Kabbalism, Secret Societies, And Masonry.

preted allegorically , and , as in the ancient Kabbala , mysteries are discovered in letters , words , and numbers . * The most important work of this period is the Kabbala Denudata , by Baron Eosenroth ; this work contains the three most ancient portions of the Book of Zohar , with extracts and commentaries from the

most famous Kabbalistical ivorks , presenting , on the whole , a most complete summary of the whole science . In the brief space that is left us , we cannot do more than refer to this work ; ive Inove no room for quotations . "We shall , however , give extracts from another Kabbalistic work hy an . author belonging to this later

school , t partly because it sums up in a manageable compass the principal points ofthe system , and partly because we shall find it useful in illustrating a further development , to which we must refer . The ivork is in three parts , entitled "TheLiteral , the Philosophick , and the Mystical or Divinely Moral Kabbala . " The

Literal is nothing more than a paraphrase of the first three chapters of Genesis . The Philosophical goes further , giving the writer ' s speculations on the Creation and Fall : —

" Man himself rose out of the earth after this manner , the dust thereof being rightly prepar'd and attemper'd by these unctuous showers ancl balnily droppings of Heaven . For God had so contrived by his infinite Wisdoine , that matter thus or thus prepar'd , should , by a vital congruilij , attract proportional forms from the world of life , which is every where nigh at hand , ancl does very

throughly ineqnitate the moist and unctuous air . Wherefore after ( this manner was the Aeraal orTEtliereal Adam conveyed into an earthly body , having his most conspicuous residence in the head or brain ; and thus Adam became the soul of a terrestrial living creature . " But how is it with Adam before he descends into this lower condition of life , I shall declare unto you in the

. enigmatical narration that follows , which is this : —That the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden , where he put the man , which afterward ho formed into a terrestrial animal .- for Adam was first wholly TEtlicreal , and placed in Paradise , that is , in a happy and joyful condition of the Spirit ; for he was placed under the invigorating beams of the divine intellectand the sun of

, righteousness then shono fairly upon him . "And as his soul was as the ground which God hath West , and so brought forth every pleasant tree , and every goodly plant of her heavenly fathers ' s own plant-

Kabbalism, Secret Societies, And Masonry.

ing ; for the holy spirit of life hath enriched the soil , that it brought forth all manner of pleasant and profitable fruits ; and the tree of life was in the midst of this garden of man's soul , to wit , the essential villi of God , which is the true root of regeneration ; but to so high a pitch Adeem as yet had not reacht unto , and the fruit of this tree in this TEtlicreal state of the soul , had been immortality or life everlasting ; and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was there also , viz .: His own ivill . "

Then comes a description of the four rivers , which , we are told , mean the four cardinal virtues . Then : — " ¦ " In this Paradise thus described , had the Lord God placed man to dresse it , and to keep it in such good order as he found it . " And the divine word or light in man charged him , sayingof every tree of Paradise thou mayesfc freeleat ..

, y For all things here are wholesome as well as pleasant , if thou hast a right care of thyself , and beest obedient to my commands . " But of the luscious and poisonous fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil , that is , of thine own will , thou shalt not by any means eat ; for at what time thou eatesfc thereofthsoul shall contract that languor

, y , debility , and unsettlednesse , that in processe of time thou shalt slide into the earth , and be buried in human flesh , and become an inhabitant of the region of mortality and death . "

Ihen comes a description of the creation of a lower faculty in man , which was to be a vehicle for the soul"From whence divine joys themselves are by a kinde of reflexion strengthened and advanced . Of so great consequence is that vital principle that joyns the soul

to the matter of the universe . " Wherefore God to gratifie Adam made him not indefatigable in his aspirings towards intellectual things , but lassitude of contemplation , and of affectation of immateriality ( he not being able to receive those things as they are , but according to his poor capacity , ivhich is very small in respect of the object it is exercis'd about )

brought upon himself remissnesse ancl drowsinesse to such-like exercise , till by degrees he fell into a more profound sleep ; at what time divine Providence having laid the plot afoi'ehand , that lower vivificative principle of his soul did grow so strong , and did so vigorously , ancl with such exultant sympathy and joy , actuate hisvehicle , that in virtue of his integrity which he yet retained , this became more dear to him , and of greater contentment , than any thing he yet had experience of .

"I say , when divine Providence had so lively and warmly stirr'd up this new sense of his vehicle in him , " He straightway acknowledg'd that all the sense and knowledge of any thing he had hitherto was more lifelesse and evauid , and seemed lesse congruous and grateful unto him , and more estranged from his nature : but this was so agreeable and consentaneous to his soul , that he looked

upon it as a necessary part of himself , and called it after his own name . "And he thought thus within himself , for this cause will any one leave his own tedious aspires to unite with the eternal intellect and universal soul of the icorld , the immensenesse of whose excellencies are too highly raised for us to continue lonin their embracements

g , and will cleave to the joyous and cheerful life of Ms vehicle , and account this living vehicle and his soul one person . " Thus Adam and his new wedded joy stood naked before God , but was not as yet at all ashamed ,. by reason of his innocency and simplicity ; for Adam neither in his reason nor affection as yet had transgressed in any

thing . "—Philosophick Cabbala , pp . 37—43 . Next comes a description of the Fall , by which it appears that Adam had no earthl y body ; but that by