against and annihilates it so far as possible both in himself and all around him. He must strengthen the light side of his soul against the dark, and make it the master of the dark; he must banish from his soul lying and deceit, idleness and filthiness; purity of soul consists in truthfulness. Thus must a man watch and work with the good gods and under their eyes. It is not contemplation, meditation, or asceticism, as in the doctrine of the Brahmans; it is practical activity and inward effort that the teaching of Zarathrustra requires from men; the object it placed before men was not self-annihilation, but the purification of soul and body, and true assertion of self. If a man kept his body and soul pure; if he was truthful in word and work, and increased the good creation in meadow, field, and forest; if he slew the animals of the evil spirits, then all would be well with him; he would have abundance of cattle and descendants, long life in this world, and eternal life in the heaven of the spirits of light. This reform had been accomplished in its fundamental principles in Bactria, and Auramazda had been elevated above Mithra as the creator of heaven, of the gods, and the earth, when about the middle of the ninth century B.C. the armies of Shalmanesar II. of Asshur invaded the East of Iran. About this time, or soon after, the order of Athravas was formed. It rose, on the one hand, out of the ancient families of the fire-priests, who understood the custom of sacrifice, and had preserved the efficacious prayers to Mithra, Verethraghna, Haoma, and Tistrya, to Ardviçura and Drvaçpa down to the period of the reform, so far as they came over to the new doctrine; and on the other hand, out of the race of Zarathrustra, and the families of the zealous adherents of the new doctrine, who devoted themselves to the service of religion. This order of priests, which handed down in its families the sayings of Zarathrustra and those of old days, the ancient invocations as well as those of the new teaching, took precedence of the families of the nobles, warriors, and husbandmen, though they were not separated from them by any rights of connubium or other privileges. From the whole tendency of the reform there could not be any thought of acquiring such a position as that which the Brahmans--the first created of Brahman--attained among the orders of India. When the army of Tiglath-Pilesar II. entered Arachosia about the middle of the eighth century B.C. the new doctrine had already advanced to the West. It was represented among the Medes by eminent teachers. In this region, at the time when the Medes were under the supremacy of Assyria, a priestly order grew up out of the old families of the priests or Magians, _i.e._ the powerful, and adherents of the new doctrine; the families of this order abandoned their tribal connection among the Medes, and thus formed an hereditary caste, which preserved the name already in use in