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yet vanished , and the doctrine of the Unity of the Creator still rewarded the expectation of the initiated . , This doctrine , which had the most decisive contempt of idolatry as its inevitable consequence , united with
the almost inseparable belief in immortality , was the rich treasure brought by the young Hebrew from the mysteries of Isis . At the same time , he was rendered conversant with the
powers of nature , then tbe objects of secret learning , which afterwards enabled him to work miracles , and , in the presence of Pharaoh , to contend with his wise men and magicians , whom he in some instances excelled . His
subsequent life proves that he had been an apt and attentive scholar , and had attained the highest rank among the seers . In the same school he collected also a treasure of hieroglyphieal mystical pictures and ceremonies , of which his inventive spirit made use in the sequel . He had wandered through the whole
province of Egyptian lore , resolved the entire system of the priests , weighed against each other its deficiences and its advantages , its strength and its weakness , and taken an important and comprehensive view of the art of
goverment , as exercised amongst this people . It is uncertain how long he remained in the school of the priests , but his late political career , which lasted till his 80 th year , makes it probable that he had devoted more than 20 years to
the study of the mysteries and of the state ; this residence , however , seems by no means to have excluded him from the society of his countrymen , and he had abundant opportunity of witnessing the inhumanity under which they groaned .
Egyptian education had not stifled his natural feeling ; the ill usage of his people reminded him that he too was a Hebrew , and the sight of their sorsows implanted in his breast a deep and just displeasure . The more he appreciated himself , the more must the unworthy treatment of his
compatriots irritate and inflame . He beheld a Hebrew suffering under the stripes of an Egyptian overseer ; the sight overpowered him ; he slew the Egyptian . Soon is the deed known ; his life is in danger ; he must quit Egypt , and flies to the Arabian desert .
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200 The Mosaic Mission .
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Many place liis flight in his 40 th year , but without any proof : for us it is enough to know , that Moses could no longer be very young when it took place . With this exile commences a new
era in his life ; and if we would rightly estimate his future political career in Egypt , we must accompany him in his solitude in Arabia . He bore with him into the desert a sanguinary hatred
towards the oppressors of his nation , and all the knowledge he had acquired in their schools . His soul was filled with ideas and schemes , his heart was replete with bitterness , and nothing distracted him in this desolate waste .
The documents record his keeping the sheep of an Arabian Bedouin , Jethro . How low was this fall from alL his prospects and hopes in Egypt , to the station of a herdsman in
Arabia ; from the future ruler over men , to be the hired servant of a shepherd ! How severely must his soul be wounded ! Beneath the garb of a hind he bears about with him a fervent desire of rule—a restless ambition . Here , in this romantic solitude , where the present offers him nothing , he calls to his
aid the past and the future , and communes with his quiet thoughts . Ail the scenes of oppression which he had formerly witnessed , pass over his memory , and nothing impedes the sting from entering into his soul . Nothing is more insupportable to a great mind than the endurance of injustice ; in addition to which his own people are the sufferers . A noble indignation
awakes in liis breast , and a vehement impulse to act and to distinguish himself accompanies this offended pride . All that he had collected in the course of long years , all that he had meditated and resolved of fair and great , shall it die with him in this desert ? Shall it in vain have been
meditated and resolved ? This thought his fi « ery soul cannot endure . He elevates himself above his lot ; this waste shall not limit liis deeds : to something great has he been destined by that high Being whom he had learned to
recognize in the mysteries . His fancy , kindled by solitude and stillness , seizes on that which is nearest him , the party of the oppressed ; similar feelings seek out each other ; and the unfortunate will ever join the clan of
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1825, page 200, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2535/page/8/
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