ENUMERATION OF SOME ADVANTAGES WHICH ARISE FROM THE ENIGMATICAL FORMS OF THE PRECEPTS OF ZARDUSHT’S FOLLOWERS.――The substance of the venerable Zardusht’s precepts is contained in enigmas and parables, because with the mass of society, fabulous narrations, though revolting to reason, excite stronger impressions. In the next place, if it were proposed to communicate to an ignorant person the idea of the existence of the necessarily existing God, independent of cause, he could not understand the proposition; and if we speak to him concerning the uncompoundedness of intelligences, the immateriality of souls, the excellence of the sphere and stars, he becomes overwhelmed in perplexity and amazement; being utterly unable to comprehend spiritual delights or tortures, or discover the exact truth; whilst the precepts enforced by the figurative expressions of the law come within the understanding of high and low, so that they are profited thereby, and the explanation of the law is attended with a good reputation both in this world and the next. The select few undoubtedly comprehend the nature of certainty, religious abstraction, and philosophy, although the vulgar, in general, hold these in abhorrence: it therefore becomes necessary to clothe the maxims of philosophy in the vestments of law, in order that all classes of society may derive their appropriate advantages from that source: these observations being premised, it is to be remarked, that some Yazdanian professors express themselves after this manner:――The book of the _Zend_ is of two kinds; the one perspicuous and without enigmatical forms of speech, which they call the _Mah Zand_, or “Great Zand;” the second, abounding in enigmatical and figurative forms of speech, is called the _Kah Zand_, or “Little Zand.” The Mah Zand contained the precepts of the law promulgated by the venerable Máhábád, such as the volume of Azar Sassán, and the Mah Zand was lost during the domination of strangers, particularly the Turks and Greeks: the Kah Zand still remained, but much of it was also lost in other subsequent invasions.