, said he, to
these children of Zoroaster,* the obscure remnant of a people once so
powerful. At present, persecuted like the Jews, and dispersed among
all nations, they receive without discussion the precepts of the
representative of their prophet. But as soon as the Mobed and the
Destours** shall assemble, they will renew the controversy about the
good and the bad principle; on the combats of Ormuzd, God of light, and
Ahrimanes, God of darkness; on the direct and allegorical sense; on
the good and evil Genii; on the worship of fire and the elements; on
impurities and ablutions; on the resurrection of the soul and body, or
only of the soul;*** on the renovation of the present world, and on that
which is to take its place. And the Parses will divide into sects, so
much the more numerous, as their families will have contracted, during
their dispersion, the manners and opinions of different nations.

* They are the Parses, better known by the opprobrious name
of Gaures or Guebres, another word for infidels. They are
in Asia what the Jews are in Europe. The name of their pope
or high priest is Mobed.

** That is to say, their priests. See, respecting the rites
of this religion, Henry Lord Hyde, and the Zendavesta.
Their costume is a robe with a belt of four knots, and a
veil over their mouth for fear of polluting the fire with
their breath.

*** The Zoroastrians are divided between two opinions; one
party believing that both soul and body will rise, the other
that it will be the soul only. The Christians and
Mahomet