hesis with which we began, the power of
resistance and of {160} influence possessed by Persian culture and
religion. These possessed an originality so independent that after having
resisted in the Orient the power of absorption of Hellenism, and after
having checked the Christian propaganda, they even withstood the
destructive power of Islam. Firdusi (940-1020) glories in the ancient
national traditions and the mythical heroes of Mazdaism, and while the
idolatry of Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor has long since died out or
degenerated, there are votaries of Zoroaster at the present day who piously
perform the sacred ceremonies of the Avesta and practise genuine fire
worship.

Another witness to the vitality of Mithraic Mazdaism is the fact that it
escaped becoming a kind of state religion of the Roman empire during the
third century. An oft-quoted sentence of Renan's says:[55] "If Christianity
had been checked in its growth by some deadly disease, the world would have
become Mithraic." In hazarding that statement he undoubtedly conjured up a
picture of what would have been the condition of this poor world in that
case. He must have imagined, one of his followers would have us
believe,[56] that the morals of the human race would have been but little
changed, a little more virile perhaps, a little less charitable, but only a
shade different. The erudite theology taught by the mysteries would
obviously have shown a laudable respect for science, but as its dogmas were
based upon a false physics it would apparently have insured the persistence
of an infinity of errors. Astronomy would not be lacking, but astrology
would have been unassailable, while the heavens would still be revolving
around the earth to accord with its doctrines. The greatest {161} danger,
it appears to me, would have been that the Caesars would have established a
theocratic absolutism supported by the Oriental ideas of the divinity of
kings. The union of throne and altar would have been inseparable, and
Europe would never have known the invigorating struggle between church and
state. But on the other hand the discipline of Mithraism, so productive of
individual energy, and the democratic organization of its societies in
which senators and slaves rubbed elbows, contain a germ of liberty.

We might dwell at some length on these contrasting possibilities, but it is
hard to find a mental pastime less profitable than the attempt to remake
history and to conjecture