Note 553 — Chapter XX · THE PENTACLE.

Professors of the Cabbala, a mystic philosophy, believed that there was a secret meaning in Holy Writ and a higher meaning in the law, and pretended to be able to perform miracles by the use of names and incantations. Auerbach gives an interesting account of them in his novel, “Spinoza.” He gives this as an instance of their mode of reasoning: “The Hebrew word for Messiah contains the same number as the Hebrew word for serpent, in which form Satan seduced Eve; the Messiah will, therefore, bruise the head of the serpent and banish sin and death from the world.”