them, it
learned to believe that there was something sublimer than anything with
which it was acquainted, revealed only to the initiated; and {40} while the
worth of that sublimer knowledge did not consist in secrecy alone, it did
not lose any of its value by being concealed. Thus the popular religion and
the secret doctrines, although always distinguished from each other, united
in serving to curb the people. The condition and the influence of religion
on a nation were always closely connected with the situation of those
persons who were particularly appointed for the service of the gods, the
priests. The scholar will readily call to mind a Calchas, a Chryses, and
others. The leaders and commanders themselves, in those days, offered their
sacrifices (see the description which Nestor makes to Pallas, Od. iii.,
430, &c.), performed the prayers, and observed the signs which indicated
the result of an undertaking. In a word, kings and leaders were at the same
time PRIESTS.[43]

How far may this have been a reason why Pharaoh did not call on a priest
for help, but rely on the supposed superior knowledge of the Magi? a higher
grade of secret instruction, perhaps, than he had received.

* * * * *

{41}

CHAPTER III.

The Origin of the Cabbalistae; the Chaldeans, and their Antagonism to
Patriarchal Tradition.--The Hand-writing on Belshazzar's Wall.--The
Secret Writings of the Cabbalistae.--How Daniel read the
Same.--Ezra.--The Origin of the Masoretic Text.--Zoroaster.--His
Reformation and Reconstruction of the Religion of the
Magi.--Pythagoras, and his "League."--The Thugs.--The Druids.

So far as the children of Shem and Japheth are concerned, it is believed
true religion was preserved, except where tradition became adulterated with
extraneous matter. And for the preservation of that religion, Almighty God,
in his mercy, established of that lineage a certain race, with rules,
partly signifying his truth, partly merely political, which should
thereafter shine as a moral light to the world, no matter how dim the light
might be, through the imperfection of human nature under peculiar
circumstances of temptation or otherwise.

Here, at once, was an antagonism with the pagan religion, which was of the
children of Ham, under his father's patriarchal curse.

When Moses, the servant with the watchword, "I AM THAT I AM," presented
himself to the Shemitic and {42} Japhe