that he might have lived one or two hundred years before the Median conquest of Babylon, and that this occurrence was probably one of the results of the ferment which his doctrines caused. "He preached, like Moses, war and destruction to all idolaters and wicked men, and said that he was commissioned by God to spread the religion of Ahura Mazda. Daring his life-time, and shortly after his death, his followers seem to have engaged in incessant wars with their religious antagonists, the Vedic Indians, which struggle is well known in the Sanscrit writings as that between the Asuras (Ahura) and Devas (the Hindu gods). But afterwards they spread westward and invaded the countries of other idol worshippers in order to uproot idolatry, and establish everywhere the good Mazdayan religion. They really appear to have changed the order of things in Babylon when they conquered it, and spread a new creed, for they are spoken of by Berosus as tyrants." Zoroaster was the first prophet of truth who appeared in the world, and kindled a fire which thousands of years could not entirely extinguish." When Moses was first talked about we know not, but at the time of Samuel, David, and Josiah he was unknown. We have no reason to believe that the Hebrews ever came into contact with, or ever heard of the Persians, until after the Babylonish conquest, followed by that of Cyrus; consequently, if the Jewish law first propounded contained nothing akin to the doctrines and laws of Zoroaster, and subsequent publications did so, we should naturally conclude that the last were copied. It is unnecessary to tell the student of biblical history that the Jews were for many years under the dominion of the Persians and Medes, and that Nehemiah, one of their great men, after the Babylonian captivity, was a personal, though humble, friend, of the king of Persia--i.e., if we take his account of himself for true.