tic races, he was everywhere received
and acknowledged by them as their leader, in opposition to both the
temporal and theological power of the Magi and of Pharaoh.

Here came the clashing between pagan and traditional theology preserved by
the patriarchs. And Almighty God, to show the truth of his laws, sanctioned
their promulgation by signs and miracles, which the Magi could not equal
nor counteract.

Pass by the Israelitish history until the loss and destruction of the first
temple, when we find this religious race, although imbued with the
principles of truth, fallen from their high estate, and led captive into a
strange land, subject to the very people that insisted on the opposite of
their own religion. They were then under the control of a monarch who was
governed by the laws of the Medes and Persians, that is, of the Magi; and
who, in turn, relied upon their emperor, who trusted only to his magicians,
sorcerers, and Chaldeans. They were in BABYLON itself.

To confirm what has been said, and to elucidate what is to follow, we will
pause a moment to learn what is meant by "the Chaldeans."

The accounts that have been transmitted to us by the Chaldeans themselves
of the antiquity of their learning, are blended with fable, and involved in
considerable uncertainty. At the time when Callisthenes was requested by
Aristotle to gain information concerning the origin of science in Chaldea,
he was {43} informed that the ancestors of the Chaldeans had continued
their astronomical observations through a period of 470,000 years; but upon
examining the ground of this report, he found that the Chaldean observation
reached no further backward than 1,903 years, or that, of course (adding
this number to 331, B.C., the year in which Babylon was taken by
Alexander), they had commenced in the year 2,234, B.C. Besides, Ptolemy
mentions no Chaldean observations prior to the era of Nabonassar, which
commenced 747 years B.C. Aristotle, however, on the credit of the most
ancient records, speaks of the Chaldean Magi as prior to the Egyptian
priests, who, it is well known, cultivated learning before the time of
Moses. It appears probable that the philosophers of Chaldea were the
priests of the Babylonian nation, who instructed the people in the
principles of religion, interpreted its laws, and conducted its ceremonies.
Their character was similar to that of the Persian Magi, and they are often
confounded by the Greek historians. Like the