The PREFACE general.

What we now call Cartesianism—so named because Descartes so successfully brought it back into public view—was originally part of the ancient Jewish Cabbala Kabbalah: A tradition of Jewish mysticism and philosophy. More believed it contained a "Mechanical" description of the universe alongside spiritual truths.. It was part of the philosophy of Pythagoras, which he (as is widely confirmed by ancient writers) received from the Jews. I neglected to list the succession of the Pythagorean School earlier, though it would have been relevant; therefore, I will provide it here from the records of Diogenes Laërtius, who traces the descent as follows: Pherecydes, Pythagoras, Telauges, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Leucippus, Democritus, and many others, including Nausiphanes and Naucydes, and finally Epicurus.

* Appendix to the Defense of the Philosophical Cabbala, chapter 7, section 5.

This school was known as the Italick School. Its first member, Pherecydes, is said to have obtained certain secret writings from the Phoenicians or Hebrews, as I have already observed from * Hesychius. I do not need to repeat the extensive testimonies proving that Pythagoras, the immediate successor to Pherecydes, learned his philosophy from the Jews. Nor do I need to repeat how the Cabbala was kept intact by him and some of his successors—that is to say, the physical or mechanical part was not separated from the theological or metaphysical, the body from the soul. This separation seems to have happened in the work of Leucippus and Democritus, until the philosophy finally became lifeless original: "cadaverous" and foul-smelling in the hands of Epicurus and all those who have followed in his footsteps to this very day.

Particular considerations from Pherecydes, Parmenides, and Aristotle that might move one to believe that the whole Pythagorean philosophy, both physical and metaphysical, was the ancient wisdom of the Jews.

Aristotle, Metaphysics, book 1, chapter 5.

15. In the meantime, I cannot help but note that the succession of that school is a strong confirmation that the philosophy of Pythagoras was the ancient wisdom of the Jews. In particular, it confirms that the atomical or mechanical philosophy (of the sort I have applied to the text of Moses) was also part of that wisdom. It is unnecessary to repeat what I have already noted regarding the discovery that Pythagoreanism was related to the text of Moses. But besides my observation that Pherecydes mentioned Ophioneus as the leader of the apostate spirits referring to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the beginning of one of his books cited by Laërtius seems to me like a fragmented reflection of the beginning of Genesis: God and Time and the Ground were eternally: But the Ground, when God adorned it, was called Earth. original Greek: Ζεὺς μὲν καὶ χρόνος εἰς ἀεὶ καὶ χθὼν ἦν· χθονὶ δὲ ὄνομα ἐγένετο γῆ, ἐπειδὴ αὐτῇ Ζεὺς γέρας δίδοι. Of which the plain English is this: God and Time (by which I suppose he means Duration) and the Ground existed eternally; but the Ground, upon God's adorning it, was called Earth. This latter part was likely a reference to the work of the third day of Creation. But the first part, which claims the Ground is eternal, reflects the first day. For this chthon original: χθὼν, which I have translated as the Ground, is Hyle Greek term for "matter" or "substance", which Plotinus calls the foundation original: ὑποβάθρα and the ancient nature original: ἡ ἀρχαία φύσις. This "Ground" or the possibility of the external creation is eternal; though it is a kind of non-entity nothingness, it is nonetheless the lowest basis of actual being. Parmenides (the fifth in this Italic succession) must also be understood in this sense when he makes his two first principles Fire and Earth, as seen in Aristotle: He posits two principles, the hot and the cold, speaking of them as fire and earth; of these, he ranks the hot as Being, and the other as Non-Being. original Greek: Δύο τὰς ἀρχὰς τίθησι, θερμὸν καὶ ψυχρὸν, οἷον πῦρ καὶ γῆν λέγων· τούτων δὲ τὸ μὲν κατὰ τὸ ὂν τὸ θερμὸν τάττει, θάτερον δὲ κατὰ τὸ μὴ ὄν. Here, the learned Stagirite Aristotle (born in Stagira) is utterly mistaken in his interpretation original: "glosse", as if Parmenides meant nothing more by Fire and Earth than heat and cold, thereby making two accidents properties rather than substances the first principles of all things. But indirectly, he has lent...