of mystical nature, which are to be explained figuratively.

They have among them the writings of some ancients, who, being principal leaders of their sect, have left them many monuments of that learning, which consists in dark and secret expressions, which they, using as original patterns, do imitate that way of study. And they do not only spend their time in contemplation, but they also compose songs and hymns in the praise of God, of all sorts of metre, and musical verses, which they write in grave and seemly rhymes.

"Six days of the week they thus continue apart by themselves in the little chapel abovementioned, and there give themselves wholly up to the contemplation of divine philosophy, without going out of doors, or as much as looking abroad all that time. On the seventh day, they meet together in a public solemn assembly, and there sit down together, according to their seniority, in a decent manner, with both their hands under their garment, that is, their right hand upon the part between their chin and their breast, and the left let down by their side. Then one of the best learned of them, standing forth, discourseth to them, with a grave composed countenance, and a grave serious voice, speaking with reason and prudence, and not making ostentation of eloquence, as the rhetoricians and sophists now do, but searching into and expounding all things, with that exactness of thought, as that it doth not only for the present captivate the ears, but, by being thus heard, enters into the soul, and there makes lasting impressions upon it. While this person thus speaks, all the rest give attention with silence, expressing their approbation only with the motions of their eyes and their head.

"The synagogue, or common place of assembly, where they meet every seventh day, hath two distinct enclosures and apartments in it, the one assigned for the men, and the other for the women; for it is

g This they reckon according to the time of their admission into the society, not according to their age.

h The synagogues of the Jews are thus formed even to this day, their women sitting together in a place enclosed apart from the men.

their custom, that the women that are of the same sect and institution should also be auditors in these assemblies. The partition wall which separates these two enclosures is built up three or four cubits high from the ground, after the manner of a parapet, the rest lies open to the top of the room. All which is thus contrived for the sake of two conveniences; the first to protect that decent modesty which is naturally belonging to the female sex; the other, that, while they sit in that auditory, they may easily hear what is there discoursed, nothing coming between to hinder the voice of him that speaketh from reaching to them.

"Having laid temperance as a certain foundation in their souls, they build thereupon all other virtues. They take neither meat nor drink before sun be set: for they hold it requisite to employ the day in the study of philosophy, and the night in the making of necessary provision for the body; so that they allot the whole day for the former, and only a small part of the night for the latter. Some of them, in whom is a more than ordinary thirst after knowledge, forget to take any sustenance for three days together; and others there are who are so delighted and fed with feasting on wisdom, which gives to them of its doctrine richly and plentifully, that they sometimes hold out double the time, and, for six days together, i scarce taste of any necessary food, being nourished, as they say a sort of grasshoppers are, by the air in which they live, the melody of their hymns, as I suppose, rendering the want of food easy and supportable unto them. They looking on the seventh day to be all holy and all festival, do think it worthy of extraordinary honour. On that day, after having first taken due care of their souls, they refresh and nourish their bodies, then relaxing to themselves their daily labour, as they do to their working cattle. They eat not any thing that is sumptuous or dainty, but only coarse bread; their sauce is only salt, and they that are of a nicer stomach mingle some hyssop with it; their drink is only water from the river. And thus they appease the two domi

i Philo seems here to hyperbolize, it not being possible that nature could be supported by such long fasts as for six days together, or three either.

neering mistresses which nature hath subjected all mankind to, that is, hunger and thirst, offering nothing to gratify them, but only what is necessary for the support of life; for they eat only to assuage hunger, and drink only to quench their thirst, avoiding fullness of stomach as that which is hurtful both to soul and body.

"And whereas there are two sorts of coverings for the body, that is, house and clothes; as to their houses, it hath been spoken to before, that they are mean, and built without art, as made only to serve the present necessary uses; so likewise, as to their clothes, they have only such as are most commodious to keep out cold and heat, they using for this purpose a thick coarse garment instead of furs in the winter, and a short coat without sleeves, or a linen vestment, in summer. They universally exercise themselves in modesty; and, looking on falsity to be the mother of arrogance, and truth to be the mother of modesty, they hold each of them to have the nature of a fountain; for there flow from falsity, say they, many various sorts of evils, and from truth abundance of good, both human and divine.”

Thus far Philo of his contemplative Essæans. He hath afterwards a description of their behaviour at their great festivals; which being very long, should I give the whole of it, I should be too tedious to the reader; and I fear I have been too much so already concerning this matter. I shall therefore here only add an abstract of it as followeth.

k

"These Therapeutæ, or contemplative Essæans, celebrate every seventh Sabbath as a great festival, when, being called together by an officer appointed for this purpose, all of each congregation meet together in a common ball: for, they being divided into several distinct congregations, each congregation hath its distinct hall, in which they meet together on all such occasions. When they are come together on this call, being all in white garments, they range themselves in order with

k The first great festival among the Jews is their passover; seven weeks numbered from thence brings them to their Pentecost, or feast of weeks; from thence this sect continued to number still seven weeks on, and every seventh Sunday was a new festival with them, till, by repeating it seven times over, they concluded the year, and then begun again from the passover the same round as before.

Cf. pp. 464

great gravity; and, after having said grace, sit down,
taking their place each after other, according to the
seniority of their admission into the sect. The men
sit on the righthand side of the hall by themselves,
and the women by themselves on the other side: for
these Essenes have women also among them of the
elder sort, and such only as have been virgins from their
youth. They are not attended on at their feasts by
servants; for they have none such, locking on servitude
to be against the law of nature; according to which,
they say, all men are born free; and therefore they
are ministered to in all things by freemen, such as are
of the juniors of their society. Of these some being 465.
chosen for every ministration, administer therein to
the rest all manner of help and service, with the same
care and affection as children do to their parents. These
serve at the tables with their garments let down at their
full length, and not girded up about them after the
manner of servants, that so they may appear to minis-
ter as freemen, and not as slaves. At these feasts they
drink no wine, but only pure water; those of the elder
sort, who have weak stomachs, drink it warm, all the
rest drink it cold. They eat no flesh, their repast being,
as on other days, only bread, salt, and hyssop. They
abstain from wine, as reckoning it to be a sort of poi-
son that leads men into madness, and from all plentiful
fare, as that which breeds and irritates inordinate and
beastly appetites in the mind. While they thus sit at
meal, there is observed a most exact silence, none mak-
ing the least noise; and, when they have done eating,
one of them proposeth a question out of the holy writ,
which another answers, imparting what he knows plain-
ly, without affectation, or aiming at praise. All the
rest are attentive to what is said, signifying only by
signs, expressed by the motions of the head or the
hand, their approbation or disapprobation of what is
delivered. All these discourses are allegorical: for
their notion is, that the Scriptures have the similitude
of a living man, which consists of body and soul; the
literal sense, they say, resembles the body, and the

1 Here Philo seems again to hyperbolize, it being scarce possible to support nature with such scanty and mean fare.

VOL. III.

60

mystical sense which lies under it, the soul; and in that the life of the whole consists: and therefore their study is to find out a mystical sense for every text delivered in the holy Scriptures. The president determines when enough is said, and whether the question be fully answered or not, adding what he thinks proper further to discourse of on the point. Whereon, all applauding what he saith, he riseth up, and begins a hymn in the praise of God, composed either by himself or some of the ancients before him; and all the rest join with him herein. And thus they spend the afternoon in discoursing of divine things, and in singing of psalms and hymns, till supper time, and then the waiters bring in, for their supper, bread and salt, and hyssop, as before. After supper is over, they arise from table, and then dividing themselves into two companies, one of the men, and the other of the women, each chooseth their precentor, and spend the whole night following in singing of hymns in all sorts of metre and music to the praise of God, sometimes alternatively in parts, and sometimes as in a chorus all together. And thus they continue doing till the morning light; on the appearance of which, turning their faces towards the rising sun, they pray unto God to give them an happy day and the light of truth. After which, breaking up the assembly, they all return each to his particular apartment, there to employ themselves either in contemplation or in the work of husbandry, in the same manner as before.

What Pliny saith of this sect, is what I am next to lay before the reader. The account which he gives of them, m is as followeth. "On the western side of the lake Asphaltites dwell the Essenes, seating themselves inwardly from it to avoid the shore as hurtful to them. They are the alone sort of men, and herein, above all others in the world, to be admired, that live without women, without the use of copulation, without money, feeding upon the fruit of the palm tree. They are daily recruited by the resort of new comers to them, in a number equal to those they lose, many flocking to

m Plin. lib. 5, c. 17.