JEWS[30].—We have hitherto had too much reason to complain of the paucity of information afforded by ancient writers on the magic of the Eastern nations; but when we come to consider that of the Jews, we no longer labour under so heavy a disadvantage. The Holy Scriptures, the works of native writers, and above all, the laborious researches of learned Christian commentators, furnish us with abundant materials, from which we shall select such as appear best adapted to give an intelligible, but necessarily brief, view of the subject.—Many Jewish Doctors assign to their magic a preposterous antiquity. They assert that it is of divine origin; that it was known to Adam and Abraham, both of whom were animated by the same soul; that the latter taught it by means of his concubines to his children; and that he wore round his neck a precious stone, the bare sight of which cured every disease, and which, after his death, God hung on the sun! But leaving these wild fables, we have sufficient authority for saying, that the Jews were at a very early period addicted to the magical arts. This propensity, which first originated in Egypt, was much increased by their subsequent intercourse with the inhabitants of Syria, and above all, with their Chaldean conquerors. Thus we read in the Book of Kings, that they used divination, and observed the cry of birds. Hence the frequent and awful denunciations employed by the inspired writers against the practisers of their forbidden arts. Lightfoot has proved, that the Jews, after their return from Babylon, having entirely forsaken idolatry, and being no longer favoured with the gift of prophecy, gradually abandoned themselves, before the coming of our Saviour, to sorcery and divination. The Talmud, which they still regard with a reverence bordering on idolatry, abounds with instructions for the due observance of superstitious rites. After the destruction of their city and temple, many Israelitish impostors were highly esteemed for their pretended skill in magic. Under pretence of interpreting dreams, they met with daily opportunities of practising the most shameful frauds. Many Rabbins were quite as well versed in the school of Zoroaster as in that of Moses. They prescribed all kinds of conjuration, some for the cure of wounds, some against the dreaded bite of serpents, and others against thefts and enchantments. Like the Magi, they boasted that by means of their art they held an intercourse with superior beings. Thus Bath-kool, _daughter of the voice_, is the name given by them to the echo: they regarded it as an oracle, which in the second temple, was destined to supply the defect of the Urim and Thummim, the mysterious oracles of the first. Of Bath-kool many absurd stories are related. Thus when two Rabbins went to consult her concerning the fate of another Rabbin, Samuel, the Babylonian, they passed before a school, in which they heard a boy reading aloud, and _Samuel died_. (Sam. ch. xxv. v.