on the priests before entering into the presence of God to perform religious acts (Levit. xvi. 4; 2 Chron. xxx. 19), and on the people generally after coming in contact with anything impure (Levit. xi. 25, 40; xv. 5–24). The white garments and the frequent purifications of the Essenes, who strove to live after the highest degree of Levitical purity, were therefore in perfect harmony with exaggerated Judaism. (8) As to the assertion in comparison 8 that the Pythagoreans prohibited oaths, it is well known that they did use oaths on important occasions, and that they held it to be most sacred to swear by the number four, which they represented by ten dots in the form of a triangle, so that each side consisted of four dots, as follows:— • •   • •   •   • •   •   •   • The community of goods, the secresy about their institutions, the symbolic representation of their doctrines, &c., mentioned in comparisons 9, 10, 11, 12, are the natural result of their manner of life. (13) That they worshipped the sun is not borne out by fact, (14) whilst their peculiar manner in performing the functions of nature is in accordance with the injunction of Scripture (Deut. xxiii. 13, 15), which the Essenes, as the spiritual host of the Lord, applied to themselves. (15) As to their very peculiar belief in intermediate beings between the Deity and the world, mentioned in the fifteenth point of comparison, I can only say that Philo and Josephus say nothing about it. (16) Their devotedness to the study of the magic arts was restricted to miraculous cures, and was not peculiar to them; since tradition had made Solomon the author of books on magical cures and exorcisms, and Josephus tells us (vide infra, p. 44, note 35) that he had seen other Jews performing these magic cures. (17) Neither is there anything foreign in the opinion, that the power to foretel future events can only be obtained by leading a life of preeminent holiness, for this was the common belief of the Jews, though it is true that the Essenes were the only section of the Jewish community who as a body strove to obtain the gift of prophecy. It, however, must not be forgotten that others too laid claim to this gift. Josephus tells us that when brought as prisoner of war before Vespasian, he addressed the Roman general as follows:—“Thou, Vespasian thinkest that thou hast simply a prisoner of war in me, but I appear before thee as a prophet of important future events. If I had not to deliver to thee a message from God, I would have known what the Jewish law demands, and how a general ought to die. Dost thou want to send me to Nero? For what? Will his successors, who ascend the throne before thee, reign long on it? No! thou, Vespasian, wilt be emperor and autocrat—thou, and this thy son.” (Jewish War, iii. 8, § 9). This prophecy of Josephus is also