the Sanhedrin his assertion that he was King Solomon, and related to them all the events that had happened to him. His statement was received by the Sanhedrin, if not with derision, still, with great mistrust and incredulity, and they were about to declare him insane, when one of the Sanhedrin, wiser and bolder than the others, rose and spoke as follows: "Friends and worthy colleagues, whom the Lord has graced with wisdom and understanding, it will not be difficult for you to comprehend that any one afflicted with insanity would not be able to make so coherent a statement as we have now heard, but would wander about in his assertions incoherently from one subject to another. Now, this man who asserts himself to be King Solomon has not spoken one incoherent word, and has given no indication of his insanity, except his assertion in general that he is the great King our master, and that assertion he made coherently enough. Besides this, there is no reason whatever, either in his demeanor, gesture, or speech, to condemn him as insane. Would it be consistent with justice, as shown to us by our Great Lawgiver, to conclude that this man is insane, simply because he claims the throne as his own, without further investigation as to who is the one who now occupies the throne as King Solomon? Moreover, can we overlook the fact that when we left the throne-room there were two individuals, and when we returned one had disappeared, without our being able to comprehend how that happened? My advice is, that we request Topos, one of King Solomon's many wives, that when the present King pays her a visit, she may notice his feet,2 and then on her report on this you can form your judgment in this matter." The Sanhedrin fell in with this suggestion, and when they appealed to Topos, she reported that the King, her husband, never entered her chamber without a cover over his feet. The Sanhedrin requested her to try and remove the covering from her husband's feet at the next opportunity. Topos did as requested by the Sanhedrin, and reported that, to her amazement and disgust, she found her husband's feet to resemble those of a cock.

2 The Rabbis say that the feet of demons resemble those of a cock.

The Sanhedrin were now concerned to have Ashmedai stripped of the chain and the ring by which he had subtly obtained the throne from King Solomon. In this they succeeded through a confidential servant of the demon, and these precious and holy things were handed over to the rightful owner, the real King Solomon, who now re-entered upon his glorious throne. The wise King had the chief of the demons brought before him, and exhibited to him the chain and the ring. The demon, amidst a peal of thunder, made his escape from the palace, and was seen no more.

Solomon was again in his former greatness, but was till the end of his days in terror of demons; hence he had sixty of the most valiant men of his army surrounding his bed.

THE KABBALAH

"

And the kings of ancient time were dead, and their crowns were found no more; and the earth was desolate."

Abraham bound the essences of the twenty-two letters on his tongue, and God disclosed to him the secrets of them. God has carried these through waters, he has borne them aloft through fire, he has stamped them in the storms of the air."

-THE BOOK OF CREATION.

VOL. IV.-10.

"A

THE KABBALAH

(INTRODUCTION)

FTER that our father Abraham had seen, and pon

dered over, investigated, and understood these things (the letters of the alphabet and their mysterious powers), he designed, engraved, and composed them, and received them into his power." These words form the explanation written in the "Sepher Yetzirah," or "Book of Creation," as to how learning, in the form of the alphabet, was given into the possession of man. 66 The Sepher Yetzirah " is the first and presumably the oldest of the books of the Kabbalah. It twice refers to Abraham as being its author, or at least as being the first recorder of its teachings; and when we consider the persistency with which Hebrew tradition has survived, we will not be too lightly skeptical of the idea that Abraham has some right to rank as the father of the Kabbalah.

Kabbalah is a Hebrew word meaning "tradition." Some among the Jews have always maintained that in addition to their written law, the Bible, and their spoken law, the Talmud and Midrash, they also possessed an equally divine secret teaching, which must never be written down or spoken except to the initiated. There is a passage in the book among the Bible apocrypha known as Esdras, which declares that the Lord told Moses, "These things shalt thou declare, and these shalt thou hide." This hokmah nistarah, or hidden wisdom of Moses, has been a subject of discussion among the Jews from very early times; and those who sought or studied it were called mashilem, or "the wise." The greatest Jewish leaders and teachers have claimed no distinct knowledge of such a hidden wisdom; but there still persists some idea of its existence as a thing akin to Masonic formulas, and to the Rosicrucian societies of the Middle Ages. The Kabbalah professes to be the voice of this secret treasure.