The Distinction between the Early Elohistic and Jehovahstic Ages of Primeval Patriarchal Times.--The Secrecy of Original Worship on Mountain Tops.--The Collation and Reconciliation of the Patriarchal Traditions brought together by Moses.--The Commencement of the Jehovahstic Age.--The Origin of Mythology.--The Magi; their Organization and Modes of Worship.--The Deification of Nimrod, and the Source of Political Power at its Beginning.--The Secret Writings they adopted.--The Dead Invokers.--The Mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. ... 16 CHAPTER III. The Origin of the Cabbalistae; the Chaldeans, and their Antagonism to Patriarchal Tradition.--The Hand-Writing on Belshazzar's Wall.--The Secret Writings of the Cabbalistae.--How Daniel read the Same.--Ezra.--The Origin of the Masoretic Text.--Zoroaster.--His Reformation and Reconstruction of the Religion of the Magi.--Pythagoras, and his "League."--The Thugs.--The Druids. ... 41 {8} CHAPTER IV. The Discipline of the Secret in the Origin of the Christian Church.--The Inquisition.--The Mystics.--The Rise of Monachism.--The Mendicant Orders.--The Orders of Knighthood.--The Jesuits, their Organization and History.--The Rosicrucians, &c. ... 71 CHAPTER V. The Struggle between an alleged _Jus Divinum Regum_, and Popular Sovereignty.--And the Efforts now attempted to destroy our Grand Experiment of Self-Government.--Practical Results. ... 104 * * * * * {9} MYSTICISM, AND ITS RESULTS. * * * * * CHAPTER I. Secrecy; its Uses and Abuses.--Mystery; its Definition.--Mysticism, and its Definition. It is not true, as has been sometimes said, that wherever there is secrecy there is error. Secrecy, like most all else, hath its uses and abuses: its uses, as developed in modesty and domestic virtue, in religious meditation, self-examination, and prayer, and in prudence in the affairs of life: its abuses, in prudery, asceticism, superstitious awe, undue veneration of power, and when used as a cloud to conceal crime so hideous that nothing but the truth of God, vindicated by human laws founded thereon, directed by wisdom, can dispel it. Virtue and modesty shrink from public gaze. Each looks alone to its innate sense, the gift of God, and to the sole approval of the great "I AM."