Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/357

 ii s. VIL MAY 3, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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(strangers say). Of all these leaders in Kab- bala, Akiba alone "came out of Paradise" with no loss of intellect or esteem, due mainly to his wonderfully buoyant and sunny nature (' Maccoth ' 24).

Jerome, being no exception to the rule, had a learned Rabbi for preceptor, who took him over the normal curriculum, viz., the Torah, the Mishna, and sundry Midra- shim. Beyond that, it is highly improbable that any Hebrew scholar in that age would have risked his happiness, as well as his life (' Ketuboth ' 111, ' Pesachim ' 54), in expounding to an outsider like Jerome- theosophic doctrines, and the Sodouth, which were explicity forbidden to be divulged to any one in-side the community below the status of a chacham or wise man (' Succah ' 28, ' Berachoth ' 55, ' Pesachim ' 49, ' Sab- bath ' 77, and ' Yebamoth ' 63). If Jerome had such a preceptor, probably he was a native of Galilee, trained in the particular hermeneutics of the famous seminary in Tiberias (' Chagiga ' 13), where there was for many generations an illustrious band of Agadists (mystics and Gnostics), attracted thither by the generous enthusiasms inspir- ing its " leaders," in whom was enkindled an abiding passion for the esoteric charms of gematria and the lawful Simoneem, such as "Deash-Iddash," &c. ('Pesachim' 119), and for a theosophic interpretation of Biblical themes, which they handled with bewildering dexterity. Here much of the weird poetry and romance which clothe the cold interiors of the Halachah were continuously being rewoven, to be recast later by those hard -shelled Rabbis of Pumbaditha and Neherdea, whose spirits had been steeped in the colder springs of realism and jurisprudence. These were known as Perushim, literally Expounders. Rigid scholars though they Were, it is fair to remember that they loved the play of the imagination, taking care only to restrict it to its proper sphere.

It is proper to interpolate here that neither the book of * Yetzirah ' nor the ' Zohar ' is accepted by recognized autho- rities, such as Graetz or Weiss, as being other than of a date much later than the age of Jerome or Irenaeus ; so that it may reasonably be affirmed that any evidence favourable to the existence of " the signs " aforesaid is extremely remote. If those who are learned in the Church writings should be able to produce any, it will prove to be quite opposed to the spirit and teachings of the Rabbis, and may be taken to present a distorted version of current ideas, one

not drawn from Rabbinical or Kabbalistic- sources at all.

The exception alluded to above is the following. In order to while away the- tedium of a long journey one summer's day,. Rabbi Joshua, we are told (' Chagiga ' 14),. volunteered to initiate his companion, Rabbi Jose the Priest, into the higher principles- of theosophy (Mangasay Mcrcovah). No sooner was the Rabbi well launched upon his perilous voyage than the bright skies- became threateningly overclouded and tem- pestuous, and were seemingly shaped "into a sign resembling an archer's bow."

Coupled with many similar illustrations- (' Succah ' 28 and elsewhere), this anecdote 1 points clearly to the exclusive attitude assumed by the Rabbins in respect of the-- persons admitted into the arcana of the Sodouth, and to the precautions they adopted! to safeguard and restrict the study of them. Even so apocryphal a writer as Ben Sira ('Chagiga' 13) is drawn upon in order to utter a solemn note of warning : " What is beyond thy comprehension, thou shalt not investigate ; what is impenetrable, leave undisturbed. Concern thyself with things- permitted, and dabble not in magic or the mysterious." Among these the date of the end of the world and the coming of the Messiah ( ' Ketuboth ' 111) are specifically referred to, there and elsewhere in the Tal- mud. M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney, N. E.

THE WRECK OF THE ROYAL GEORGE ( 1 1 S.. vi. 110, 176, 374, 436, 496 ; vii. 36, 77, 113, 158, 195, 276, 297). As the interest in the above does not flag, I venture to add one other item. Many attempts were made to- raise the vessel, but without success, until the year 1839 then only in pieces. Sappers and miners, under the direction of Col. Pasley, were engaged in the work, and in six: seasons effected the entire removal of the submerged vessel, operations being con- cluded in the summer of 1844. From the topographical notes in Butcher & Co.'s- ' Portsmouth Directory, 1874-5,' I cull the following incident :

" Whilst diving operations were in progress a, pair of rival divers contended for the same piece of wreck timber. A scuffle ensued, in which Corporal Jones kicked out the eye, or lens, of Private Girvan's helmet, who would have been drowned had he not instantly signalled to be brought to the surface."

One of the guns recovered from the wreck stands at the entrance of the Pembroke Gardens, Portsmouth.

F. K. P.