Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/24

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IN OLD IRÂN.
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glorious edifice of the old Irânian ethology universally acknowledged to be the sublimest among the oldest religions of the world. This position it is the solemn duty of every Zoroastrian student of Irânian antiquities to inspect with the light of evidence furnished abundantly by history, both Occidental as well as Oriental. It is as undesirable as it is unphilosophic to dwell with idle complacence on the high praise which European scholars have almost invariably bestowed on Zoroastrianism for its sublime ethical conceptions, and to ignore allegations as to the practices in question of the early followers of Zoroaster. One of the true criteria of the morality of a nation is its marriage institution. The moral life of society begins and is nurtured in the family. It is, therefore, scarcely possible to conceive how a nation, much less a religion, which has been generally extolled for its pure system of morals, and proverbial for its strictly moral habits, should have sanctioned or tolerated a custom which must naturally have demoralized the highly valued

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