Spiritism and Magic Amongst the Jews
Antiquity of the Jews Disputed - Abraham, Moses, the Priests and Prophets - The Cabala-Bible - Chaldean and Persian Ideas in Hebrew Writings - Personality of Jesus.
The Hindoos and Jews are almost the only ancient Oriental nations who have left any written records of their religious belief.
The Chaldeans and Egyptians, although disputing the palm of antiquity with India, have bequeathed to posterity on my monumental vestiges of their elaborate systems of worship, and the mysterious means by which they penetrated into the secrets of spiritual existence.
The sacred writings of the Hebrews have been so faithfully preserved, and they contain such a vast repertoire of Spiritualistic events, that they would have furnished an invaluable array of testimony on this subject, had not the excessive egotism of Jewish historians, and the unquestioning veneration with which all their statements were received by succeeding generations, intervened to throw doubts upon the credibility of much that they affirm.
It is now fully proved, that the enormous claims set up by the Jews themselves for the antiquity of their Scriptures, and the originality of many of the events related in them, are totally at variance with contemporaneous history.
The allegations of Hellenistic Jews also, that contain portions of Greek philosophy were derived from Hebrew writings have proved to be false; in fact, whilst candid students of the Bible will find in it an excellent transcript of the manners, customs, traditions and Spiritism of the Eastern nations generally, they will discover only a meagre account of the actual characteristics of the Jewish people, save in respect to their personal adventures, and their constant tendency to imitate the vices and idolatries of other nations.