Take, then, the fact, that the Hebrew patriarchs and their tribes of his time were suffering under the persecution of hard task-masters in Egypt. How could their patriarchs teach to their classes the lessons of virtue and morality? We can readily suppose at the conclusion of a toilsome day, when all is dark, and tired nature would otherwise be at rest, he that had patriarchal authority, at dead of night, when {48} their pagan rulers could not hear, and while due guard was kept, whether on high hills, or in low vales, would summon together those who were worthy TO RECEIVE instruction in moral science, virtue, and their patriarchal traditions, and there--taking as emblems their instruments of daily toil--preserve the lessons which thus alone could be imparted. This we believe to be the origin of the CABBALISTS, or _Kabbalistae_, a secret society among the Hebrews, whose origin is lost in antiquity, yet whose knowledge may, under God's blessing, have been an instrument in accomplishing his great results. Their very name is derived from the Hebrew word [Hebrew: QBL] (Cabbala, "to receive"). This society of Cabbalistae, had various methods of secret writing. Their first was the scriptura coelestis; the second, that of angels, or kingly or dominant power; the third, that of the passage of the flood (_Scriptura transitus fluvii_). Breithaupt[49] says: "It is to be recollected, that the more ancient of the Kabbalistae, studied out even a secret method of writing, consisting of four lines intersecting each other at right angles, forming a square in the middle, {49} after the following method. The figure of the four lines is thus:-- | | shin lamed gimel | resh kaph beth | qoph yod aleph | | -------------------------------------------------- | | mem* samekh vav | kaph* nun he | tav mem daleth | | -------------------------------------------------- | | tsade* tsade tet | pe* pe chet | nun* ayin zayin |