Now it is a strange thing, that in the quotations made by Dr. Ginsburg in his Essay,[75] can be gleaned a series of data wherewith to arrange a philosophy of Cabbalistic teaching, covered by the names and remarks on the Ten Sephiroth. The “_trick of the thing_” lays plainly before the eyes in its development, and yet is perfectly concealed from unintelligent observation. In other words, the very text is laughing at the worthy doctor, while he is criticising it with an apparent aspect of superiority and authority. The same thing is to be found in the text of Plutarch’s Morals, by C. W. King, and in many other texts where the like phenomenal mode is practiced. It in fact is said that the Cabbalah is evolved by “_hints scarcely perceptible_,” and the cunning of the concealment is something to admire and laugh at. The description in Sohar of the mode of communication tends to explain what has been said: “The opinion that the mysteries of the Cabbalah are to be found in the garment of the Pentateuch is still more systematically propounded in the following parable: ‘Like a beautiful woman, concealed in the interior of her palace, who when her friend and beloved passes by, opens for a moment a secret window and is seen by him alone, and then withdraws herself immediately and disappears for a long time, so the doctrine only shows herself to the chosen (i. e., to him who is devoted to her with body and soul); and even to him not always in the same manner. At first she simply beckons at the passer by with her hand, and it generally depends upon his understanding this gentle hint. This is the interpretation known by the name of _râmäz_. Afterwards she approaches him a little closer, lisps him a few words, but her form is still covered with a thick veil, which his looks cannot penetrate. This is the so-called _dārausch_. She then converses with him with her face covered by a thin veil; this is the enigmatic language of the _hāgadah_. After having thus become accustomed to her society, she at last shows herself face to face and entrusts him with the innermost secrets of her heart. This is the secret of the Law, _sod_. He who is thus far initiated in the mysteries of the _Tora_ will understand that all these profound secrets are based upon the simple literal sense, and are in harmony with it, and from this literal sense not a single iota is to be taken and nothing is to be added to it.” (Sohar, ii, 99.) SUFISM, OR THEOSOPHY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF MOHAMMEDANISM. _A Chapter from a MS. work designed as a text book for Students in Mysticism._ BY C. H. A. BJERREGAARD, _Stud. Theos._ In Two Parts:—Part I, Texts; Part II, Symbols. The spirit of Sufism is best expressed in the couplet of Katebi: “Last night a nightingale sung his song, perched on a high cypress, when the rose, on hearing his plaintive warbling, shed tears in the garden, soft as the dews of heaven.”