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possessing no life, either animal or vegetable. The soul of him who utters abuses, slanders,

Spiritus éque feris humana in corpora transit,
Inque feras noster; nec tempore deperit ullo.
Utque novis fragilis signatur cera figuris,

Nec manet ut fuerat, nec formas servat easdem ;

Sed tamen ipsa eadem est: animam sic semper eandem
Esse, sed in varias doceo migrare figuras.

Metamorph. L. xv. v. 158.

The spirit dies not, but new life repeats,
In other forms, and only changes seats.
Even I, who these mysterious truths declare,
Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war:
My name and lineage I remember well,
And how in fight by Sparta's king I fell.
In Argive Juno's fane I late beheld

My buckler hung, and own'd my former shield.
What then is death, but ancient matter, dress'd
In some new figure, and a varied vest ?

Thus all things are but alter'd; nothing dies:
And here and there th' unbodied spirit flies,
By time, or force, or sickness dispossess'd,
And lodges where it lights, in man or beast;
Or hunts without, till ready limbs it find,
And actuates those according to their kind;
From tenement to tenement is toss'd;
The soul is still the same, the figure only lost:
And, as the soften'd wax new seals receives,
This face assumes, and that impression leaves;
Now called by one, now by another name;
The form alone is chang'd, the wax is still the same :
Thus death, so call'd, can but the form deface;

The immortal soul flies out in empty space,
To seek her fortune in some other place.

Dryden's Translation.

It is curious, and not altogether unprofitable, to observe the various and opposite ramifications of an erroneous principle. The belief that brutes were the receptacles of human souls, laid the foundation of abstinence from animal food, which Pythagoras enjoined upon all his disciples. The rabbies on the contrary, (page 205.) made the same

and the like, passes into a stone.-Concerning 'Nabal, it is clear, that his soul went into a stone.

- Rabbi Isaac Luria went on a time into the city ' of Tiberias; and passing by the great school of · Rabbi Jochanan, who was then living, he shewed 'his disciples a stone in the wall; and said to

them, Into that stone has entered a soul, that 'cries to me to pray for her: and this is the mystery of the words, "For the stone shall cry out

notion an argument for indulgence in the greatest luxuries on the sabbath.

The doctrine of Pythagoras found many advocates in Greece: among them was Empedocles, who was the first that is known to have added the notion of transmigration into vegetables. He also under took to determine the degrees of preference due to different migrations: and those who credited the account he gave of himself, must have deemed him well qualified to pronounce judgment on this matter. For he declared himself to have had a previous existence in other human bodies both male and female, to have been a bird, a fish, and a shrub. Among vegetables, he preferred passing into a laurel; among animals, into a lion: but he did mankind the honour of saying, that migration into a human body was the most desirable of all. Laert. Diog. L. viii. Vit. Empedoc. Elian. L. xii. c. 7.

Plotinus, a Platonist who lived in the third century of the christian era, is said to have taught, that, in consequence of wicked lives in human bodies, souls, after the death of those bodies, pass into brute animals. Theodoret. in Epitom. div. Decret. cap. ix. p. 272. apud Suicer. Thesaur. tom. ii. col. 1588. Porphyry, Jamblichus, Proclus, and others of the latter Platonists, from the third to the fifth centuries, were ashamed of the grosser parts of this dogma, and denied all migration into vegetables or even into brutes. S. August. L. x. de Civit. Dei. c. 30. apud Aldobrand. Annot. in Laert. Diog. L. viii. Vit. Empedoc. Brucker. Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. iii. p. 452. But while these Heathens were confining transmigration to human bodies, the Jews proceeded to extend it to things destitute of all life, animal or vegetable; thus, while they profess to derive their tenets from the volume of inspiration, yet in fact adopting and surpassing the absurdity of their heathen masters. How just is the remark, that the corruption of the best things is always the worst!

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of the wall." Hab. ii. 11.'-The soul of him 'who sheds blood, goes into the water; and is continually tossed in the water, and has no rest. '—The greatest misery of souls under this judgment, is, when they are involved in cataracts or mighty falls of water; the stream hurling them 'down, and falling heavily upon them, and tossing 'them furiously about. Likewise, every one who 'has committed a crime that is punished by 'strangling to death, undergoes the judgment of the water; and is there under a continual suffo'cation.'-Some souls are said to transmigrate into water-mills.*-Whether any are supposed to pass into windmills, I have not seen any where stated: but for the generality of the rabbies, who seem to have whirled themselves into á violent mental vertigo, and, like maniacs, to exult in symptoms which excite the ridicule of some and the pity of others, many of my readers would probably think such a migration the most suitable that could possibly be imagined.

I shall not trouble the reader by detailing the scriptural arguments, if that appellation can be given to mere citations of texts, which the rabbies have adduced in support of this doctrine, without the least regard to the context, or to any rules of just criticism or rational interpretation. A fair sample of them has been exhibited in the quotations already made. I shall conclude this chapter with one extract on another kind of transmigration,

* Emek Hammelech, f. 153. c. 2. f. 11. c. 2. f. 153. c. 2. f. 153. c. 1. ibid. p. 298-302.

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invented by the rabbies, that is, the inhabitation of one or more souls of transcendent excellence, intellectual and moral, within one of inferior knowledge and goodness, for the purpose of preserving the inferior soul from error and transgression, and improving it in knowledge and virtue. 'Know, curious reader,' says Menasseh,* that there are 'souls which transmigrate after a different manner. 'But these are not the souls on which depends life, or the existence of the body: they are only 'auxiliaries or supports to them. And this, among 'the Cabbalists, is called Ibbur, or impregnation. The souls of the righteous, without any impair'ment of themselves, impregnate other souls; darting out sparks for the aid of the generality, or any particular person of their times; and in this respect like candles, suffering no diminution from 'others being lighted up from them. Some have 'said that the soul of Seth was pure and unspotted, and was, on account of Israel, conveyed into Moses, to qualify him for the delivery of the law. -The souls which pass through the mystery of 'the Ibbur, may return or depart at any time.'The souls of Moses and Aaron came, through 'the Ibbur, to the soul of Samuel.-And I have 'been taught, that through the Ibbur, another 'spirit entered into Caleb, which strengthened ' and guided him in the right way, that he might 'not join in the report of the spies.'

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* Nishmath Chajim, f. 159. c. 2. ibid. p. 334-336.

212

CHAPTER XII.

Traditions concerning Persons mentioned in the Old Testament.-Adam and Eve :-Abraham and Sarah : -Joseph :-Serah :-Moses :-Og, King of Bashan : -David:-Solomon :-Elijah :-Esau's Descendants.

THE Traditions concerning persons mentioned in the Old Testament are numerous and extensive. The alterations and enlargements of the scriptural narratives, and the entire additions manufactured by the fertile invention of the rabbies, would fill volumes. The present chapter will exhibit a few specimens of these fables; for such they must be accounted, by all minds capable of appreciating them, or acquainted in the smallest degree with the nature of moral evidence. After what has been already stated, it may be almost superfluous to add, that there is one class of these traditions, and that not a small one, of which no specimens can be given, for the reason assigned at the end of the eighth chapter.

ADAM is represented as having been created of an enormous size. He was formed at first of 'such a height that he reached from earth to 'heaven. When the ministering angels saw him,

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they trembled and feared. What did they do?

They all went up before God in the upper habi'tation, and said, Lord of the universe! there are 'two powers in the world. Then God laid his 'hand upon Adam's head, and reduced him to a ' thousand cubits.' Another rabbi affirms him to

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