[70] The Zendavesta is one of the most ancient as well as remarkable books that has come down to us from the East. It was first made known in Europe in the year 1762, by Anquetil du Perron, who brought it from Surat in India, whither he went expressly to search for the ancient books of the East. He spent many years (seventeen it is said) in making a translation, which he accompanied with valuable notes, illustrative of the doctrines of Zoroaster, and in elucidation of the Zend language, in which this book was written. A great sensation was produced in Europe among the learned at the appearance of the work. Examined as a monument of the ancient religion and literature of the Persians, it was differently appreciated by them. Sir William Jones[A] and others, not only questioned its authenticity, but denounced the translator in very harsh terms. But later writers, among these some of the most distinguished philologists of Europe, are willing to let it rank among the earliest books of the East, and as entitled to an antiquity at least six centuries anterior to the Christian era. The Zendavesta (from _zend_ living, and _avesta_ word, i. e. "the living word") consists of a series of liturgic services for various occasions, and bears the same reference to the books of Zoroaster that our breviaries and common-prayer books do to the Bible. It embraces five books. 1. The _Izechné_, "elevation of the soul, praise, devotion;" 2. the _Vispered_, "the chiefs of the beings there named;" 3. the _Vendidad_, which is considered as the foundation of the law; 4. the _Yeshts Sades_, or "a collection of compositions and of fragments;" 5. the book _Siroz_, "thirty days," containing praises addressed to the Genius of each day; and which is a sort of liturgical calendar.[B] The doctrines inculcated in the Zendavesta are "the existence of a great first principle. Time without beginning and without end. This incomprehensible being is the author of the two great active powers of the universe--Ormuzd the principle of all good, and Ahriman the principle of all evil. Ormuzd is the first creative agent produced by the Self-Existent. He is perfectly pure, intelligent, just, powerful, active, benevolent,--in a word, the precise image of the Element; the centre and author of the perfections of all nature." Ahriman is the opposite of this. He is occupied in perverting and corrupting every thing good; he is the source of misery and evil. "Ordained to create and govern the universe, Ormuzd received the Word, which in his mouth became an instrument of infinite power and fruitfulness."[C]