A literary history of Persia

DATE OF THE A VESTA 29Paris, 1892-3) has striven to drag down at least in partfrom a remote antiquity even into post-Christian times. Notonly has opinion varied thus widely ; feeling has run high ;nay, in the opinion of that eminent scholar and courageoustraveller, M. HaleVy, expressed in conversation with thewriter, the calm domain of Science has been invaded by racialprejudices and national antipathies. We had been discussingthe views set forth in Darmesteter's work above mentioned, atthat time just published ;and I had expressed surprise at thevery recent date therein assigned to the Avesta, and inquiredwhether those numerous and eminent scholars who maintainedits great antiquity had no reason " for their assertion. Reasonenough," was the answer ;their pride in their Aryan" their hatred of the Semitic races,descent. Loath to accord to theJews any priority or excellence over the Aryan peoples, theybelittle Moses to glorify Zoroaster, and with one hand dragdown the Pentateuch while with the other they raise up"the Avesta ! Sad enough,if true, that this accursed racialfeeling, responsible for so many crimes, should not leave unmolestedeven these high levels where passion should have noplace !To enter these lists is not for those who, like the writer,have devoted themselves to the literature and thought ofMuhammadan times, a field sufficientlyvast and sufficientlyunexplored to satisfythe most ambitious and the mostindustrious ; preferable, moreover, in this,that here we "standon firm historic ground, and deal not with dates which oscillateover centuries and scenes which swing from Bactria to Atropatene.Yet all honour to those who so courageouslylabour inthose arid fields of a remote antiquity, striving with infinitetoil and tact to bring history out of legend,and order out ofchaos ! From such must we needs choose a guide in formingour views about that time and those events which, thoughstrongly appealing to our curiosity, lie beyond the range of ourown studies. Sanest and skilfulest of such guides,trained in