162 Druidism in connection with Wiltshire. 
Alexander visited the chief persons of the country, who were 
esteemed professors of science. Consider the pre-eminence given 
to Solomon,! beyond the wisdom of all the sons of Kedem, and 
beyond all the wisdom of Mizraim: and with this character com- 
pare that of the Chuld:ans, as above, and that of the original Indi, 
who are Chaldeans and sons of Kedem too. We find they wor- 
shipped fire, so that they were Awrite, and in short, that Ur of the 
Chaldees might be the residence of such professors, and such 
devotees; for which reason Abraham was directed to quit it. Ur 
was probably terrestrial fire ; aérial ignited vapour, rising natu- 
rally from the earth, as that at Baku, worshipped as the terrestrial 
representative of the great celestial luminary. 
“On the whole,” says the author of the above passage, “‘we may 
consider the Chasdim or Chaldeans as the philosophic or priestly 
order among the Babylonians, and rather a caste among a nation, 
than a nation of themselves: much as the Bramins of India (a race 
by their own acknowledgement not truly Indian) are at this day, 
who preserve knowledge, if any be preserved; who perform reli- 
gious functions, and are supposed to maintain the truth of religion 
officially ; and whose order sometimes furnishes kings and nobles. 
Insomuch that, if we should say of Abraham—he came from Ur a 
city of the Bramins: or if we should say—the Bramins were the 
wisest of all mankind, yet Solomon was wiser than they were; 
though we should certainly offend against terms and titles, yet we 
should possibly be near to a fair notion of the Chasdim of Scripture, 
and of their character.” 
Now we have previously observed that Abraham was an inhabi- 
tant of Kedem which was the most eastern district of Persia, and 
not a native of Babylonia, yet he is described by Eusebius as haying 
been a Chaldean by descent, that is, belonged to the philosophical 
and priestly order. Mr. Taylor is of opinion, in his Fragments 
which we have previously cited, that the Mesopotamia where God 
appeared to Abraham, before he dwelt in Haran, which is in Meso- 
potamia on the Euphrates, must have been another Mesopotamia 
more to the East, of which Abraham was a native; and that he 
ei Kings iv. 30. 
