Said the Empress, you were recommended to me by an honest and ingenious spirit. Surely, answered the Duchess, the spirit is ignorant of my handwriting. The truth is, said the Empress, he did not mention your handwriting; but he informed me, that you write sense and reason, and if you can but write so, that any of my secretaries may learn your hand, they shall write it out fair and intelligible. The Duchess answered, that she questioned not but it might easily be learned in a short time. But, said she to the Empress, what is it that your Majesty would have written? She answered, the Jews’ Cabbala. Then your only way for that is, said the Duchess, to have the soul of some famous Jew; nay, if your Majesty please, I scruple not, but you may as easily have the soul of Moses, as of any other. That cannot be, replied the Empress, for no mortal knows where Moses is. But, said the Duchess, human souls are immortal; however, if this be too difficult to be obtained, you may have the soul of one of the chief rabbis or sages of the tribe of Levi, who will truly instruct you in that mystery; when as, otherwise, your Majesty will be apt to mistake, and a thousand to one, will commit gross errors. No, said the Empress, for I shall be instructed by spirits. Alas!
said the Duchess, spirits are as ignorant as mortals in many cases; for no created spirits have a general or absolute knowledge, nor can they know the thoughts of men, much less the mysteries of the great Creator, unless he be pleased to inspire into them the gift of divine knowledge. Then, I pray, said the Empress, let me have your counsel in this case.
The Duchess told her, that, sense and reason would instruct her of nature as much as could be known; and as for numbers, they were infinite; but to add nonsense to infinite, would breed a confusion, especially in human understanding. Then, replied the Empress, I’ll make a moral Cabbala. The only thing, answered the Duchess, in morality, is but, to fear God, and to love his neighbour, and this needs no further interpretation. But then I’ll make a political Cabbala, said the Empress. The Duchess answered, that the chief and only ground in government, was but reward and punishment, and required no further Cabbala; But, said she, if your Majesty were resolved to make a Cabbala, I would advise you, rather to make a poetical or romancical Cabbala, wherein you may use metaphors, allegories, similitudes,
The Duchess answered, if your Majesty will be pleased to hearken to my advice, I would desire you to let that work alone; for it will be of no advantage either to you, or your people, unless you were of the Jews’ religion; nay, if you were, the vulgar interpretation of the holy Scripture would be more instructive, and more easily believed, than your mystical way of interpreting it; for had it been better and more advantageous for the salvation of the Jews, surely Moses would have saved after-ages that labour by his own explanation, he being not only a wise, but a very honest, zealous and religious man: Wherefore the best way, said she, is to believe with the generality the literal sense of the Scripture, and not to make interpretations everyone according to his own fancy, but to leave that work for the learned, or those that have nothing else to do; Neither do I think, said she, that God will damn those that are ignorant therein, or suffer them to be lost for want of a mystical interpretation of the Scripture. Then, said the Empress, I’ll leave the Scripture, and make a philosophical Cabbala.