was at least an immeasurably inferior being.  The supreme control of the universe, to which it owes its perfect order, was ascribed by Zoroastrianism to Ormuzd.  The struggle between good and evil, beneficent and malevolent, was due to the opposition of the mighty, but not almighty, Ahriman.  Whatever form of Mazdeism (Zoroastrianism) we take for purposes of comparison, we are safe in saying that the Manichæan dualism was by far the more abso- lute. In both systems each side of the dualism is represented by a series (or rather several series) of personified principles.  These agree in the two systems in some particulars.  Yet the variations are quite as noticeable as the agreements.  There is much in common between the Manichæan and the Zoroastrian delineations of the fearful conflict between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness, yet the beginning of the conflict is quite differently conceived of in the two systems.  In Manichæism the creation is accounted for by the conflict in which Primordial Man was beaten by the powers of Darkness and suffered the mixing of his elements with the elements of darkness.  The actual world was made by the good God, 20 or rather by his subordinates, as a means of liberating the imprisoned light. The creation of man is ascribed, on the other hand, to the King of Darkness (or his subordinates), with a view to hindering the escape of the mingled light by diffusion thereof through propagation.  Mazdeism derives the creation solely from Ormuzd, from whose hand it issued "as pure and perfect as himself" (Lenormant, Anc. Hist. II. p. 30).  It was the work of Ahriman to "spoil it by his evil influence."  The appellation "Maker of the material world" is constantly applied to Ormuzd in the Vendîdâd and other sacred books. The most instructive Mazdean account of the creation that has come down to us is that contained in the Vendîdâd, Fargard I.  Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd) is represented here as naming one by one the sixteen good lands that he had created.  Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) is represented as coming to each, one by one, and creating in it noxious things.  Examples of these counter-creations are, the serpents, winter, venomous flies, sinful lusts, mosquitoes, pride, unnatural sin, burying the dead, witchcraft, the sin of unbelief, the burning of corpses, abnormal issues in women, oppression of foreign rulers, excessive heat, etc.  This jumble of physical evils and sins is characteristic of Mazdeism. According to Mani matter is inherently evil, and it only ceases to be absolutely evil by the mixture with it of the elements of the Kingdom of Light.  Creation is a process forced "Ahriman had been eternal in the past, he had no beginning, and proceeded from no former being * * * .  This being who had no beginning would come to an end. * * * .  Evil then should be finally conquered and destroyed, the creation should become as pure as on its first day, and Ahriman should disappear forever."  Such, doubtless, was the original doctrine, but the form probably in vogue in the time of Mani was more pantheistic or monothe- istic, both Ormuzd and Ahriman proceeding from boundless time (Zrvan akarana).  See on this matter, Darmsteter:  Introd. to the Zend-Avesta, p. lxxii, etc., and his art. in Contemp. Review; and Lenormant:  Anc. Hist. as above. 28 Relation of Manichæism to Zoroastrianism.