lic
burning at Paris, were carried on with the Christian clergy. The other
literary current of the age is designated by the word Kabbala, which
held many of the finest and noblest minds captive to its witchery. The
Kabbala is unquestionably a continuation of earlier theosophic
inquiries. Its chief doctrines have been stated by a thorough student of
our literature: All that exists originates in God, the source of light
eternal. He Himself can be known only through His manifestations. He is
without beginning, and veiled in mystery, or, He is nothing, because the
whole of creation has developed from nothing. This nothing is one,
indivisible, and limitless--_En-Sof_. God fills space, He is space
itself. In order to manifest Himself, in order to create, that is,
disclose Himself by means of emanations, He contracts, thus producing
vacant space. The _En-Sof_ first manifested itself in the prototype of
the whole of creation, in the macrocosm called the "son of God," the
first man, as he appears upon the chariot of Ezekiel. From this
primitive man the whole created world emanates in four stages: _Azila_,
_Beria_, _Yezira_, _Asiya_. The _Azila_ emanation represents the active
qualities of primitive man. They are forces or intelligences flowing
from him, at once his essential qualities and the faculties by which he
acts. There are ten of these forces, forming the ten sacred _Sefiroth_,
a word which first meaning number came to stand for sphere. The first
three _Sefiroth_ are intelligences, the seven others, attributes. They
are supposed to follow each other in this order: 1. _Kether_ (crown); 2.
_Chochma_ (wisdom); 3. _Beena_ (understanding); 4. _Chesed_ (grace), or
_Ghedulla_ (greatness); 5. _Ghevoora_ (dignity); 6. _Tifereth_
(splendor); 7. _Nezach_ (victory); 8. _Hod_ (majesty); 9. _Yesod_
(principle); 10. _Malchuth_ (kingdom). From this first world of the
_Azila_ emanate the three other worlds, _Asiya_ being the lowest stage.
Man has part in these three worlds; a microcosm, he realizes in his
actual being what is foreshadowed by the ideal, primitive man. He holds
to the _Asiya_ by his vital part (_Nefesh_), to the _Yezira_ by his
intellect (_Ruach_), to the _Beria_ by his soul (_Neshama_). The last is
his immortal part, a spark of divinity.

Speculations like these, followed to their logical issue, are bound to
lead the investigator out of Judaism into Trinitarianism or Pantheism.
Kabbalists, of course only in rare cases, rea