The Jewish Caballa
Fragments From This Curious Compendium of Ideality and Truth - Quotations From Classical Authors
One of the most curious compendiums of ideality and truth, allegory and veiled mysticism extant, is to be found in the ancient Caballa of the Jews.
This celebrated work is a collection of writings and allusions to traditions of still more authority, supposed to have been communicated by God to Adam, by Adam to Seth, by Seth lost or parted with in some mysterious manner, but renewed again in oral teachings from the God of SInai to Moses, from him revealed to Joshua, thence given to the seventy Elders, and thus transmitted to divers of the learned Jews, who dissented from the more direct assertions of the Talmud. There is another collection of writings and traditions bearing the title of Cabbala, attributed to Oriental scholars, but as this remarkable work is of little or not value without a key which can only be furnished by certain Oriental fraternities, its transcript would be of no value to the general reader.
Passing over the sources from whence the Jews pretend to derive their Cabbala, it is well to notice one peculiarity in its mode of inscription which may serve to explain the many confused and contradictory statements to which it has given rise.