hands a pair of scales in which he scrupulously weighs the good and evil actions of the man's past life. If the good deeds outweigh the evil ones, he passes across the bridge into heaven. But if his evil deeds prove the heavier, he is cast off the bridge into the yawning abyss of hell beneath. If, however, the scales balance evenly, the soul is sent to Hamast-gehan, a place corresponding to the purgatory of the Roman Catholic faith. From this brief description of final judgment you have already seen how closely some of our fundamental beliefs approach those of Christianity. Take the doctrine of immortality, for example. This is very clearly wrought out even in the ancient Gathas. Indeed, it was more definitely taught by our ancestors than by the Hebrews prior to the birth of Jesus Christ. Our view of human life is also much the same as yours. In the outer world we see a great struggle going on between physical forces. In the inner world of the soul there is a like fierce conflict between spiritual forces. Struggle, then, is the order of the universe. Two principles are at war, the good and the evil, backed by the personalities Ahura Madza and Ahriman. So there is no Oriental fatalism in our religion, but an everlasting fight between the powers of darkness and those of light. To such an extent has this philosophy of life been emphasized in Zoroastrianism that critics say our system hopelessly breaks down and that this dualism can never be reconciled.

Ahura Madza has a rival in Ahriman, and, therefore, our God is not all-powerful. But such a view reveals a lack of sympathetic understanding of our teaching. Ahura Madza is the all-powerful One behind the two opposing principles of good and evil. The latter he uses to work out his purposes of righteousness. Ahriman is neither omniscient nor almighty, and whatever limitations may appear in the being of Ahura Madza are self-imposed for the sake of his creative moral purpose. You also have a God and a devil in your own religion, and it seems to me that Christians likewise, if they hold that the devil is the author of evil, are open to this same criticism.

Christian: While your charge of dualism as against Christianity would not be admitted by all our Christian thinkers, your discussion shows me that you believe in the fact of sin and that our lives are in a constant struggle with temptation. Please tell me what part man plays in this scheme of things. Is he just an automaton taking a fatalistic part in a dumb show, or has he freedom of choice and is the struggle serious and real?

Parsee: The struggle is real and man is a free moral agent to choose or reject the right. As to sin we believe that it grows in its influence and dire consequences with the passage of time. The same law holds for righteousness. Hence the Zoroastrians exhort young men to choose the right early in life, that their good deeds may accumulate before they are called to stand on

Chinvat Bridge. Forgiveness is offered in return for the expiation of offenses by penances. Of these penances flagellation and offerings of the materials used in worship were the most common in the old days. Some sins, especially those having to do with the contamination of earth, fire, or water with dead bodies, are unforgivable. It is noteworthy, however, that if a heathen commit even one of these deadly sins and afterward with true repentance becomes a convert to Zoroastrianism, his guilt is thereby covered.

Christian: And what are the Parsee notions of heaven and hell? Are these actual places or only states of the soul?

Parsee: Our theology, as you have already gathered, is highly practical and ethical, none the less do we place large emphasis upon the inner soulcondition resulting from the observance or nonobservance of spiritual laws. But the Avesta teaches also that there are such places as heaven and hell. Heaven is described as a place of everlasting and ineffable glory, while hell is one of torments where the sinner reaps the consequences of his deeds much after the fashion of the condemned in Dante's Inferno.

Christian: Among some Christian theologians there is much debate as to whether or not there is to be a second probation in the world hereafter for earth's finally impenitent. What is the Parsee view on this point?

Parsee: Hell and heaven with us are only tem

porary arrangements, so to speak. At the appointed time the Saviour to whom I have already made reference will come, and all the dead, both the righteous and the wicked, shall rise and assume once more their bodily form. Afterward the fire will melt the metal of the mountains into a great stream in which all are made pure. Ahura Madza will then throttle Ahriman, and hell itself shall be purged with the molten metal. Finally all persons and things having been thus purified, the world is to be restored and the time condition forever destroyed. The present order of things will thus become eternal, and all human beings blessed forevermore.

Christian: Well, we have devoted considerable time to theological doctrines. Let us now turn for a while to the ceremonial side of your religion. Will you not describe some of these ceremonies and also interpret their meaning, for I find that careless observers frequently do a religious sect great injustice by their hasty conclusions as to the significance of certain peculiar rites, the symbolism of which entirely escapes them.

Parsee: Yes, what you say is true, and I sometimes think that Parseeism has suffered most of all from the type of critics you mention. Yonder is Malabar Hill, but I will have time to tell you something about our principal ceremonies before we reach the Towers. The Naojote ceremony is the initiation of a Parsee child into the fold of Zoroastrianism. It corresponds to your