The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

IN PERSIA. 63
by the monarch, Darius Hystaspes, 9 who accompanied
him into Cashmere, 10 for the purpose of completing his
preparatory studies by the instruction of the Brahmins,
from whom he had previously received initiation, 11 After
having obtained a complete knowledge of their theological,
mathematical, and astronomical system, he returned
into Bactria, arid took up his residence with his royal
patron
at Balk. 12
He began with their religion. Before his time the
Persians worshipped in the open air, and resisted the innovation
of covered temples, 13
long after they were
adopted by other nations; for they thought that an
immaterial Being could not be confined in buildings
erected by the hand of man; and, therefore, they considered
the broad expanse of heaven as the sublime cover-
ing of a temple consecrated to the Deity. 14 Their places
of sacrifice were of an open and very simple nature, be-
ing elevated on hills, 15 and composed principally of irregular
circles of unhewn stone, like those of the northern
nations of Europe. 16
They abominated images, 17 and
worshipped the Sun and Fire, 13 as representatives of the
ciated his name with those of Confucius, Mahomet, and other successful
reformers of religious
rites.
9
Hyde. Rel. vet. Pers., p. 323.
10 "Cashmere, which has often been called the terrestrial paradise,
In
may indeed be justly denominated the holy land of superstition.
the Ayeen Akbery, forty-five places are stated tr> be dedicated to
Mahadeo; sixty-four to Vishnu; twenty-two to Durga: and only
three to Brahma." (Maur. Ind. Ant., vol. v.. p. 861.)
11 Am. Marcell., 1. xiii.
12 Prid. Con., vol. i., p. 220. _
13 The Persians were not singular in this custom ; for the early
Egyptians, as well as the Druids and others, worshipped in uncover-
ed temples. (Clem. Alex. Strom., 5. Lucian de Dea Syria.)
u 15
Vid. Cic. de. 1. Leg., ii., c. 2.
Strabo., 1. xv.
10
By some unexplained process in the human mind, huge stones
were always objects of veneration with every people who had forsaken
the true God.
17 Herod. Clio., 1. i. Yet, "according to the Zinat o'ttawarikh,
idolatry first arose in Persia, from survivors preserving the busts and
images of their deceased friends ; which, in subsequent ages, were
venerated with divine honours by their posterity." (Wait. Orient.
Ant., p. 11.)
18 Even the Jews in their idolatries were not exempt from the su-
perstitious adoration of this element, a practice which they pretended
to justify from their own Scriptures. God, say they, appeared in
the Cherubim over the gate of Eden as a flaming sword, (Gen. iii.,