‘We read in Xenophon that Cyrus the elder on his death-bed spoke as follows—“Do not think, my very dear children, that when I quit you I shall no longer be in existence. So long as I was with you, you never saw my soul, but you realized from my actions that it dwelt in this my body. Believe then that it will still exist, even if you see nothing of it. Honours would not continue to be paid to great men after death, did not their souls assist us to maintain their memory in freshness. I have never been able to persuade myself that souls live whilst they are enclosed in mortal bodies, and die when they issue from them; nor that the soul becomes dull at the moment it leaves this dull body; I believe that when it has freed itself from all contact with the body and has begun to exist in purity and perfection, then it becomes wise. Further, when the framework of humanity is broken up in death, we see clearly whither each of its parts speeds away, for all go to the elements from which they have sprung; the soul alone is not seen by us either whilst it is with us or when it departs. Lastly nothing resembles death so closely as sleep. But men’s souls, whilst they themselves sleep, most clearly reveal their divine nature; for then, being set free from their prison house, they often foresee things to come. From this we may gather what their properties will be, when they have utterly freed themselves from the fetters of the body. If then this is so, do reverence to me as a god; but if the soul is destined to perish with the body, still do reverence to the gods, who guard and rule all this beauteous world, and while so doing keep up the memory of me in loyal and unalterable affection.” So spoke Cyrus on his death-bed[29].’ [Sidenote: The manifold deity.] =12.= The Persian doctrine of the ‘Angels’ seems to have been very little understood either in Greece or at Rome, but, as we shall see in the course of this book, it profoundly influenced the course of religious history. The ‘Angels’ or good Spirits of Persism are, from one point of view, identical with the Creator himself, forms under which he manifests himself to men. Their names are all those of abstractions: the Good Mind, the Best Reason, the Desired Kingdom, Holy Humility, Salvation, and Immortality[30]. On the other hand, they gradually assume to the worshipper who contemplates them the appearance of separate personalities, dwelling, like the Creator himself, in an atmosphere of heavenly Glory. Thus a system which is in principle strictly monotheistic gradually developes into one in which the deity is sevenfold, as in the following hymn from the later part of the Avesta: ‘We praise the heavenly Glory. The mighty, the god-given, The praiseworthy, the life-giving, Healing, strengthening, watching High above the other creatures.