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service and obedience of the all-just, and at no mo-
ment is lie negligent in pious practices. Moreover,
he thinks himself bound to abstain from hurting
living beings, and he respects all the creatures of
God. He does not cut grass and green trees without
necessity, nor pollute the ground wantonly, except
on a particular place ; he throws neither water nor
fire upon vile spots ; he blesses the stars; further
in this disposition he accustoms himself to absti-
nence in speaking, eating, and sleeping; he con-
strains himself to many occupations: one of them is
to close with his fingers the exterior organs; he
dwells with veneration upon the image of the lord
of fires (the sun), until he had carried this exercise
so far that, by merely covering his eyes, the great
object is present to him; then, whichever of the
illustrious and mighty personages of Hind, or Iran,
or Greece, or any other place, he wishes to see, that
person presents himself to his view, and he sees
lights, explores many ways, and makes himself
master of the temporary and the eternal. The lord
vicar of the all-just is called Ilahi, " divine," by his
followers, because in all their actions the object of
their wishes is God; and the lord has received the
divine mission to establish the worship of the stars,
which are to be the Kiblah of the pious. In the an-
cient books of the Hindus and Par sis, without num-
ber, the excellence of the constellations is affirmed.