Zendavesta and Idolatry

The Zendavesta must, I think, have been copied in parts from the writings / of Moses. In the description of the creation, the first chapter of Genesis / is taken almost literally, except that the sun is created _before_ the / light, and then the herbs and the plants after the sun; which are precisely / the two points they did not understand, and therefore altered as errors.[1]

There are only two acts of creation, properly so called, in the Mosaic / account, -- the material universe and man. The intermediate acts seem more as / the results of secondary causes, or, at any rate, of a modification of / prepared materials.

[Footnote 1: / The Zend, or Zendavesta, is the sacred book ascribed to Zoroaster, or / Zerdusht, the founder or reformer of the Magian religion. The modern / edition or paraphrase of this work, called the Sadda, written in the / Persian of the day, was, I believe, composed about three hundred years ago / -- Ed.]

Pantheism and idolatry naturally end in each other; for all extremes meet. / The Judaic religion is the exact medium, the true compromise.