serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field;" yet, according to the pentateuchal fable, he not only tempted Eve to transgress the commandment of Adoni, but convicted him of an untruth.

Genesis iii. 2. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

For this statement she was warranted: for

Genesis ii. 16. Adoni (Yahaveh) commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis iii. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die for god doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.

6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Observation. And they did not die. Adoni got into a great fright. The serpent had outwitted him, and the man had become intelligent. Genesis iii. 22. And Adoni (Yahaveh) said, Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore Adoni sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man.

24. And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

So that, according to the story, this serpent, more subtle than any beast of the field, was either more intelligent or more truthful than Adoni and there was no difference between Adam, after he had eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and become as one of "us" gods, between him and Adoni, except in immortality.

Yet on this clumsy fable the whole religion of the new testament is founded,--the fall of man for believing a true in preference to an untrue allegation. Adoni says to the man, If you learn wisdom you shall surely die; the serpent says, You shall not surely die. And the man learnt wisdom, and did not die, according to the story, for several centuries afterwards.

CHAPTER XI.

ADONISM.

Adoni, with variations in its letters or marks, was a word of respect, and used with various attributions in ancient worships. It seems to have been adopted as "the name" to which a sect of the Hebrews addressed its peculiar worship. It may be conveniently accepted as appropriated to their god, and giving that sect the designation of Adonians, its worship the name of Adonism, and its ministers the designation of Adonites.

Adonism was never the general worship of Israel or of Judah. The worship of the serpent was ascribed by tradition to Moses: but Adonism first appeared about two centuries before the building of the temple.

It was comprehended together with the other worships of Palestina Major, and neighbouring regions, in the worship of the godsElohim-which may be called Eloism-even among the Adonians.

Adoni was not the only god; he was designated in the scriptures Adoni god, or Adoni god of Israel, the peculiar god of the Adonians, greater than any of the other gods; even in the pentateuch he is described as holding counsel with or addressing the other gods.

Genesis iii. 22. And Adoni god said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

Adonism passed from two earlier stages-Prot-Adonism and PerAdonism-into its most highly organised stage, Super-Adonism or Yahavism.

Its first phase, Prot-Adonism, prevailed in Judah from before the time of Eli to the building of Solomon's temple. It continued to exist in the kingdom of Samaria through the reigns of all the kings of Samaria, and even down to the time of Jesus of Nazareth, when it appeared with modifications in the different classes of Essenes. Nor was it entirely extinct in Judah, although it cowered under the more distinguished cult.

Adonism assumed its 2nd phase, Per-Adonism, in Jerusalem upon the building of the temple, and dominated over the Prot-Adonites, although some of them still lingered in Judah, or wandered thither from the north.

Yahavism began to supersede Per-Adonism about the reign of Hezekiah; but its progress was esoteric and slow, until about the middle of the reign of Josiah, when it burst forth like a thunderstorm in destructive flashes; but subsided into darkness, until it appeared with Oriental modifications in the time of Ezra.

PROT-ADONISM.-Adonism in its earliest phase appeared at Shiloh in the sacerdotal land in the 2nd century before the erection of Solomon's temple.

There Eli appears with his 2 sons exercising the office of priest, in a tent or small building in which he kept charge over the ark, a chest, in which in the time of Solomon were found 2 stones and nothing else but in which Adoni was assumed to have placed his

name.

This sacred chest was the palladium of the Adonians, and is assumed to have been brought from beyond Jordan, in the first Hebrew invasion. If so, Adonism in this form was introduced into Palestine by one of the tribes of that race and was a foreign worship.

Polytheists have almost always been tolerant of new worships, and more inclined, perhaps through the universal fondness of novelty, to associate them with their own, than to persecute or place them under restraint; and, although the Adonites were intent upon establishing the superiority of their cult, the Adonians, including even the Adonite kings David and Solomon, treated it only as one, although the most favoured, of the national worships, until the time of Hezekiah, when it began to assume a more intolerant phase.

Even the priesthoods of the different worships, within Palestine proper, do not appear to have molested each other, except in, perhaps, mutual verbal wars about their respective cults, until after the death of Solomon; although a jealousy had sprung up between the Prot-Adonites and the new sect which had appropriated the temple to themselves, in derogation of the ancient shrines.

At the time of the first appearance of Adonism the Adonites are found congregated in their own villages or schools, in which altars were established and the ceremonies and observances of their worship were studied and performed.

These became sanctuaries. Gilgal, Shiloh, Bethel, Ramah, Gibeon, Bethlehem, and others, were regarded as sacred shrines, in each of which Adoni had placed his name, centuries before he (according to the pentateuch) had chosen Jerusalem to place his name there.

Nob is described as the city of the priests. There Ahimelech the priest officiated. This was necessarily a holy shrine.

Saul built at least one altar. (1 Samuel xiv. 35.) And Saul built an altar unto Adoni; the same was the first altar that he built unto Adoni.

It was not until after the temple of Jerusalem had been erected under the auspices of the proud prelate Zadok, that it was ordained that there should be only one national shrine.

The Adonites, the levites, were originally a caste. They did not in the early history of the Hebrews constitute a tribe; there was no such territory as Levi. There was no such horde. They were constituted a tribe in aftertimes for priestly purposes; and consequently an eponymous son of Israel was invented with a genealogy to fit and an imaginary title to a number of cities which they never enjoyed, was conferred upon them; and a supreme family was created among them with a genealogy from Aaron to constitute an hereditary succession of fabulous high priests.

In early times, like bards in some other nations, they were a caste, consisting of descendants or some of the descendants of the earlier members, and recruited from the families of the country at large, chiefly in the south. It may be reasonably inferred that some of the pupils returned to their families to exercise among them their bardic acquisitions and the office of priest.

The education and occupation of the Adonites, or levites, seem to have been similar to those of the bards. They collectively or distributively enjoyed the offices of priests and seers. They prognosticated future events, told fortunes or where stray cattle would be found, composed and sang legends and songs of the glory of their ancestors or the heroes of the country, the village, or the house. Some of them were minstrels, playing on musical instruments. The younger acted as assistants or servants to the seniors and those of higher degree or more advanced in their arts. Generally the priests slaughtered and disembowelled the sacrifices with their own hands.

For the purpose of such education, they constituted communities or schools. By these means they gradually increased

their influence and power. They advanced rapidly in this respect after they had begun to learn to read and write, attaining an art as exclusively and imperfectly possessed by them, as by the Christian clergy in mediæval times.

Each Adonite village, settlement, or school, had probably a superintendent or chief.

The high priesthood is represented as having been hereditary in the family of Eli, until the time of Solomon; when Zadok procured its transfer to his own.

But the high priest does not appear to have been always the supreme head of this sect. Samuel assumed the supremacy, as did Saul on occasion, and David occasionally before and permanently after he became king, and Solomon in the beginning of his reign.

Samuel and David may be distinctly regarded as Arch-Adonites, or heads of the Adonite villages or schools.

The high priest was subordinate to Samuel and David. Indeed, David appointed an additional or second high priest, Zadok, and associated him with the hereditary Abiathar.

Some of the prophets attained a sort of Arch-Adonity, and an equal or even greater ascendency in the counsels of the kings than the high priest.

But these Adonite villages, societies, or schools, though sufficiently organised for the purposes of the rural population around them, bore no similitude, either in organisation or splendour, to the priesthood and levitehood of the Yahavite phase.

They were to a great extent voluntary societies. They enjoyed a decided psychological and moral superiority over the monkery of the Christians; celibacy was no part of the institution from the earliest to the latest times. Deborah the prophetess in the earliest, and Huldah the prophetess in almost the latest times, were married women. Eli and Samuel were married.

Some of the morose ascetics, such as Elijah and John the Baptist, seem to have roved about like wandering monks.

Celibacy was not required even from the Nazarites. The fabulous Samson is described as married, and making somewhat free with the female sex.

Prophesying among the Adonites consisted originally in singing, with or without music, the hymns, psalms, songs, and poetical effusions of others, as well as their own. And prophets of higher genius and more inspired by their muse dreamed dreams, and saw visions, and in their rhapsodies predicted future events.