carefully preserved and handed down, that a new star would appear in this sign when He whom it foretold should be born. This was, doubtless, referred to in the prophecy of Balaam, which would thus receive a double fulfillment, first of the literal “Star,” and also of the person to whom it referred. The Lord said by Balaam (Numbers 24:17), “There shall come33 a star out of Jacob, And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.” Thomas Hyde, an eminent Orientalist (1636–1703), writing on the ancient religion