Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/424

It is further explained, in the same Pahlavi tractate, that if from outward appearance it seems that good and evil alike spring from mankind it is because mankind are not perfect in goodness.^[1] As sickness and death are due to the bodily imperfection of man, so does evil originate owing to his moral imperfection.^[2] The two competing propensities existing in human nature cause these imperfections.^[3]

Whence this evil propensity in the nature of man? Does it originate with him? Does man load the infirmities of the flesh and the inequities of his moral nature on the back of Ahriman and proclaim him as the source of all evil? If so, why circumscribe Ormazd's greatness by postulating this imaginary creature? But the general verdict of the Pahlavi writers is that evil is primeval in its origin; it is not relative, nor did man bring it into existence. It is enhanced when the flesh triumphs over the spirit, but it does not originate with the flesh. The father of evil is as real a personality as the father of goodness. We shall now peruse the life-story of this Prince of Darkness as narrated in the Pahlavi works.

The primeval surce of evil. If evil exists in reality, and is neither produced by Ormazd nor by man, then the only alternative is that it must have originated from an independent source. And so it is, say the Pahlavi works. Ahriman, or the Evil Spirit, called in Pahlavi Gana Menu (possibly to be read as Anrak Menu, from Av. Angra Mainyu), is its originator. As we have already seen in the Pahlavi writings, man does not simply objectify the basest and vilest in his own nature under the name of Ahriman; the rival spirit is a personality. He is an independent being, and is co-existent with Ormazd.^[4] He abode from eternity in the abyss of endless darkness,^[5] and, aflame with hatred, he rushed into the world at the beginning of creation to work for its destruction, as he constantly wages war against Ormazd and the good creation.^[6] He is described as dwelling