sary to find some plausible reason for it. Dr. Hyde observed also, that a marked similarity was to be found between Abraham and the Brahma of the Hindoos, but I reserve that point for another chapter.
3. The Persians also claim Ibrahim, i. e. Abraham, for their founder, as well as the Jews. Thus we see that according to all ancient history the Persians, the Jews, and the Arabians, are descendants of Abraham.
But Abraham was not merely the founder of the Persians, but various authors assert, that he was a great Magician, at the head of the Magi, that is, he was at the head of the priesthood, as our king is, and as the Persian kings always were, and as the Roman Emperors found it necessary to become in later days: no doubt a sound and wise policy. His descendants, Jacob for instance, continued to occupy the same station. The standards of the tribes of the Israelites, the ornaments of the Temple, the pillars Joachim and Boaz, the latter with its orrery or sphere at the top of it, the Urim and Thummim, in short, the whole of the Jewish system betrays judicial astrology, or, in other words, magic, in every part. The Magi of Persia were only the order of priests—Magi in Persia, Clergymen in England. It must not be supposed that the word Magus or Magi, conveyed the vulgar idea attached to modern Magicians, persons dealing with the devil, to work mischief. They probably became objects of detestation to the Christians in the eastern nations from opposing their religion, and in consequence were run down by them, and held up to public odium, in the same way as philosophers are now endeavoured to be, and not without some success. To be versed in magic is something horrid, not to be reasoned about. It is to be as bad as Voltaire, or as Lord Byron.
There can be no doubt that judicial astrology, or the knowledge of future events by the study of the stars, was received and practised by all the ancient Jews, Persians, and many of the Christians, particularly the Gnostics and Manicheans. The persons now spoken of, thought that the planets were the signs, that is, gave information of future events, not that they were the causes of them[1]—not that the events were controlled by them: for between these two there is a great difference. Eusebius tells us, on the authority of Eupolemus, that Abraham was an astrologer, and that he taught the science to the priests of Heliopolis or On. This was a fact universally asserted by the historians of the East. Origen was a believer in this science as qualified above; and M. Beausobre observes, it is thus that he explained what Jacob says in the prayer of Joseph: He has read in the tables of heaven all that will happen to you, and to your children.[2]
4. When the Jews were carried away to Babylon, Daniel is said to have been one of the prisoners, and to have risen to a very high situation at the court of the great king; and in fact to have become almost his prime minister. (Dan. ii. 48.) On the taking of the city, he appears to have been a principal performer: he was occupied in explaining the meaning of the writing on the wall at the very moment that the city was stormed. After the success of the Persians, we find him again in great power with the new king, who was of his own sect or religion, and as bitter against idolaters as himself. We also find that the Jews were again almost immediately restored to their country.
If Daniel opened the gates of Babylon to admit the enemy, certainly of all men he must have been the best qualified to tell Belshazzar that his city was taken. If he were a Jew, he had been carried away and reduced to slavery by the enemy of his country, and under all the circumstances,
