Note 56 — THE ESSENES.

This does not refer to governments generally, as Gfrörer will have it (Philo und die jüdisch-alexandrinische Theosophie, vol. ii, p. 333, &c.), but to the office of overseer or steward among the brotherhood, as is evident from the immediately following statement, which most unquestionably pledges every Essene to retain his simplicity of character if he should ever attain to any official position or stewardship in the order. ↑