We have also seen that a story written by Sanchoniathon (about B. C. 1300) of one Saturn, whom the Phenicians called _Israel_, bore a resemblance to the Hebrew legend of Abraham. Now, Count de Volney tells us that "a similar tradition prevailed among the _Chaldeans_," and that they had the history of one _Zerban_--which means "rich-in-gold"[103:5]--that corresponded in many respects with the history of Abraham.[103:6] It may, then, have been from the Chaldean story that the Hebrew fable writer got his idea. The next legend which we examined was that of "_Jacob's Vision of the Ladder_." We claimed that it probably referred to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls from one body into another, and also gave the apparent reason for the invention of the story. The next story was "_The Exodus from Egypt, and Passage through the Red Sea_," in which we showed, from Egyptian history, that the Israelites were _turned out_ of the country on account of their uncleanness, and that the wonderful exploits recorded of Moses were simply copies of legends related of the sun-god Bacchus. These legends came from "the Islands of the Sea," and came in very handy for the Hebrew fable writers; they saved them the trouble of _inventing_. We now come to the story relating to "_The Receiving of the Ten Commandments_" by Moses from the Lord, on the top of a mountain, 'mid thunders and lightnings. All that is likely to be historical in this account, is that Moses assembled, not, indeed, the whole of the people, but the heads of the tribes, and gave them the code which he had prepared.[104:1] The _marvellous_ portion of the story was evidently copied from that related of the law-giver Zoroaster, by the _Persians_, and the idea that there were _two_ tables of stone with the Law written thereon was evidently taken from the story of Bacchus, the Law-giver, who had _his_ laws written on _two tables of stone_.[104:2] The next legend treated was that of "_Samson and his Exploits_." Those who, _like the learned of the last century_, maintain that the Pagans copied from the Hebrews, may say that Samson was the model of all their similar stories, but now that our ideas concerning antiquity are enlarged, and when we know that Hercules is well known to have been the God _Sol_, whose _allegorical history_ was spread among many nations long before the Hebrews were ever heard of, we are authorized to believe and to say that some Jewish _mythologist_--for what else are their so-called historians--composed the anecdote of Samson, by partly disfiguring the popular traditions of the Greeks, Phenicians and Chaldeans, and claiming that hero for his own nation.[104:3]