A MODERN ZOROASTRIAN. A MODERN ZOROASTRIAN. _1000 copies printed, February, 1888._ _1000 ” ” March, 1889._ _1000 ” ” March, 1890._ _1000 ” ” June, 1890._ _1000 ” ” March, 1891._ _1000 ” ” June, 1892._ _1000 ” ” February, 1893._ _1000 ” ” November, 1893._ A MODERN ZOROASTRIAN BY S. LAING, AUTHOR OF “MODERN SCIENCE AND MODERN THOUGHT,” “PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE,” “HUMAN ORIGINS.” Eighth Thousand. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LD. 1893. CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. From some of the criticisms on the First Edition of this work I fear that the distinction I endeavoured to draw between the use of the term “polarity” in the inorganic and in the spiritual worlds has not been made sufficiently clear. I stated in the Introduction “That while the principle of polarity pervades both worlds, I am far from assuming that the laws under which it acts are identical; and that virtue and vice, pain and pleasure, are products of the same mathematical laws as regulate the attractions and repulsions of molecules and atoms.” But this warning has been apparently overlooked by some readers who have assumed that instead of analogy I meant identity, and that it was a mistake to use the same word “polarity” for phenomena so essentially distinct as those of the material and the spiritual worlds. Thus my “guide, philosopher, and friend,” Professor Huxley, for whose authority I have the highest respect, observed in a recent article, that he had long ago acquired a habit, if he came across the word polarity applied to anything but magnetism and electricity, of throwing down the book and reading no farther. I must confess that I felt a little disconcerted when I read this passage; but I was soon consoled, for, in a month or two afterwards, I came across another passage in the same Review which said, “However revolting may be the accumulation of misery at the negative pole of Society, in contrast with that of monstrous wealth at the positive pole, this state of things must abide and grow continuously worse, as long as Istar (the dual Goddess of the Babylonians) holds her way unchecked.”