rians, which relate that the fabricator of all things
had comprised the duration of his work in a period of twelve
thousand years, which period was distributed to the twelve
houses of the sun. In the first thousand, God made heaven
and earth; in the second the firmament; in the third the sea
and the waters; in the fourth the sun, moon and stars; in
the fifth the souls of animals, birds, and reptiles; in the
sixth man. See Suidas, at the word Tyrrhena; which shows
first the identity of their theological and astrological
opinions; and, secondly, the identity, or rather confusion
of ideas, between absolute and systematical creation; that
is, the periods assigned for renewing the face of nature,
which were at first the period of the year, and afterwards
periods of 60, of 600, of 25,000, of 36,000 and of 432,000
years.

** The modern Parses and the ancient Mithriacs, who are the
same sect, observe all the Christian sacraments, even the
laying on of hands in confirmation. The priest of Mithra,
says Tertullian, (de Proescriptione, ch. 40) promises
absolution from sin on confession and baptism; and, if I
rightly remember, Mithra marks his soldiers in the forehead,
with the chrism called in the Egyptian Kouphi; he celebrates
the sacrifice of bread, which is the resurrection, and
presents the crown to his followers, menacing them at the
same time with the sword, etc.

In these mysteries they tried the courage of the initiated
with a thousand terrors, presenting fire to his face, a
sword to his breast, etc.; they also offered him a crown,
which he refused, saying, God is my crown: and this crown is
to be seen in the celestial sphere by the side of Bootes.
The personages in these mysteries were distinguished by the
names of the animal constellations. The ceremony of mass is
nothing more than an imitation of these mysteries and those
of Eleusis. The benediction, the Lord be with you, is a
literal translation of the formula of admission chou-k, am,
p-ka. See Beausob. Hist. Du Manicheisme, vol. ii.

But the Jewish, Christian, and Mahometan doctors, crying out against
this recital, and treating the Parses as idolaters and worshippers of
fire, charged them with falsehood, interpolations, falsification of
facts; and there arose a violent dispute as to the