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THE JEWS
THE STORY OF THE NATIONS.
Crorvn Svo, Cloth, Illustrated, 55.
The Earlier Volumes will be
ROME. By Arthur Oilman, M. A.
THE JEWS. By Prof. James K. Hosmer.
CHALDiEA. By Z. A. Ragozim.
SPAIN. By Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale.
GERMANY. By Rev. S. Baring-Gould.
CARTHAGE. By Prof. Alfrek J. Church.
HUNGARY. By Prof. Arminius VAMBfiRY.
THE NORMANS. By Sakah O. Jewett.
THE MOORS IN SPAIN. l!y Stanley Lane-Poole.
THE SARACENS. P.y Akthur Oilman.
ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. By ProL J. P. Mahai-fy.
EARLY EGYPT. By Prof. Oeo. Rawlinson.
IRELAND. By the Hon. Emily Lawless.
ASSYRIA. i;y Z. A. Ragozin.
THE GOTHS. By Henry Bradley.
HOLLAND. By Prof. J. E. Thorold Rogers.
PERSIA. By S. O. W. Benjamin.
London :
T. Fisher Unwin, 26 Paternoster Square, E.C.
■s.
THE JEWS
IN ANCIENT, MEDIAEVAL AND
MODERN TIMES
JAMES K. HOSMER
PROFESSOR IN WASHINGTON INIVERSITV; AUTHOR OF "a SHORT HISTORY OF
GERMAN LITERATURE," ETC.
T EISHER UNWIN
26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
MUCCCLXXXVII
PREFACE.
To write " The Story of the Jews " for the series
in which it is to appear has been a task beset with
certain special embarrassments.
In the first place, it may reasonably be doubted
whether a faithfully related story of the Jews is
suitable reading for immature minds. The prudent
parent shrinks from putting into the hands of his
child Hamlet, or Lear, or Othello. In the first, the
terrible soul agony,— in the second, the ruthless ex-
ercise of the most savage passions, — in the third, the
inalignant, snake-like craft crushing in its folds un-
suspecting manly worth and womanly loveliness, —
this tragedy of the deepest requires full maturity in
order that its lessons may be intelligently received
and its powerfully realized. Such literature is meat
for men, not milk for babes ; and it is quite prema-
ture to undertake it, until experience has thoroughly
settled the character. Has not history as well as
poetry its tragedies quite too sombre for childhood,
—and among its tragedies is there any quite so
dark as the story of the Jews ? Where else are prob-
lems presented which so defy satisfactory solution ?
Where else is it necessary to contemplate the play of
IV THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
spiritual forces so trcrncndous? Where else is there
anguish so deep and long-continued ?
A second embarrassment arises from the fact that
in the story of the Jews many points are presented
with regard to which the feelings of men are so keen
aiul at the same time so conflicting. To-day, through-
out the civilized world, many regard the Hebrews
with dislike, perhaps aversion, as an unattractive, in-
deed a dangerous element in society. Certainly this
story cannot be written without demonstrating to
how large an extent this prejudice is cruel and un-
just, however inveterate and explicable, — an eff"ort
which is certain, in some quarters, to be ill taken.
As regards the ancient period, can the account be
given without some attempt to separate fact from
m)-th, — to circumscribe within just limits the natural
and the supernatural ; and can such discriminations
be attempted without giving offence in one quarter
or another? Protestant, Catholic, Rationalist, Jew,
have, each one, his peculiar point of view, — and each
one, if he is at all earnest, regards the matters in dis-
pute as things by no means far off, but of vital,
present importance.
The writer of this volume has dealt with these
embarrassments as well as he could. As to the first,
intcrjjreting in a liberal way his commission " to
write a story for the young," he has tried to adapt
his chapters to those in the later stages of youth, —
to those, indeed, already standing upon the threshold
of maturity. Prominence has been given to the
more picturesque and dramatic features of the record.
The j)r()fundities are only touched uj)(:)n ; the
PREFACE. V
mysteries of the Cabala, and the inspiration that may
lie within the fantastic rhapsodizing of the Talmud-
ists, no attempt has been made to fathom. At the
same time, there has been no effort to dwarf and
emasculate the absorbing account into the dimen-
sions of a proper "juvenile." Here are details of
exterminating warfare, of sharpest torture, of bitter,
est cursing. Here are presented sages as they study
the darkest problems, — poets, as they thrill the hu-
man heart-strings with marvellous, subtle power ; —
characters shining in the very beauty of holiness, —
characters, too, black with malignity most appalling.
All this stands in the record : to present Israel faith-
full}', these traits must be given, and the attempt
has been made to present Israel faithfully. A tale,
it is, full of thrilling fascination and fruitful in in-
struction ; a tale, however, that sobers and that re-
quires soberness in its readers, — the ripeness which
comes when childhood has been left behind.
As regards the second embarrassment, it will be
at once apparent to the reader that the writer feels
that Israel, among the nations, should be regarded
with reverence, even with awe, in times modern as
well as ancient. In what sense the Hebrews are the
chosen people of God, — whether the special protec-
tion of Heaven supposed to be extended in ancient
times has lasted to the present hour, — whether the
sufferings of the race for eighteen centuries arc due
to the crime committed upon Calvary, — these are
questicjns to which an answer has not been attempted.
iVmong the ancient traditions — whether Hcliodorus
was driven away from the Temple treasures by Heaven-
VI THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
sent messengers ; whether David hi.ard the voice of
God in the rustling of the balsam-trees ; whether the
sun and moon stood still at Joshua's command, or the
angel of the Lord really smote the host of Senna-
cherib, — such legends as these are given as they
stand, with no effort to separate the nucleus of
reality from the accretions of fable. The writer
cannot hope to escape the condemnation of some
critics, perhaps of all. The Supernaturalist wmU
probably find him too indifferent to the miraculous ;
the Rationalist, too lenient toward ancient supersti-
tions ; the Jew, not sufficiently cognizant of the
divine mission of Israel upon the earth. The writer
can only trust that while dealing with subjects in
which the feelings of multitudes are so deeply en-
listed and on such opposite sides, he may at least
escape the charge of flippancy and irreverence. While
the account in the case of many a comparatively in-
significant figure is given with considerable detail,
the narrative of the Gospels is presented only in out-
line. That tale, the possession as it is of every
memory, it has been thought unnecessary to give
with fulness. At the same time it will be evident, it
is hoped, that the figure of Jesus has been regarded
as possessing sublime, overshadowing importance
among those who have come forth from Israel.
As to authorities, the foot-notes must be consulted.
The effort has been made to become acquainted with
every thing of value contained in our tongue, but the
French and the Germans ha\-e worked this mine far
more thoroughl}'. In particular, use has been made
of the great work of Graetz, " Geschichte des Juden-
PREFACE. VI 1
thums," and of the work of Reinach, " Histoire des
Israelites depuis leur Dispersion jusqu' a nos Jours,"
which appeared in Paris just in time to be made
available for this book. Many a picturesque passage
has been derived from Heinrich Heine, an apostate
from Israel, whose soul, however, always yearned
toward the mother whom he had spurned. The
vivid portrayal of the circumstances of mediaeval
Jewish life, given in chapter XL, is an adaptation
from his incomplete novel, '' The Rabbi of Bach-
arach," combined with facts derived from Graetz.
It enters with profound sympathy and thorough
learning into the atmosphere that surrounded the
persecuted Hebrews of that sombre time.
In conclusion, while acknowledging obligation to
many helpers, the writer desires in a special way to
thank Rabbi S. H. Sonnenschein, of St. Louis, and
Dr. Abraham S. Isaacs, of the Jewish Messenger,
of New York, for suggestions and books, which
have been of great value to him in his work.
J. K. H^,
St. I.ouis, A"ovei)ibe>-, 1885.
V 1,
CANAAN
THE TWELVE TRIBES
•
G
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.
PART I.
THE ANCIENT PRIDE.
I.
Why the Story of the Jews is Picturesque . i-
Ilebrew assertions of the greatness of their race, i — The
Christian view, 2 — The Rationalist's view, 3 — Remark-
able character of Hebrew literature, 3 — Tenacity of
Hebrew national life, 4 — Purity and solidarity of the race, 5
— Their spiritual force as shown in love and hate, 6— Inten-
sity of Hebrev/ piety, 7 — Position of the Jews unique among
races of men, 8.
II.
The Morning-Time in Palestine
. 9-28
Physical characteristics of Palestine, g — The Jordan, Sea of
Galilee, Dead Sea, 10 — -The fertility of the land, 10 — An-
tiquity of the Jewish stock, 12 — The Patriarchs, 12 — Moses
leads Israel out of Egypt, 14 — Worship of one God, 16 —
The aik of the covenant, 16 — The Canaanites, iS — Career
of the Judges, iS — Saul and David, 20 — Solomon, 22 —
Building of tlie Temple, 23 — Its dedication, 24 — Decline of
Hebrew vigor, 25 — The two kingdoms, Judah and Israel,
26 — The Assyrians, 27.
III.
Israel at Nineveh ..... 29-45
Legend of Semiramis, 29 — Assyrian sculptures in ilio r.riti>Ii
Museum, 30 — Authorities for Assyrian study, 32 — Cities as
X THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
I'AGK
libraries, 33, 34 — Antiquities of Mesopotamia, 35 — Nicbuhr,
Hotla, Layaril, 36 — Tiie Cuiiciforni, 36 — Nature of Assyrian
iloniinion, 37 — Palestine overcome, 3S — Accession of Senna-
cherib, 39 — His splendor and power, 40, 41, 42 — An Assyrian
palace, 43, 44 — Refinement at Nineveh, 45.
IV.
The Destruction of Sennacherii3 . . 46-56
State of the Assyrian kings, 46 — The Medes and Plioenicians
subjected, 47 — Judah overwhelmed, 4S — Tlie battle-order,
49, 50 — Hebrew defiance, 52 — Isaiah's jirophecy, 53 — Its
fulfilment, 53 — Fall of Assyria, 54 — Permanence of its me-
morials, 55 — Its cruel sway, 56.
V.
Judas Maccab/Eus, the Hebrew William Tell, 57-73
The captivity at Babylon, 57 — The return from the Baby-
lonian exile, 58 — Alexander the Great at Jerusalem, 60 —
The Jew meets the Aryan, 61 — Who the Aryans were, 62,
63 — Palestine under the Seleucidce, 64 — The revolt of Mat-
tathias, 65 — First victories of Judas MaccaboDus, 66, 67 —
The Temple purified and restored, 68— Judas subdues the
Idumceans and Ammonites, 68 — Heroism of his brethren,
68 — Death of Eleazar, 69 — Judas defeated and slain by
Bacchides, 69 — Alliance with Rome, 70 — The later Asmo-
na;ans, 71 — Heliodorus tries to rob the Temple, 72 — The
coming of the Romans, 73'
VI.
The Beauty of Holiness .... 74-93
Condition of the Jews after the time of the Maccabees, 74 —
Ezra establishes the Canon, 75, 76 — The Septuagint and
Targums, 76 — The oral Law, 77 — Sadducees and Pharisees,
78, 79 — The Essenes, 80 — Hillcl and his followers, 81 —
The Samaritans, 82 — Jewish religious observances, 83 —
Feasts and fasts, 84 — Expectations of a Messiah, 85 — Birth
of Jesus, 86 — His life and work, 87, 88, 89 — The disciples
go forth, go — Conversion of Saul, 90 — Tlie beauty of Chris-
tian holiness, 92, 93.
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. XI
VII.
PAGE
Vespasian and Josephus .... 94-107
Gessius Florus marches against Jerusalem, 94 — His failure,
95 — Josephus defends Galilee against Vespasian, 95 — The
siege of Jotapata, 96, 97, 98 — Jotapata captured, 99 —
Josephus a captive, loo — Vespasian emperor, loo — Descrip-
tion of Jerusalem, 102 — The Temple, 103 — The Antonia,
104 — The walls, 106 — Portents of ill omen, 106.
VIII.
Titus on the Ruins of Zion . . . 108-129
Titus marches against Jerusalem, loS — His formidable host,
109 — Factions among the Jews, log — John of Giscala and
the Zealots, no — Simon, son of Gioras, in — Narrow escape
of Titus, III — The tenth legion in danger, 112 — The
"Conqueror" makes a breach, 114 — Capture of the outer
walls, 114 — Appalling condition of the defenders, 115 — John
and Simon undismayed, 1 16 — Destruction of the Antonia,
117 — Capture of the Temple and of the upper city, 118 —
Death of John of Giscala, imprisonment of Simon, and suf-
ferings of the Jews, 119 — Incidents of the siege, 120 — Return
of Titus to Rome, 121 — His magnificent triumph, 122 —
Death of Simon Gioras, 123 — Arch of Titus, 124 — Spiritual
conquest of the Aryan by the Jew, 126, 127, 128 — The
apotheosis of Jesus of Nazareth, 129.
PART II.
THE MEDI/EVAL HUMILIATION.
IX.
How THE Rabbis Wrought the Talmud . 133-151
The revolt of Bar Cocheba, 133 — /Elia Capitolina and the
Jewish dispersion, 133 — Gentile persecution and Hebrew
scorn, 134 — How the Jews became traders, 136 — Their
services and high character in commerce, 137 — Jew and
Moslem, 13S — Charlemagne, 139 — Famous persecutors, 140
xii THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
— Deserts of llio Hebrews, 140 — Origin of tlie Talmud, 141
— Mischna and Gemara, 142 — Value of the Talmud, 143 —
Difficulty of understanding it, 144 — Its wisdom and beauty,
145, 146 — Sandalphon, 146, 147 — The Karaites, 148 —
Hygienic value of Talmud and Torah, 14S — Maimonides,
149, 150.
X.
The Holocausts in Spain .... 152-164
The " Sephardim," 152 — Insincere conversions, 153 — A
Jewish shrine, 154 — The Inquisition, 155 — Torture cham-
bers, 156 — Sufferings of Hebrews, 157 — Ferdinand and Isa-
bella resolve upon expulsion, 15S — The departure of the
exiles, 159 — Dreadful hardships, 160 — I.amenlations, 161 —
An auto-da-fe, 162, 163.
XI.
The Bloody Hand in Germany . . . 165-18S
A synagogue on the Rhine, 165 — The Juden-gasse at Frank-
fort, 166 — The Black Death and the Flagellants, 167 — Jews
on the Rhine, 168 — Story of Rabbi Abraham and Sarah,
i6g, etc. — A passover celebration, 170, 171 — The plot to
destroy, 172, 173 — Fliglit of Abraham and Sarah, 174 —
Down the Rhine, 176, 177— A mcdi;\;val cily, 179, xSo —
The Jewish quarter, 181 — The synagogue, 182 — The service,
T83 — The roll of the Law, 1S4 — The massacre, 1S6 — The
llight to Turkey, 18S.
XII.
The Frown and the Cur?e in England,
Italy, and France .... 189-202
Persecution in England, 1S9 — Protection extended l)y early
Plantagcnets, 189 — SufTcring in time of Richard Cccur de
Lion, 190 — Tragedy of York, igi^lJanishment by Edward
I. and restoration by Cromwell, 192 — The drowning in the
Thames, 192 — Comparative mildness of Italian powers, 193
— Antiquity of Jewish colony in Rome, 194 — Varying treat-
ment of the popes, 195 — The Jews in Southern Italy and
CLASSIFIED COA- TENTS. XI 11
PAGE
Sicily, ig5, 196 — I'erseculiou i;i France, 197 — Philip Augus-
tus and Saint Louis, 197 — Philip the Fair and the Pastour-
eaux, igS — A burning in France, 199 — The cry " Hep !
hep ! " 200 — Jewish badges, 201 — Protestant narrowness.
Luther, and the Puritans, 201 — Gibbon, Voltaire, and
Buckle, 202.
XIIL
Shylock — The Wandering Jew . . . 203-214
Jewish retaliation, 203 — What Shylock might have heard on
the Rialto, 204, 205 — Palliation for his cruelty, 206 —
Heine's idea o£ Shylock, 207 — The Wandering Jew, differ-
ent forms of the legend, 208, 209 — Combined with the Wild
Huntsman, 210, 211, 212 — The Wandering Jew before the
^L'^tterhorn, 213.
XIV.
The Casting out of a Prophet . , . 215-231
The bitterness of Hebrew scorn, 215 — False Messiahs, 216 —
Career of Sabbatai Zevi, 217 — Sabbatai becomes a Moham-
medan, 218 — Holland as a refuge for the oppressed, 219 —
Birth and childhood of Spinoza, 220 — He revolts at the
Cabala, 222 — His excommunication, 223 — The curse, 224 —
His magnanimity, 226 — His philosophy, 226, 227, 228 —
His fame, 229 — His position in the history of modern
thought, 230 — Tributes to his greatness, 231.
PART III.
THE BREAKING OF THE CHAIN.
XV.
Israel's New Moses ..... 235-253
Number and distribution of the Jews at the present time,
235 — Their eminence, 235 — Their small achievement as
soldiers, fanners, and handicraftsmen, 236 — Prominence in
trade and in music, 237 — Wagner's hostility, 23S — Promi-
nence as scientists, philosophers, and writers, 23S — Especial
Xiv THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
}-AGE
narrowness of Germany toward tlic Jews, 239, 240 — -Birlh
and early career of Moses Mendelssohn, 242 — Introduced to
fame by Lcssing, 243 — " Pha-do," 243 — "Jerusalem," 244 —
Tribute of Kant, 245 — Mendelssohn embarrassed by Lava-
ter, 245 — Letter to Lavater, 246, 247, 24S — Mendelssohn's
death, 24S — His wooing, 249, 250 — " Nathan the Wise,"
251, 252, 253.
XVI.
The Money Kings ..... 254-272
Business ability of Jews, 254 — Cicero's condemnation of trade,
254 — Ill-repute of Jews undeserved, 255, 256 — They break
a path for themselves, 258 — Meyer Anselm Rothschild and
the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, 259 — A great house founded,
260 — Heine and Borne at the Hanoukhah in the Juden-
gasse, 261 — The mother of the Rothschilds and her five
sons, 262 — Nathan Meyer founds the London house, 263 —
How ten millions were made out of Waterloo, 263, 264, 265
— Alleged rapacity of the Rothschilds, 266 — Nathan Meyer's
death, 267 — Baron Lionel, 26S — Baron James at Paris, 269
— His brusque manners, 270 — His fear of Heine, 271 —
Baron Alphonse, 272.
XVII.
Sir Moses Montefiore . . . 273-294
Were the Rothschilds honorable ? 273 — Cicero on the
morals of trade, 274 — American rapacity, 275 — The brothers
Pereire, 276, 277 — Sir Moses Montefiore as a typical Jew,
278 — His origin and early career, 280 — His philanthropic
journeys, 28 1 — Persecutions at Damascus and Rhodes in
1S40, 282 — Montefiore at Damascus, 282 — Judith Montefi-
ore, 283 — Her diary, 284 — Montefiore at Jerusalem, 2S6,
2S8 — At Morocco, 2S8 — Lands at Tangier, 2S9 — Last visit
to Jerusalem, 290 — His practical good sense and breadth of
mind, 292 — His widespread fame and personal appearance,
293 — An orthodox Jew, 293 — Belief in the restoration of
the Jews to Palestine, 294.
CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. XV
XVIII.
PAGE
Hebrew Statesmen 295-311
Eminence of Jews as Statesmen, 295 — Castelar, Lasker, 295
— Leads the national-libsnty party in the German Parliament,
2g6 — Achille Fould, Cremieux, Gambetta, 298 — Gambetta's
origin. 298 — Puts out an eye, becomes famous, 300 — In the
Corps Legislatif, 301 — His energy in 1870, 302 — His oratory,
303. 304 — Origin of Beaconsfield, 305 — Beards Daniel
O'Connell in Parliament, 306 — Rises to fame, 308 — His
wife's devotion, 308 — His enthusiasm for his race, 310, 311.
XIX.
A Sweet Singer in Israel .... 312-329
Heine as the voice of the Jewish spirit, 312 — His birth, 312
— At Frankfort, Gottingen, and Berlin, 313 — His apostasy
and scoffing, 3i4-:-Becomes famous in prose and poetry, 316
The " mattress-grave," his death, 317 — His descriptive
power illustrated, 318 — Picture of Napoleon, 319 — His wit,
320 — Scoffs at Germany, 321 — His bitterness and want of
earnestness, 322 — His tenderness, 323 — " Use," 324 — Lines
to his wife, 325 — "Lorelei," 326 — He utters the Hebrew
soul, 327 — Heine and the Venus of Milo, 328, 329.
XX.
Some Harmonious Lives .... 330-354
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the type of the Hebrew artist,
330 — The descendants of Moses Mendelssohn, 330 — Career
of Dorothea, 331 — of Joseph and Abraham, 332 — Abraham
and Leah, the parents of Felix, 333 — The father's idea of
religious education, 334 — Fanny Mendelssolin, 335 — The
mother's letter to her daughter's lover, 336 — The Mendels-
sohn home, 337, etc. — Distinguished visitors, 339 — Profes-
sors at fault, 340 — Music of Mendelssohn, 342 — His
appearance, 342 — Description in "Charles Auchester," 343,
etc. — Fanny's concerts, 346 — Beautiful family life, 347 —
Sojourn in Rome, 348, 349 — The father in death, 349 —
Felix with Victoria and Prince Albert, 350, etc — Death of
Felix and Fanny, 352 — Ideal lives, 353.
XVI
THE STORY OF TIJK JEWS.
XXI.
I'AGB
Our Hebrew Contemporaries . . . 355-370
Israelites feared, 355 — Anti-Semitism in Germany, 356 —
Hebrew bitterness, 357 — Attachment to old traditions
and usages, 358 — " The Jewish Cemetery at Newport," 359,
360 — Jews in Poland, 361 — " Measuring the bounds," 362 —
Story of Leah Rendar, 363 — The apostate Jewess, 364, 365
— Jews and Yankees, 366 — Felix Adler on his countrymen,
367 — The orthodox nucleus of Judaism, 368 — The Reformers,
369.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
JERUSALEM FROM THE HTLL OF EVIL COUNSEL, FroiltispieCC
MOUNT OF OLIVES FROiM THE WALL " . . .XX
MAP, COUNTRIES CONNECTED WITH EARLY JEWISH
HISTORY ....... I
MAP, CANAAN, AS DIVIDED AMONG THE TWELVE
TRIBES . . •■ 9
J.ACOB AND RACHEL ...... II
JOSEPH INTERPRETING PHARAOH's DREAM . . 13
.MOSES IN BULRUSHES ...... 15
PROBABLE ARRANGEMENT AND FORM OF THE TAB-
ERNACLE CAMP ...... 17
THE SETTING UP OF THE TABERNACLE . . . I9
THE RETURN OF THE ARK ..... 21
JONAH CALLING NINEVEH TO REPENTANCE . . 3I
JERICHO . . . . . . . . -51
THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE .... 59
BETHLEHEM 87
THE SITE OF THE ANCIENT TEMPLE . . . 9I
THE SEA OF GALILEE ...... 97
PLAN OF ANCIENT JERUSALEM .... lOI
GRADUAL FORMATION OF JERUSALEM . . . 105
JERUSALEM BESIEGKD BY TITUS . . . -113
ARCH OF TITUS . . . . . . . \2^
RdilAN MASONRY, JERUSALEM ..... T35
JEWS' PLACE OF WAILING, JERUSALEM . . . 187
XVllI
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
THE WANDERING JEW
SPINOZA .....
MOSES MENDELSSOHN
IN THE FRANKFORT JUDEN-GASSE
NATHAN MEYER ROTHSCHILD .
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE .
JERUSALEM FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT OR KIDRON
THE GOLDEN GATE .
LASKER ....
GAMBETTA
ISAAC DISRAELI
LORD BEACONSFIELD
HEINRICH HEINE
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
PAGB
211
211
?4T
265
279
285
287
291
297
299
315
341
"^*«/v''\»
PART I.
THE ANCIENT PRIDE
'' If any reference is made to the Jews, some hearer is sure to state
that she, for her part, is not fond of them, having known a Mr.
Jacobson who was very unpleasant ; or that he, for his part, thinks
meanly of them as a race, though, on inquiry, you find he is little
acquainted with tlieir characteristics. A people with Oriental sun-
light in their blood, they have a force which enables them to carry off
the best prizes. A significant indication of their natural rank is seen
in the fact that, at this moment, the leader of the Liberal party in
Germany is a Jew, the leader of the Republican parly in France is a
Jew, and the head of the Conservative ministry in England is a Jew.
Tortured, flogged, spit upon, — their name flung ut tliem as an oppro-
brium by superstition, haired, and contempt, — how proud they have
remained!" — George Elkti- ("Impressions of Theophrastus
Such ").
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
CHAPTER L
WHY THE STORY OF THE JEWS IS TICTURESQUE.
In the fiftieth Psalm stands the passage : " Out of
Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shincd."
If we understand the word Zion in this sentence to
mean, as it is often explained, the Hebrew nation,
we find here an enthusiastic utterance by a Jewish
poet of his sense of pride in his race : the Hebrew
people is chosen out from among the nations of the
earth to exhibit the perfection of beauty, — is, in fact,
an outshining of God himself upon the world.
What is to be said of such a declaration ? If it
were made concerning any other race than the
Jewish, it would be scouted and ridiculed as arro-
gance pushed into impiety, a claim not to be tolerated
even in the most impassioned poetry. Can the world
bear the assertion any better when it is made con-
cerning the Jews? Such claims, at any rate, the
Jews have always made. Declarations of Israelitish
greatness scarcely less strong than that of the
Psalmist, can be found in the writings of our co-
temporaries. Says a rabbi of Cincinnati in a book
2 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
published within a few years: " Had the Hebrews
not been disturbed in their progress a thousand and
more years ago, they would have solved all the great
problems of civilization which are being solved now."
The Earl of Beaconsfield, glorying in his Jewish
blood, was accustomed to maintain, without qualifi-
cation, the indomitable superiority of the Hebrews
over tlie most powerful modern races, and alleged
that in an intellectual sense they had conquered
modern Europe. In the immense extent of time
which stretches from the singer of the Psalms to the
Cincinnati rabbi and the marvellous Jew who, a few
years ago, superintended the management of the
greatest empire of the earth, there is no age in which
Israelites have not uttered just as confidently their
conviction of Jewish supremacy.
In what way are we who arc without trace of
Semitic blood to treat these claims of our Hebrew
neighbors? In the Christian world it has been
customary, as far as the assertions of superiority re-
late to antiquity, to concede every thing. It is part
of the Christian faith, in fact, to believe that the
Jews were the chosen people of God, selected from
among the races of the earth to be the subjects of a
special covenant, guided through ages by successive
supernatural revelations from Heaven, their history
set with miracles, their poets inspired prophets, the
royal house of David at length giving birth to a
child in whom the Deity himself became flesh and
dwelt with men. Here, however, the Christian
pauses. The incarnate God was rejected by the
very people among wlunii he chose to appear. They
A PICTURESQUE HISTORY. 3
should have adored ; they preferred to crucify. In
penalty for this they have undergone for eighteen
centuries the most unexampled punishment, — suffer
ing and humiliation not less extreme than their
previous exaltation. Such is the sentence imposed
upon them by inexorable justice as a penalty for the
worst of crimes.
But not all are Christian believers, even in coun-
tries nominally Christian. We find, besides, a class
whom for convenience' sake we may designate as
rationalists, aijd what treatment will Jewish asser-
tions of supremacy receive from these ? Even though
we should deny all the supernatural claims made in
behalf of the Hebrews, there is still much reason for
holding them to be an extraordinary people. Not
for numbers certainly, for at no time have they ]:)een
numerous ; not for the extent of their territorial
dominion, for their empire, even in the days of its
greatest extension, covered only a tract which after-
wards formed but a small part of the successive
empires of Macedonian, Roman, and Turk. But
how wonderful in words — how wonderful in deeds!
Even if we should reject the idea of divine inspira-
tion, how extraordinary is the ancient literature of
the race ! In originality, poetic strength, and re-
ligious importance, it surpasses that of all other
nations. The old Hebrew writers sekU)m eni[)loy
their genius upon any trifling matter, but occupy
themselves with the most momentous questions of
life; as if, persuaded that God himself had dignified
the characters of their language by tracing them with
his finger upon tablets of stone, they dared not em-
4 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ploy an alphabet so consecrated upon any frivolous
theme.
Give a comprehensive j^lance at the career of the
Jews. It is the marvel of history that this little
people, beset and despised by all the earth for ages,
maintains its solidarity unimpaired. Unique among
all the peoples of the earth, it has come undoubtedly
to the present day from the most distant antiquity.
Forty, perhaps fifty, centuries rest upon this \'ener-
able cotemporary of Egypt, Chaldea, and Troy. The
Hebrew defied the Pharaohs ; with the sword of
Gideon he smote the Midianite ; injephthah, the
children of Ammon. The purple chariot-bands of
Assyria went back from his gates humbled and di-
minished. Babylon, indeed, tore him from his
ancient seats and led him captive by strange waters,
but not long. He had fastened his love upon the
heights of Zion, and like an elastic cord, that love
broke not, but only drew with the more force as the
distance became great. When the grasp of the cap-
tor weakened, that cord, uninjured from its long ten-
sion, drew back the Hebrew to his former home. He
saw the Hellenic flower bud, bloom, and wither upon
the soil of Greece. He saw the wolf of Rome suckled
on the banks of the Tiber, then prowl, ravenous for
dominion, to the ends of the earth, until paralysis
and death laid hold upon its savage sinews. At last
Israel was scattered over the length and breadth of
the earth. In every kingdom of the modern world
there has been a Jewish element. There are He-
brew clans in China, on the steppes of Central Asia,
in the desert heart of Africa. The most powerful
A PICTURESQUE HISTORY. 5
races have not been able to assimilate them, — the
bitterest persecution, so far from exterminating them,
has not eradicated a single characteristic. In mental
and moral traits, in form and feature, even, the Jew
to-day is the same as when Jerusalem was the peer
of Tyre and Babylon. In the greedy energy of the
Jewish trader smoulders something of the old fire of
the Maccabees. Abraham and Mordecai stand out
upon the sculptures of Nineveh marked by the same
eye and beard, the same nose and jaw by which we
just now recognized their descendants. Language,
literature, customs, traditions, traits ol character,
— these, too, have all survived. The Jew of New
York, Chicago, St. Louis, is, in body and soul, the
Jew of London, of St. Petersburg, of Constantinople,
of the fenced cities of Judah in the days of David.
There is no other case of a nation dispersed in all
parts of the world and yet remaining a nation. Says
Mr. E. A. Freeman : " They are very nearly, if not
absolutely, a pure race in a sense in which no other
human race is pure. Their blood has been untouched
by conversion, even by intermarriage." It is an
asbestos, which no fire of hate or love has been hot
enough to consume. Many a Jew still looks to the
old home of his race with affection abated by no
single particle, and anticipates a joyful time when the
throne of Jacob shall again be established upon
Zion. They cling with startling tenacity to every
element of nationality. Their history is like a great
bear-baiting, in which every nation has figured among
the bull-dogs, but with bite after bite of outrage and
contumely, all have not been able to drive the life
out of their Juda,\an prey.
O THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Who will deny to the Jews pre-eminent force of
passion and intellect in the most various directions ?
The skilful writer of fiction to-day, who depicts a
Jewish personage, feels that at any rate the character
must be made intense. A weak Jew would be the
greatest contradiction of probability. Whether he
loves or hates, he must go to extremes. We instinc-
tively feel that no object is so cherished as that
toward which the affection of the Jew is turned,
whether it be parent or child, wife or friend. How
Isaac of York in " Ivanhoe " defies the torturers as
he thinks of Rebecca! How burning the charity
of Nathan in the masterpiece of Lessing ! What
strange persistent ardor in Mordecai pouring inspira-
tion into the soul of Daniel Deronda !
Nor does the world see elsewhere perhaps such
capacity for malevolence. What scorn and scowl
has the Hebrew had for the rest of the earth ! The
land whicli fell especiall}' under his malediction, like
Samaria, if human maledictions could blast, would
have found the grass withering in its fields, and the
water in its bosom. Perhaps avarice never wears its
most hideous aspect except in the soul of the Jew.
The pursuit to which oppression for ages restricted
him, has exposed him peculiarly to be the prey of
this vice. In the popular idea, the Jew is the em-
bodiment of covetousness, and perhaps into no other
soul does the love of gain eat with such bitter and deep
corrosion ; Fagin and Shylock are types as artistic as
they are tremendous. Bad passions rage most vio-
lently in strong souls, ascertain fevers are said to dis-
play their full force only in vigorous physical frames.
A PICTURESQUE HISTORY. /
But not in the direction of earthly love or hate, of
avarice or patriotism, has the force of the Hebrew
nature exerted itself most strikingly. When it has
been directed toward heavenly objects, it has con-
stituted the most fervent piety which the world has
ever seen. Those majestic prophets of old are
counterparts of their countrymen to-day, only in
them the national force shot strongly upward. They
grasped heavenly things so vividly that even their
bodily senses seemed to lay hold of God and angels.
Spiritual presences faced the bodily sight in wilder-
ness or burning bush, or above the ark of the cove-
nant. The earthly car caught tones from the other
world in some still small voice, or pealing from a
bare mountain peak. And here it is that the Jew
has accomplished his most extraordinary achieve-
ment. His faith furnished the stock upon which
Mahomet grafted the creed of Islam, — upon which
one mightier than he fixed a scion, whose leaves, as
the branch has extended itself, have been for the
healing of the nations.
So stands the Jew to-day — his astonishing history
bcln'nd him, his soul alight with such extraordinary
fu'e, and set off with such intense, picturesque traits.
What other human type has such vividness and
color! It is not altogether surprising arrogance
then when the Jew lays claim to a remarkable emi-
nence. The Christian and the rationalist, on differ-
ent grounds to be sure, are ready to say that there
has been nothing in the world so wonderful as the
career of the Israelitish nation. Certainly no intelli-
gent man can fail to see with I'Vceman that the
8
THE STORY OF THE JEIVS.
phenomenon of the Jewish race is one of the
strangest in history. The more it is thought of,
the more its utter strangeness appears — that its posi-
tion is completely unique. To attempt some sketch
of the progress of this peo])lc during its long history,
to depict its ancient state, to sketch the depth of
humiliation through which it has been forced to
pass, and the signs that can now be discerned that
it is about to issue into a time of extraordinary tri-
umpli, — this certainly is a theme of interest.
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CHAPTER 11.
THE MORNING-TIME IN PALESTINE.
The southwestern corner of Syria, known as
Palestine, the Holy Land, is a country small in
extent. Its boundaries are somewhat indefinite ; for
in different ages the power of the Hebrews was
extended now over a greater, now over a smaller
tract. It was about one sixth as large as England,
scarcely larger, in fact, than the State of Massachu-
setts. From a high mountain peak in the centre, it
would be quite easy for an observer in a clear day to
behold on every side the most distant limits — to the
south the ranges bordering upon Arabia, to the
north the summits of Lebanon ; the Mediterranean
to the west would seem not far distant ; so, too, the
unproductive steppes into which, on the eastern
frontier, the pasture lands are gradually merged.
Short as the journey would be between the farthest
points, consuming scarcely half a day with our ways
of travel, great contrasts of scenery would be
encountered. The lofty mountains of Lebanon rise
far toward the line of eternal snow, their Hanks are
covered with forests, the elevated valleys with
the vegetation of higli latitudes. Passing south
from these, while the country remains hill)', fruitful
lO THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
plains frecjucntly occur, cxtcndini^ to the margin of
the western sea. In the south the land wears a
look less hospitable; the desert lies close at hand,
and alreatl)' vast wastes of sand are seen, crossed by
lines of hills upon which ^n'cjws no tree or blade of
grass. l'"roni the northern uplands a tumultuous
ri\ei-, the lortlan, makes it way in cataracts and rapids
to the lower levels. Marl}' in its course it rests in a
tran([uil (.-xjjanse of water known anciently as the
Lake of Merom. Midway, again, the floods pause in
the Sea of Tiberias, also called Gennesereth and
Galilee. At last, in the south, the turbulent stream
cuts its way deep through the land to k)se itself in a
gloomy lake, sunk far beneath the level of the ocean,
whose brackish waters and sulphurous shores have
caused it to be called the Dead Sea.
Palestine is still, in parts, a beautiful land. A
traveller arriving at certain seasons of the year from
the drear)' regions to the south and east, at the rich
central fields and green northern valleys, even now
might greet it as the land of promise.- It is capable
of being redeemed in great part t<j luxuriance. In
ancient times before its resources had become
wasted and when it was held by free and thrifty
■tribes, it is easy to understand how it could be saiil
to flow with milk and hone)'. In the harvest time
great tracts, no doubt, waved with corn. Up the
sunny slopes, in terrace over terrace, smiled the vine-
yards, (^live forests everywhere bcjre rich burdens
f)f fruit. Groves of palm rose where in the lowlands
the breath of the south could be fully felt ; while
the high ledges of the northern hills were fringed
-^
«^s%^
d
A
A'^
V-:-
sib-i^
JACOB AND RACllLX.
12 TM^R STORY OF THE JEWS.
with mighty cedars. There were abundant pastures
white with flocks; there were balm-fields on the
plain of Sharon ; in Bashan was the lowing of
innumerable herds ; the L;"ra[)es of I^^shcol ripened
into such clusters that even the shoulders of strong
men found them a heavy burden. This land of
promise the children of Israel at length, after a
severe struggle, possessed, and for many centuries it
continued to be their home.
The Israelites, Hebrews, or Jews, as the race is
indifferently called, belong to the great Semitic
branch of the human family, long believed to be de-
scended from the eldest son of Noah, Shem. Since
the lapse of time which we have to consider is so
vast, much of the history of the Hebrews must be
passed over in most rapid review. If we date the
origin of the Jews at the time when Abram went
southward from Ilaran, we are taken back to a most
remote past. As the mists of the morning time
arise, a group of allied tribes, Moabites, Edomites,
Ammonites, and Israelites, may be descried in
Southern Palestine, of which grouj) the Israelites are
found in the territory extending westward. About
1500 B.C. we can trace the Israelites in Goshen, fertile
pasture lands in northern Eg\pt, where they ac-
knowledge the dominion of the Pharaohs, but retain
their own manners and institutions. The patriarchs
Isaac and Jacob have played tluir part. Joseph,
sold into bondage, has found favor in the eyes of
the splendid monarch. Mindful of his brethren, he
withdraws them from the outer desert and gives
JUbKni IMEKl'KhllNG PHAKAUll'b DKtAM.
14 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
them pleasant seats in the phiin watered by the beau-
tiful river, where instead of the famine which has
constantly threatened them, they enjoy a perpetual
abundance amoni^^ the Egyptian flesh-pots. At
length come darker days. Rulers succeed who for-
get the hospitality of their predecessors. The He-
brew strangers are reduced to slavery, in which state
the)' languish, until beneath the blow of Moses the
Egyptian task-master is smitten to the earth. The
bold rebel develops presently into a national cham-
pion and leader, to whom the oppressed people sur-
rentler their hearts. The Red Sea is passed and
riiaraoh is overwhelmed in the pursuit. The Law is
given at Sinai, followed by the long wandering in
the desert. Moses, his aged eyes refreshed on
Mount Pisgah by the sight of the promised land,
goes to his rest in the sepulchre over against Beth-
Peor, whose place no man knoweth unto this day;
and the people i)ass into Canaan, finding homes in
the south, not far from those of their ancestors, in
the da}'s before the sojourn on the Nile.
U[) to this time we see in Israel no settled nation.
In the day c;f Moses the old patriarchal system of
families and clans prevailetl ; the people was an un-
organized collection of tribes of the same stock, but
not at all closely combined. The authority of
Moses came frt)m his success in leading them out of
Egypt. He established the holy administration of
the Law or Torah, an institution which preceded a
formal polity, but at length came to serve as the
foundation pillar upon which the state rested. The
basis of the unity which prevailed from the earliest
MUbES IN THE BULRUSHES.
1 6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
times in Israel was an intense conviction in their
breasts that they were the chosen people of that one
God whom alone they recognized, Jehovah. As
they entered Palestine, his sanctuary was established
at Kadesh Barnea where usually stood the sacred
ark of the covenant. The camp, however, it has
been said, was the " smithy in which the tribes were
destined to be welded into a nation,"'^ and the ark
of the covenant, carried by the hands of the Levites,
was the standard, which the Hebrews bore in their
midst as they entered upon their conquests.
According to Josephus, the ark was a shrine of
precious wood, five spans in length, three spans in
breadth, and three in height. Jt was covered with
gold, both within and without, so that the wooden
part was not seen. A lid united to the side by
(joldcn hinges closed the casket ; in each side were
fastened two golden rings, through which gilded bars
were passed, that it might be borne upon the shoul-
ders of the priests. Upon the cover were two
cherubim, flying creatures, their form not like to
any of the creatures which men have seen, though
Moses said he had seen such creatures near the
throne of God. The ark contained the two tables
of stone, brought down from Sinai by Moses, upon
which were inscribed the ten commandments. On
the march, the tribe of Levi was the especial guard
of the ark, which was borne in the centre of the
people. On the east proceeded Judah, on the south,
Reuben, on the west, Ephraim, on the north, Dan,
each tribe beneath the banner marked with its en-
* Wcllhausen.
iB THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
sign. When in camp, the ark rcstctl in the Holy of
HoHcs of the Tabernacle, in the midst of the tribes,
each in its fixed place. The Canaanites, against
whom the Israelites went, were a people superior
to them in numbers, perhaps also in civilization.
These the)' did not extirpate, but subdued and
absorbed, deriving their power to do so from the
fierce conviction which inspired them, that they
among all the races of the earth were the especial
favorites of Heaven.
Joshua, Gideon, Jephthah, show their prowess.
The tribes of Simeon and Levi undergo annihila-
tion ; Judah is hard pressed, but maintains itself at
last through the might of Caleb. The south of Pal-
estine is gained ; at length, the central plateau, and
the ark is brought from its sanctuary on the borders
of the desert northward to Shiloh. The Canaanites,
at discord among themselves, oppose but feebly.
The north at length is laid open by the defeat of
the king of Hazor at Lake Merom. Sisera for a
time is formidable, but Deborah fires the hearts of
her countrymen ; a new leader is found in Barak, and
the Canaanite dies with the nail of Jael driven into
his temple. A more terrible enemy from the towns
of the coast at last threatens. The Philistines over-
power even Samson, and are victorious on the plains
of Sharon, carrying devastation even to Shiloh, and
bearing away the ark of the covenant. A great ex-
altation of religious feeling pervades the Hebrews at
the desecration. It expresses itself in songs and
dances ; the tribes are full of frenzy to redeem them-
selves from such humiliation. Through the proph-
TIIF. SETTINf, I'P OK TIIK TAllKRNACI.E
20 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
et Samuel, the champion Saul is discovered. A giant
in form, and of a fiery disposition, he wins victory,
and is anointed king in the ancient camp of Joshua
at Gilgal. Jonathan, his son, assisted by his armor-
bearer only, drives the Philistines into retreat. But
a greater leader is at hand. A smooth stone from
the sling of a Hebrew youth smites in the forehead
the giant of Gath, and David stands revealed.
Through him the foes from the coast are beaten
and humbled. The ark is brought back, to the joy
of the people. The Lord stands on the side of
Israel. David hears him in the rustling of the
leaves of the balsam-trees, close at his hand. One
of the Hebrew captains brandishes his spear over
eight hundred slaughtered foes; another wields his
sword until his hand grows rigid about the hilt and
cannot be unclasped. " The king was in an hold and
garrison of the Philistines, and longed and said : ' Oh,
that one would give me a drink of the water of the
well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate ! ' " Then
three mighty men, Adino, Elcazar, and Shammah,
brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew
water out of the well of Bethlehem that was b\^ the
gate, and took it and brought it to David. Then the
king would not drink thereof, but poured it out
unto the Lord, saying: " Is not this as it were the
blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their
lives?" Thus, in undoubting confidence that Jeho-
vah is with them, the Hebrews, with valiant deeds
and great sacrifices, fight on. The country to the
north is to a large extent subjected. The mountain
fortress of the Jebusites is seized, destined to become
22 TITE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Jerusalem, the most famous city of the world. Moab,
Ammon, and Edom, to the south and cast, are sub-
dued ; the recovered ark finds a new sanctuary upon
Mt. Zion ; the Hebrew power is at its height.
With the close of David's career, a period was
reached when the character of the Hebrews under-
went a certain change. Up to that time their hold
upon Palestine had been precarious ; each Israelite
had been compelled to be a soldier, prepared by force
of arms to resist opposition in every quarter. With
Canaan subjugated, however, a time had come for
attention to the arts of peace. The woodmen upon
Lebanon felled timber for the architects, who built
new cities as the people multiplied. The waters of
Merom and Galilee yielded a harvest to the fisher-
men. The vineyards flourished, the broad corn-
fields upon the plains were tilled by hands that had
turned the sword into the plough-share. An unwhole-
some contagion, moreover, from luxurious neighbors
on the borders began to sap the ancient Hebrew
vigor, and a dangerous tolerance came to be shown
toward the strange gods of the Gentiles. In these
times were heartl in the land the voices of the proph-
ets, men who were' believed to receive into their
souls special messages from Jehovah ; their vener-
able forms, on the mountain-side, in the market-
place, on the highroad, now stimulated the indif-
ferent, now denounced apostates, now threatened
coming woe to the degenerate.
The magnificent Solomon, loving peace better
than war, organized the great districts which David
had subdued, and maintained a gorgeous court. To
THE MORNING-TIME IN PALESTINE. 23
extend and embellish Jerusalem lay near his heart,
and, in accomplishing^ this, he indulged to the full a
strong passion for architecture. He constructed a vast
citadel, in the midst of which rose thp walls of the
Temple. The Temple of Solomon ! Of all edifices
reared by human hands, there is no other that has
interested such multitudes. Solomon began to build
it in the fourth year of his reign, about loio B.C., em-
ploying preparations which had already been made by
David. In return for the corn, oil, and wine, which
fertile Palestine produced abundantly, he obtained
from Hiram, King of Tyre, skilled workmen and
precious materials. The Temple's utmost height
was two hundred feet, built up from deep founda-
tions, with colossal masonry and great beams of
cedar from Lebanon. The stones were so laid " that
there appeared to the spectator no sign of the ham-
mer, but as if all had naturally united themselves
together."* Plates of gold were so nailed upon the
surfaces that the whole Temple shone. Doors of
cedar overlaid with gold afforded entrance, and be-
fore these hung veils of blue, purple, and scarlet of
the brightest and softest linen, wrought with curious
flowers. The deepest recesses of the Temple con-
tained the Holy of Holies. This enclosed two
cherubim of gold of fifteen feet in height, whose
outstretched wings, reaching to the right and left,
the northern and southern walls, touched one an-
other, also, in the centre, and so formed a covering
for the ark, which was placed between them ; but
nobody can tell, or even conjecture, what was the
* Josephus.
24 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
shape of these cherubim. In the chamber adjoining
the Most Holy Place, stood the altar of incense,
made of cedar, covered with gold, and also a great
number of c;\ndlesticks, one of which was always
lighted. Upon a multitude of tables were put many
thousand vessels of gold and silver; but upon the
largest was set forth the shcw-bread, lawful t(i eat
for the priests alone.
In the court before the Temple stood the brazen
altar upon which sacrifices were offered, and the vast
basin called the sea of brass, which rested on the
backs of twelve brazen oxen, and held water for the
ablutions of the priests before the sacrifice. To the
right and left of the porch rose to the height of
thirty feet two pillars of hollow brass. Their cir-
cumference was twenty feet, and the metal of four
finger-breadths in thickness. The Tyrian workmen
embossed upon them the forms of lilies and palms,
and two hundred pomegranates in two rows ; the
pillar to the right bore the name Jachin, and that
to the left the name Boaz.
The splendid details of the Temple are described
by Josephus, antl also in the books of Kings and
Chronicles, and there is no reason to doubt the sub-
stantial correctness of the descriptions. Seven years
were consumed in its erection, and when all was
done the people far and near were gathered together
for a solemn dedication. The king himself, with
the Levites, went before, rendering the ground moist
with oblations, and so filling the air with incense
that it touched the senses even of those who were
far off. Neither king nor people grew weary of sing-
THE MORNING-TIME IN PALESTINE. 23
ing hymns or Qancing ; but as the priests approached,
who bore upon their shoulders the ark, the multitude
gave way. The ark held, as of old, nought besides
the two tables of stone, upon which the finger of
Jehovah was believed to have inscribed the ten com-
mandments. It was set reverently beneath the gol-
den wings of the cherubim, and near at hand were
put the seven-branched candlestick and the golden
altar. As the priests went forth, after setting all in
order, it is related that a thick cloud spread itself
after a gentle manner within the Temple, so darken-
ing the place that one priest could not see another.
A fire, moreover, came running out of the air, and,
rushing npon the altar in the sight of all, it con-
sumed speedily the sacrifices that were placed there-
on. It was believed that Jehovah thus gladly pitched
his tabernacle within the Temple, and signified his
pleasure in the victims that were offered.
Thus Jerusalem became beautiful, and the fame of
the wisdom and magnificence of Solomon spread
throughout the world. But the vigor of David's rule
was sadly missed. A Syrian kingdom was allowed
to establish itself undisturbed at Dam.ascus to the
northward, and turbulent Edom in the south became
again independent. The wisdom of Solomon became
the worst folly. When he died at length, the sim-
plicity and discipline of the earlier Hebrews were
becoming sadly relaxed, and a way was prepared for
heavy calamities in the future.
Great discords came to prevail. The nation of the
Hebrews was split into two divisions, Judah at the
south with Jerusalem for the cai)ital, and Israel at
26 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the north with tlic new city of Samaria as the seat of
its kint^s. The two kingdoms were sometimes in har-
mony, but often at feud. The purit)' of the ancient
worship, moreover, became commingled with Phoeni-
cian and Egyptian elements, against which protested
the prophets Elijah and Elisha. In the softening
of manners which existed, when agriculture had re-
placed the ruder life of the shepherd and herdsman,
and the spirit of commerce was beginning to prevail,
the national force was debilitated, and though huge
fortifications surrounded the towns, there was a want
of worthy defenders. So speedily did the ancient
rugged virtue decay, that even in the time of Reho-
boam, the successor of Solomon, Jerusalem was
sacked by the Egyptians, who bore awa\', together
with much wealth, the trophies of David. Damascus
sent conquering armies to the very gates of Jerusa-
lem. At length approached a most noteworthy
crisis : the purple Assyrian invaded the land with
chariot and spear.
We have followed already the story of the Jews
for more than a thousand years. In the annals from
the da}'s of the [)atriarchs to the period we have now
reached, it is often difficult to separate authentic
history from legend. With the Assyrians we arrive
at an age, however, when the mists of the morning-
time are dissipated and the clearest sunlight prevails.
We can well afford here to take a closer look.
W'ithin little more than a generation, discoveries
have been made which give an extraordinary interest
to this part of the ancient history of the Jews, and
there is no period in which their characteristics arc
THE MOAW/A'C-T/Afl-: I.V PALESTINE. 2/
more plainly displayed. Of the many foreign nations
which play a part in the older Hebrew annals, none
is so prominent as Assyria. In the most ancient
Hebrew documents we find them mentioned. An
antediluvian existence indeed is attributed to the
nation in the second chapter of Genesis ; but without
dwelling upon uncertainties, we find that in the
eighth century before Christ, the power of Assyria
becomes very conspicuous. The books of Kings and
Chronicles are largely concerned with the relation of
her conquests. In the expedition of Jonah we have
the only instance of a prophet's going to a distance
from Judaea to exercise his prophetic functions.
Among the more ancient prophets whose writings
remain to us, Amos, about 790 IS.C, first hints at
danger from Assyria. Hosea, soon afterward, is
niuch occupied with the calamities impending from
this quarter. Isaiah, later still, from first to last,
indicates how great was the pressure upon the
Hebrews of this mighty force from the Tigris.
Micah, his contemporary, and Nahum, a little after,
prophesy only to threaten vengeance upon these
terrible foes. Zephaniah, 640 B.C., predicts the de-
struction of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital ; and
Ezekiel, in a subsequent generation, after the destruc-
tion had been accomplished, describes it at length.
The whole population of Israel, the kingdom lying
to the northward, is swept away into slavery. At
length, 587 ]5.c:., the capital of Judah, Jerusalem
itself, is destroyed, and the poor ren";nant of the
Hebrews carried captive to Babylon, which, until
shortly before, had been a dependency of Nineveh.
28
THE SrOKY OF THE JFAVS.
The crisis which we have reached in the story of
the Jewish nation is so momentous, our knowledge
of the period is so clear, to a large extent gained so
recently and in such interesting ways, — that it be-
comes proper to emj)loy in our narrative greater
detail than heretofore.
CHAPTER III.
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH.
An old Greek historian, Diodorus, relates, that
when Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, had subdued
many nations, loaded with spoil she broke into
Ethiopia. There she came upon a wonderful lake,
whose waters were vermilion in color, and of a sweet
flavor like that of old wine. Whoever tasted it be-
came mad and confessed his misdeeds. The intellect
of the modern world, after adding to her empire
realm after realm of knowledge, has invaded, with
arms strengthened by her conquests, the domain of
ancient history. Suddenly before her stretches a
shining lake. Hitherto of its waters she has known
nothing, except as an old annalist or poet, here and
there, has preserved in his vase a few glittering
drops. But now the full expanse begins to spread
itself before her, rich with gorgeous tints and flashing
light. She grows dizzy over the spectacle, and is
disposed to recall many of her boastful claims to
superior power and knowledge.
In the great halls of the British Museum ncMie are
more impressive than those which contain the vast col-
lections made by Layard among the ruins of Nineveh.
Against the walls are ranged sculptured slabs, dingy
30 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
with the tUscoloratioiis of 2,500 years. Upon these
tower the fi<^ures, bearded, colossal, just as they were
cut by the Assyrian sculptors. One may touch the
chiselling of the winged creatures, or the muscles that
stand out so strangely from the gigantic limbs, or
the flowing robes or locks, thinking, as the fingers
pass along the groove in which worked the tool of
the old artist, how many and how mighty the events
have been since the stone was thus wrought. Greece
has risen and gone to decay ; so Rome, and so a
score of empires. As strange and quiet as they
stand now, rose those figures, when the prophets of
Israel, in the very same palaces and temples in which
the sculptures formerly stood, spoke their messages.
Some of the carvings represent the very kings and
soldiers of whose deeds we read in the Bible, under
whose chariot-wheels the people of Judaea were again
and again crushed. The slabs line the walls, and in
the centre of the halls are colossal sculptured figures
— lions with wings and human heads — figures sitting
and standing — representations of kings heavily
bearded, with faces of power, the very monarchs in
whose presence the prophets spoke, and whose
armies destroyed the towns of the Jews. In the
presence of relics so very wonderful, it can hardly be
otherwise than that the heart beats quick. As the
modern visitor passes through the solemn halls, his
shadow falls athwart the giant sculptures, as the
shadow of Jonah once fell. Standing at one end
and glancing backward, the sculptures so uncouth,
yet so marvellously majestic, loom in that dim Lon-
don atmosphere jireternatu rally large, so that to the
figures is imparted an air of weird enchantment.
JONAU CALLING NINKVEU TO KEPKiNTANCE.
32 THE SrORY OF THE JEWS.
Let us try to gain a clear idea of that indomitable
force and pride — that extraordinary confidence in
himself — which have marked the Jew everywhere,
from the earliest history to the latest, and which arc
among the most important causes of the vitality and
solidarity of the race. We shall appreciate it most
vividly perhaps if we get at it by means of a side-
light. We wish to understand their ancient force;
let us understand the force and splendor of that
which they confronted unabashed, which over-
whelmed them utterly and yet did not smother
them. Let us behold a picture of one enemy whom
tlic Jew in his ancient day was compelled ttj meet,
by whom, for a time, he was overborne, whom, how
ever, he has survived for many ages.
"Assyrians," says Ezekiel, "captains and rulers
clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses,
girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed
attire upon their heads, all of tlicni princes to look-
to." Brilliant though the Assyrians were, mighty
and gorgeous though the empire was which they es-
tablished, men felt until a generation since that all
authentic knowledge of them had been lost. But
little correct information was to be obtained except
from the books of the Old Testament, and there the
mention of Assyria, though abundant, as has been
seen, was scarcely coherent or trustworthy. This
scriptural mention was enough to stimulate curiosity,
but not to gratif)' it ; the same can be said of the
accounts of the Greek historians Ctesias, Diodorus
Siculus, and Herodotus, from whom it has been pos-
sible to glean here and there only a shred or a patch
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH. 33
with which scholars have tried to piece out the
scanty story.
But did this miyhty race Hve and die and leave no
records of its own ? By no means. It has left be-
hind vv'hole libraries of records. The oldest nations,
with the chisel, or the brush dipped in indelible col-
ors, wrote down upon tablets of rock, or upon the
walls of their buildint^s, all that they knew. Upon
such indestructible pages were inscribed their history,
their knowledge of the arts and sciences, their phil-
osophy and poetry. A house was something more
to an Egyptian or a Ninevite than a mere place to
dwell in ; it was a book as well. The libraries were
the towns and cities, crowded with volumes large and
small, from the pyramid and temple down to the
humble home of the laborer. Some were bare and
plain, where poverty had time and means to cut only
a few characters or paint a line or two. Others were
crowded with inscriptions from base to cornice, the
tracery most elaborately wrought, and often illumi-
nated from end to end with the most brilliant hues.
Everywhere, in the square, on the palace-front, on
both sides of the way, the whole lore of the world
was so displayed that he who ran might read.
To this day moth and mildew have continued to
spare these old libraries. .Thebes and Baalbec,
Memphis and Babylon, half covered in sand or over-
grown with brambles, still preserve on their solemn
walls the memorials of their founders. The traveller
hears the lonely desert wind sweep by him ; the wild
beast is scared from his desert lair at the unusual
sound of a human foot-fall, but there in the desola-
34 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
tion stands the record, sometimes as distinct as if
each centur\-, instead of ubUterating, had been an
Old Mortahty, to deepen the chisclhntj, or had come
with a brusii to renew the splendor of the tints.
One may read of the whole life of human beings,
three thousand years ago ; of long-lost arts, which
modern civilization has not grasped ; of empires whose
memory is fast disappearing under the accumulating
years, as their ruins have been buried under the drift-
ing sands of the waste ; of Nimrod and Sesostris, and
many a forgotten hero.
Such was the record which the iVssyrians left be-
hind. They cut and stam[)ed their history not only
into their buildings, but also into the rocks and
mountains. If we were Assyrians we should take
perhaps Kenesaw Mountain, smooth a side of it into
a precipice with an overhanging ledge, then, under-
neath, carve in colossal dimensions the figure of the
soldier who won the battle there, and the whole story
of the march to the sea. At Richmond would rise
an innnense pyramid, sculptured from base to sum-
mit with the achievements of Grant ; while at Wash-
ington would stand a palace containing a few miles
of halls lined with pictured slabs to tell the story of
the administration of Lincoln.
If the record was so^ elaborate, the natural ques-
tion is, why has it not endured? Sculptured cliff
and obelisk have indeed remained in sight, but in
solitudes where the eye of civilized man has rarely
beheld them. Temple and palace have been buried
from sight by the dust of the accumulating centu-
ries. The site of the grave of all the buried splendor
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH. 35
had almost been forgotten, when the 19th century
at length resolved upon a resuscitation and wrought
out a wonderful result. The discoveries have been
made in Western Asia, in a half-desert region
remote from the way of commerce. A few misera-
ble Turkisli cities in the last stages of decay are situ-
ated within the territory, but it is resigned for the
most part to the wild Arabs. Everywhere over the
surface of the ground there are scattered relics — now
a mound or wall — now a heap of sculptured stone —
here a space paved with inscribed bricks or pieces of
pottery — there a crumbling tower. Desert, though
it is at present, there is hardly a portion of the earth
that has such historical interest. It was the seat of
the Saracens, whose Caliphs, celebrated in the
"Arabian Nights," shone at Bagdad until their fra-
gile state was shattered by the Tartars. The apostate
Julian came here to die, the old Pagan splendor of
Rome shooting forth its last ray from his glazing
eye as he falls. Earlier still, this earth felt the heavy
soldiery tramp of Xenophon and the ten thousand,
of whom the school-boy reads in the Anabasis, and
the chariot-wheels of the Persians who swept after
them. In yet older times than these, here came the
Pharaohs as conquerors, and here prophets from
Israel thundered forth the messages of the Lord.
From an early period the antiquities of Baby-
lonia and the region lying farther to the eastward
have been recognized as the remains of Nineveh and
Babylon. In Strabo and Pliny mention is made of
the ruins, as also in the books of travellers belonging
to the middle ages of our own era. Of the modern
36 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
explorers, Nicbuhr may be rcijarded as the pioneer,
who visited the locaHties a century ago. In the
decade from 1840 to 1 850, the famous archaeologists,
liotta and Layard, at length, startled the world with
a marvellous uncovering. But the possession of
these long-buried treasures would be of compara-
tively little value, were it not for a contemporaneous
discovery. The palaces and temples into which
Botta and Layard penetrated, contain upon their
vast walls innumerable sculptured slabs, in which the
figures and scen(;s are accompanied by inscriptions.
The characters of which these are composed are
combinations of a certain mark resembling a wedge
or arrow head, broad at one end and tapering to a
])oint at the other, from which circumstance it has
received the name of the arrow-headed, or, more
commonly, the cuneiform, wedge-shaped character.
Some idea of Assyrian grandeur might have, no
doubt, been obtained from the pictorial representa-
tions alone, but for any satisfactory knowledge an
acquaintance with the cuneiform was necessary. The
inscriptions arc numerous, Ijeing cut not only upon
the slabs with the sculptures, but stamped more or
less thickly upon almost every brick or article of
pottery. Ability to decii)her the cuneiform was
gained at the very time it was so much needed, and
the history of the achievement is a marvellous record
of ingenuity and patience. The task cannot yet be
regarded as fully accomplished. Modern scholarship
is, however, mastering her wedge-shaped tools, and
now the last bars are yielding that have so long kept
a beautiful captive from the gaze of the world. We
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH. 37
know each year more and more of her robes and
gems, her hanging gardens and castles of alabaster,
her crimson pomp and mighty sway.
Two thousand years before Christ a powerful em-
pire existed upon this territory, whose inhabitants
had acquired the art of working metals, and were so
far refined as to make some progress in astronomical
knowledge. Shadowy is the history of those old
Chald^eans. They flourished in the world's morning
time before the mists had cleared, and a cloud must
always hang over them. Through it we discern
dimly the moving to and fro of a great people, the
tramp of armies, the glare of forges, the majestic
figures of sages versed in unknown lore. To this
ancient power Assyria succeeded, becoming the most
important country of the East perhaps as early as
the thirteenth century before Christ. Her kings
became constantly more vigorous and aggressive,
and at length opened the era of magnificence. Be-
fore speaking of their power and state, a word or
two must be said as to the nature of the dominion
of the Assyrian kings, which will be needed to un-
derstand the description which follows. Their occu-
paticMi was conquest, but the vanquished states,
although under a most absolute despotism, were
allowed in the earlier periods to retain their nation-
ality, no difference being made in their internal
administration. The subjugated potentates retained
court and title, but were forced to pay tribute and
render certain personal services. Western Asia was
at this time densely peopled, and divided into a
multitude of petty kingdoms, most of which became
38 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
tributaries of Assyria. But the dominion of the
Great Kini:^, thoui^h sjjlendid, was precarious. Any
untcnvard circumstance was sure to bring about re-
volts, involvint^ often the repeated subjuijation of
the same state. At a later period, expedients were
adopted to re[)ress the tendency to rebellion. Sa-
traps were appointed over conquered nations in
place of the kin<^s who were dethrtnied ; and some-
times, where the van(|uished were esjiecially dreaded,
the whole nation was torn from its home, and driven
to remote districts of the empire.
We have no concern with the activity of these
warrior-kings, except as it affects Palestine. The
record of this comes down to us written on the rock,
and has just been restored to the work! after an
entombment of twenty centuries. In the book of
Kings there figure two monarchs of Syria, which
lay to the north of Palestine, between the power of
Nineveh and the seats of the Jews. W'e may read
on the rock how one, the fierce Ben llatlad,was
smitten with a loss of twenty thousand men ; antl of
the fall of Ilazael, the other, with his eleven hundred
chariots dashed to pieces. The kingdoms of Judah
and Lsrael see coming nearer and nearer the terrible
tempest that has been impending for years. Damas-
cus and Syria have fallen, and there is no other in-
tervening height upon which the threatening storm
can discharge itself. The prophets Amos and
liosea threaten imminent woes, and at length they
come. The tribes of Gad, Manasseh, and Reuben
are swept away, and at length, beneath the Assyrian
battering-rams, the city of Samaria falls. Three
ISRAEL AT NlNEVi^U. 39
years the city struggles, mindful of her glory under
Jeroboam, when the state of Solomon himself was
par.illeled. According to the inscriptions on the
slabs, the number of families that were driven from
Samaria was twenty-seven thousand two hundred
and eighty. These are the ten lost tribes of the
house of Israel, and one may see them sculptured
on slabs like those in London, some going to aug-
ment the splendor of Nineveh with unrewarded toil,
some to people distant and barren regions far to the
east. There is no mistaking the Jewish faces; the
same lines mark them which mark the faces of the
Abrahams and Mordecais of to-day.
The power and glory of Assyria have now reached
the culminating point, Sennacherib succeeds to the
throne. He it is of whom it has been written :
" The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold."
Upon this brilliant period the light of history falls
abundantly. Sennacherib, of all the Assyrian kings,
most engages the writers of the Old Testament. We
find mention of him in profane history, and whole
acres, covered with ruins of palaces and temples, at-
test his grandeur. This grandeur, for a moment let
me try to paint, for the Jews have their part in it.
It is eight hundred years before Christ. The good
King Hezekiah rules in Judah, whose counsellor is
the venerable prophet Isaiah. It is so far back in time
that Rome is just being founded by Romulus. Greece
is but in the infancy of her glory, and over her un-
storied soil, to the music of Dorian flutes, the hardy
40 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
bands of Sparta i^o marching to their carhcst battle-
fields. Long centuries must pass before there will
be any mention at all of Teuton, Sclave, or Celt, but
the Jew, even then, is old upon the earth. The
dominion of Assyria stretches to the ocean on the
south, and farther west to the middle provinces of
Egypt, the lower banks of the Nile being tlependen-
cies of the Great King. Northward, the mountain
princes to the base of Ararat, and even to the
Euxine, bring him tribute. In the East the yoke
has at length been fastened upon the neck of the
intractable Mede. The Mediterranean washes the
western border ; Cyprus, lately won by the prowess of
an Assyrian king, being the outpost. Nineveh at
last has become the metropolis and the most beauti-
ful city of the empire. The territory in its neigh-
bc^rhood, to-day almost a desert, is, at the time of
which we write, very fertile. It is intersected by
canals, supplied by the Tigris and Euphrates, which
grow smaller and smaller as they proceed, and inter-
lace with one another in every direction. Through
this arterial system, a double life-giving stream pours
into Mesopotamia, refreshing the soil and wafting its
vast commerce. On the banks stand machines for
irrigation, so that every rood of ground teems with
fruitfulness. In the useful arts the Assyrians have
made considerable progress. Copper and lead are
mined and wrought with skill. Iron is worked in
various forms and manufactured into excellent steel.
Glass is made of various degrees of fineness, from
that fitted for coarse utensils, to the crystal lens
through which the lajiidary is to trace microscopic
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH. 4 1
engraving. The potters furnish a variety of ware,
from the rude vessel for the use of the captive, to
the elegant vase, enamelled and gilded with tasteful
designs, intended for the palace of the satrap or the
Great King. The textile fabrics of Assyria have
been famous from an early day. In part the ma-
terials of their manufacture are produced at home, in
part imported from distant lands. Rich stuffs of
cotton, wool, and silk come from the looms. Dyes
of a brilliancy, perhaps, surpassing any now used by
Europeans are employed, and the splendor of the
more costly fabrics is still further increased by weaving
in threads of gold. The Assyrians are acquainted with
many mechanical contrivances, — the roller, the lever,
the pulley, the wheel, and, it may be certain, engines
now lost. An art resembling printing was in general
use. In most of the structures built of brick, each
brick is stamped with the same inscription, consisting
often of several words, and sometimes of a series of
sentences. The stamping is believed to have been
performed by means of a single engraved plate.
The process was, therefore, quite similar to modern
stereotyping, except that the impression was re-
ceived upon clay instead of paper.
Does the reader think, that the Jews are forsaken,
as we occupy ourselves in this way with the details
of Assyrian industry? It must be remembered that
in this time there was no industry but that of slaves,
and that a vast multitude of cai)tive Hebrews were
already in servitude on the Tigris. The instruments
just described were in the hands of enslaved Jews. —
the accomplishments narrated were the achievements
42 THE STORY OF THE JEIVS.
of their toil. Our story only follows them into
thraldom, as w c dwell thus upon the details of
Assyrian civilization.
Tile commerce of Assyria was immense. Meso-
potamia was a great mart between the East and the
West from immemorial anticjuity down to the dis-
covery of the ])assag"e around the Cape of Good
Hope. Up the Tigris from tlie Southern Ocean
came silk and cotton from India and China, and pre-
cious metals from regions unknown. From Southern
Arabia, by caravans, came spices and perfumes. The
Phoenician cities to the west sent the produce of
trading voyages extended even to Britain and the
shores of the Baltic. From the mountains on the
north great rafts of lumber were floated down upon
the Tigris by the winter floods. Fine wool and
droves of cattle and horses were sent from the pas-
tures of Armenia and the Syrian uplands.
Concerning tlie state of the Great King one hardlv
dares to speak. The reader will think that the "Ara-
bian Nights," or the vagaries of some mad hashish-
eater have crept in among the authorities ; but onl)-
the statements of matter-of-fact modern scholars and
artists are followed. We are far removed in all our
tastes and institutions from that ancient life. In the
blood of the cold Northern races there is no especial
passion for splendor ; in the strong and civilized na-
tions of the world to-da)-, an\- considerable accumu-
lation of power by single individuals, to be exercised
without let or hindrance, is impossible. Even in
Russia, despotism is hemmed in by many restraints.
In Assyria, however, a race of princes of marvellous
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH. 43
energy, possessed to an inordinate degree of that
passion for magnificence which has always character-
ized the Orientals, sat upon the throne. Their im-
mediate subjects, a warlike people, knew no law but
the sovereign's will. A long course of victory had
put a hundred powerful nations under their absolute
control. If the Great King saw fit, and he often did,
he could draw from a tributary the last ounce of
treasure, or utterly depopulate a vast district to fur-
nish workmen for any given undertaking. It was
unmitigated despotism, exercised by a wonderfully
vigorous, unscrupulous, and splendor-loving dynasty.
Assassination was the only restraint. No wonder
the results of such conditions are almost incredible.
The Great King sat on his ivory throne, a true Alad-
din ; and the genii, controlled by his signet-ring,
were all the opulent and industrious states of the
East. What phantom world could furnish a mightier
company ?
Viollet le Due and Fergusson, the historians of
architecture, have paralleled in their department the
feat of the naturalist, who from a bone or a scale, con-
structed with exactness, as it was afterwards proved,
the form of an extinct animal. From the broken
fragments of the palaces, they have constructed their
former grandeur. In the midst of the level landscape
rose, in the first place, an immense artificial hill. The
excavations from which the soil came may still be dis-
tinctly traced in depressions and vast swamps. On
all sides this elevation was faced with solid masonry,
while upon the lofty platform on the summit was
built the palace. l'\)rtificati()ns like cliffs rose near
44 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
it an hundred feet hi^^h, and wide enough for three
chariots abreast. At frequent intervals towers shot
up to a still loftier elevation. The platform was as-
cended by a stately stair. The foot of the visitor
trod upon slabs carved or inlaid with handsome
designs. Sculptured portals, by which stood silent
guardians, colossal figures in white alabaster, the
forms of men and beasts, winged and of majestic
mien, admitted him to the magnificence within.
The facade of the palace at its base was covered
with graven images. Upward, tier above tier into
the blue heavens, ran hues of colonnades, pillars of
costly cedar, cornices glittering with gold, capitals
blazing with vermilion, and between them voluminous
curtains of silk, purple and scarlet, interwoven with
threads of gold. The wind from over Media came
breathing through these aerial pavilions, and far
down to the alabaster lions and the plumed divinities
in the court beneath, they whispered of the glory of
the Great King. In the interior, stretching for
miles, literally for miles, the builder of the palace
ranged the illustrated record of his exploits. The
inscriptions were deeply cut in the cuneiform char-
acter, and parallel with them in scarlet and green,
gold and silver, ran the representations of the scenes
themselves. There were commemorated the exploits
of the chase, the building of palaces, and scenes of
fea.sting. More numerous, however, were the jmc-
tures of war, the battle, the siege, the torture, the
long procession of captives. In places of honor, the
portrait of the monarch himself was set, with his foot
upon the neck of some tributar)- prince or worship-
ISRAEL AT NINEVEH. 45
ping before his gods. Through Hon-guarded portals
admission was gained to still other halls, lined every-
where by the endless record. The mind grows dizz\'
with the thought of the splendor, — the processions of
satraps and eunuchs and tributary kings winding up
the stair and pouring in a radiant stream through
the halls, — the gold and embroidery, — the ivory and
the sumptuous furniture, — the pearls and the hang-
ings. Nor let it be supposed it was merely barbaric
splendor. In modern times, in Italy, memorials
have been discovered of a refined people who were
precursors of the Roman power,- — delicate vases, and
gold and silver chased in forms of grace, for which
the beholder finds no word but perfect. The old
Etruscan art is believed to-day to have been trans-
planted from Assyria. Architecture found in the
balconies of Nineveh the beautiful Ionic column.
Highest distinction of all, it is believed that sculp-
ture, the art of arts, — the white Phidian blossom, so
pure and peerless in the chaplet of ancient Greece,
budded in the chambers of the Assyrian kings.
^^^^s
CHAPTER IV.
TIIK DESTRUCTION OV SEXXArFlKRIF..
L1':t us imagine ourselves, for tlie moment, vicc-
ro)'s or princes, personages of sufficient dignit)' to be
guests of the mighty Sennaclierib, and that we have
ascended with him, the possessor of all this pomp,
to the carven roof of the towering palace, where
stand altars for sacrifice. Hundreds of feet below, the
Tigris washes the foundations, and shoots its waters
into the artificial channels v^inding everywhere
through the land. From an unfinished temple close
at hand comes the hum of uncounted captives, tlie
keen eye and hawk nose of the Jew appearing among
them, slaves since the subjugation, in the previous
reigns, of Northern Palestine. In the distance, along
the river, in gay barges, approaches the train of
some subjugated i)rincc bearing offerings. Meso-
potamia, as it were i:i bondage too, bound under the
silvery watercourses beneath the eye, as if 1)\' an in-
terlacing net, prepares for the master her punctual
tribute of corn and wine. The Great King turns his
haughty, bearded face to the southward, where the
messengers of Hezekiah, King of Judah, approach,
bearing thrones and couches. There are camel-trains
from .Solomon's seaport of Ezion-Gebir with the
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. 47
wealth of Ophir ; trains, too, from Southern Arabia,
laden with spice, frankincence, and myrrh, caravan
upon caravan, until all the robber winds of the des-
ert, from rifling their bales, fling perfumes every-
where through the wilderness. Sennacherib turns
his face to the east, and in his dark Assyrian eye
there is a light as he thinks of the Mede scourged
into servitude. Northward rise peaks 'covered with
snow. He calls to mind, perhaps, how as his chariot
bands swept past the base of one of them, down
upon them, shroud and sepulchre at once, an ava-
lanche swept over their purple pennons. But what
mattered it in so great a multitude ! It was a trifle,
and the cymbals of the spearmen clashed on loud as
ever through the narrow defiles. The Great King looks
westward long and thoughtfully. His breast heaves
under its covering of gems, and new pride sits in his
haughty face. Was it not there, with the dash of
the Mediterranean in his ear, that he pressed his foot
upon the necks of the great Phcenician princes, lords
of the continuous city stretching northward from
Acre two hundred miles to Aradus? Was^'it not
there that the laboring galleys put to sea out from
Sidon, to bear even to distant Tarshish, and the still
more distant amber-coasts, the fame of his might ?
Was it not there, too, that the ships of the rich
Tyrian captains swept past him as he sat on his
throne ; their mighty oars, in the words of Ezekiel,
made of tough oak from Bashan, their planks of fir-
trees from Senir, their tall masts cedars of Lebanon,
their sails of embroidered linen, the rowers, as the\-
swept the deep, seated upon benches of ivory carved
4<^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ill liis own Nineveh? How, as the i)ageant rushed
through the waters, even the sea threw off its blue
that it might assume the purple light of their sides
and the glitter of the shields on their prows ! By
the side of the Great King, upon an altar set about
with beryl and chrysolite, burns eternal fire, kindled
in Chaldea once by sages who had looked upon the
face of Noah. Well may he bow and worship the
gods of Asshur, who have set their favored son on
such a pinnacle.
It is scarcely possible to make too brilliant the
picture. It was a nation not much behind the modern
world in many of the useful arts; and in those which
contribute to luxury and splendor, the arts among
them especially cultivated, they were perhaps far
before. The people, whose prowess and magnificence
have just been hinted at, the Jew was called to con-
front, when at its mightiest. It is for us to see how
he bore himself. The good King Hezekiah labored to
restore the ancient usages and glory of the Jewish
nation, whose power had languished since the reign
of Solomon. The old polity was restored, and
the sceptre of Judah stretched over several of the
neighboring countries. At length growing bolder,
and relying upon the support, of Egypt, Hezekiah
dared to throw off the yoke of Assyria, of which he
had been a tributar}-. Presently from his high throne
came rushing the insulted sovereign. The passes in
the mountains to the north are choked with his host.
The waters of the Jordan in its lower course trickle
feebly in a diminished stream, so great is the multi-
tude of men and animals who drink at its source.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. 49
Samaria is crossed already desolate ; the frontiers of
the tribe of Benjamin are invaded, and like trees, one
by one isolated and consumed by a flood of lava,
city after city is enveloped and crushed by the red
and glittering array. Hezekiah strips the very temple
of its treasures, giving up the sacred utensils, and
tearing from the pillars their heavy golden plates in
order to appease Sennacherib ; but the imperious
monarch is determined to establish the altars of
Asshur in the soil of Mt. Zion.
" Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with tlieir banners at sunset were seen," —
for the resources of Sennacherib have been stretched
to the utmost. When this insignificant handful of
Jews has been crushed, there is to be an invasion of
Africa. From the sculptures which in our day have
come to be an object of study, we may behold in
detail the battle order.
The host is in array, for scouts in the van bring
tidings of the approach of a hostile army from the
southward. The light-armed troops arc slingers and
archers. They are dressed in short embroidered
tunics, with their hair surrounded by bands. Like
the Saxon bowmen, the archers draw their arrows to
the ear. Their weapons are handsomely decorated.
The heavy infantry carry spears and shields ; on their
heads they wear helmets of burnished brass ; cross-
belts support small-arms at the side, and shining
discs of metal cover their breasts. They stand in
regular ranks, file behind file. To-morrow, when the
host of Judah makes its onset, the first rank kneel-
50 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ing, the second stooping, will form with their spears
a bristling hedge, and from behind, the bowmen will
discharge tlieir arrows. In a similar way, twenty-five
centuries hence, the brigades of Napoleon, at the
battle of Mt. Tabor, not far distant, will receive the
charge of the Mamelukes. But the strength of the
host is in the swarming cavalry and chariots. The
horses are spirited steeds from Arabia and Armenia.
The riders sit upon decorated saddles, clad in armor,
with helmets and lances. The chariot bands are the
chivalry and flower of Asshur. The coursers are
caparisoned with purple silk and embroidered cloth ;
from their heads hang plumes and heavy tassels. As
they hurry to and fro, flashing behind them with
gold and jasper, witli ivory and enamel, roll the for-
midable vehicles. The w^arriors within, the veterans
of many wars, are clad from head to foot in steel ;
embossed upon their shields are the heads of lions ;
lofty standards of precious stuiYs, embroidered, hang
over their plumed helmets, and all along the line
hover pennons of scarlet. In the rear are the rams
and other warlike engines, the ladders for escalading,
the steel tools for the mines, already battered and
blunt with hard service before the fenced cities of
Judah. In tents of costly and gaudy stuffs, the
concubines and eunuchs of the Great King and the
Ninevite nobles outnumber even the soldiers. Every-
where, from fertile Jericho to the sea-coast of old
riiilistia, range the foragers, and innumerable as a
locust swarm, the beasts collected for burden and
provision consume the pastures. Here and there
some great officer -the chief cup-bearer, or the inso-
w^~^
i
■w
52 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
lent Rabshakcli, or perhaps even Sennacherib him
self — goes by in his canopied chariot attended by
stately body-guards.
Doubtless that eve there was panic in Jerusalem ;
but all true Israelites, confident in having the Lord
upon their side, surveyed from the battlements with
contempt even this array, so magnificent and appal-
ling. The youth of true Hebrew fire, from his high
watch-tower as the sun descended, looked down
ujion the scene. Into his mind came crowding the
grand traditions of Jud.'ta — how Jephthah smote the
Ammonites hip and thigh from Aroer even unto
Minnith ; how Caleb slew the Anakim in the fast-
nesses of Hebron ; and how the mighty Joshua had
said in the sight of Israel : " Sun, stand thou still on
Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,"
and the sun stood still and the moon stayed until
the people had avenged themselves on their enemies.
When from the glittering Assyrian lines the drums
and dulcimers throbbed out upon the still air of
twilight, clear and far out of the height from a
Jewish trumpet rang a blast of defiance. The Lord's
chosen people would abide the battle !
By the side of Hezekiah as counsellor stands a
venerable figure. In the year that King Uzziah
(lied, lialf a century before (this is his own account
of himself), he had seen the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and lifted up, with a train that filled the
temple; and while he looked an attendant seraph,
seizing a coal from off the altar, had laid it upon his
lips, and the voice of the Lord had bidden him go
forth and speak his will until the land was utterly
THE DESTRUCi ION OF SENXACHERIB. 53
desolate. Now this interpreter of the Lord's mes-
sages, the great prophet Isaiah, determines the
counsels of the king. Thus he speaks :
"This is the word that the Lord hath spoken con-
cerning Sennacherib : ' The virgin, the daughter of
Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn.
The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at
thee. By thy messengers thou hast reproached the
Lord, and hast said, with the multitude of my
chariots I have come up to the height of the moun-
tains, to the side of Lebanon, and will cut down the
tall trees thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof, and
the forest of his Carmel. With the sole of my foot
I have dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
But the house of David shall take root downward
and bear fruit upward.' Therefore, thus saith the
Lord concerning the King of Assyria : ' He shall not
come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor
come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against
it. By the way that he came by the same shall he
return, and shall not come into this city,' saith the
Lord."
That was the prophecy which Isaiah poured forth
with hot utterance, and according to the old HebrevM
story this was its fulfilment : " And it came to pass
that night tjiat the angel of the Lord went out and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and
four score and five thousand, and in the morning,
behold, they were all dead corpses.
" Anil there lay the rider, distorted and pale,
With the dew (Jii his bruw and the rust on liis mail ;
54 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
And tliu Iciils were all sileiil, the Iianiieis alune,
The lances unlifted, the tiiiinpets nnblown,
I*'or ifie might of the (lentile, unsniolc by the sword,
Had melted like snow in the glance of the Lord."
\wi\ Sennacherib returned a:ul tlwelt in Nineveh,
and it caine to pass as he was \V()rshi[)])int4- in tlie
liouse of Nisroch, liis god, that Adraninielech and
Sharezar, his sons, smote him with the sword, and
Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead.
Such was Assyria at its height, but a rapid de-
cadence ensued, and at length, seven hundred years
before Clirist, Cyrus the Mede smote her with the
sword and lighted her funeral pyre. Until the late
discoveries, the talc of the splendor of ancient
Oriental nations was believed to be enormously
exaggerated, if not fabulous. But after all it was
not so far short of the truth. Grant that the records
of the kings are boastful, yet the vast artificial
mounds, crumbling so long, but so mountain-like,
the palaces covering acres, the leagues of sculptured
masonry, are testimony to the power and state of
the kings not to be invalidated. They are remains
of a nation, hot much behind the modern, in the
useful arts; and in those which contribute to luxury
and splendor, the arts among them especially cher-
ished, they were perhaps far before.
It is not strange that the modern world becomes
somewhat dizzy with the spectacle, and feels inclinetl
to recall some of its claims to increase of power and
knowledge. Think, — it may be that this venerable
empire will be remembered when the fame of modern
nations has cjuite passed away. The slabs in the
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB 55
British Museum have already held their sculptured
record twenty-five hundred years. Which has the
best chance to-day of enduring to a remote future,
that imperishable rock, or the paper and paste-board
books in the library close at hand, to which we have
entrusted our annals? Do you know the story of the
great library of Alexandria into which had been gath-
ered the parchments and books of antiquity? Its
treasures of learning were disposed on countless
shelves, and quite untold. Not the Caliph Omar, as
has been believed, but a mob of Christian monks,
infuriated with fanaticism, set the library on fire.
While the frail receptacles perished, one can imagine
the temple-fronts of the Pharaohs, the pyramids, and
the obelisks, looming up in the glare, crowded thick
with the inscriptions of an older time. In the bright
light appeared the deep-cutting, low relief, the indeli-
ble tints, — monuments like those to which the mon-
archsof Nineveh entrusted the story of their grandeur.
Literature had lost her frailer page, but high on her
ancient strongholds, she defied, from those imperish-
able tablets, as they flushed red from line to line in
the midnight blaze, the impotent torches of man.
If we follow one school of geologists, we know that
a time may come when this present geological era,
amidst the rush of oceans or the bursting forth of
volcanic fires, may come to an end. In that case how
quickly will these perishable memorials of ours which
we know as books, shrivel and disappear. But that
old literature, entrenched securely within its rocky
tablets, will mock the very forces of nature, as it
defied in Egypt the torches of the Arabs ; and new
56
thp: story of the jews.
orders of beings, searching among the fossils and
deposits of a by-gone age, may read there the story
of the Assyrian kings.
But what use in being long remembered unless we
can be remembered with blessing ! The red and
shining characters in which is written the story of
Nineveh, repeat a terrible tale of violence and wrong.
The glory of the old empire beams like the pearl in-
deed, but, like the pearl, too, it is no normal or healthy
growth. The glitter upon her ivory and jasper is
from the tears of cai)tives. Her scarlet and vermil-
ion dyes are from the life-stream of crushed nations.
" The stone cries out of the wall and the beam out
of the timber siiall answer it : Woe to him that build-
eth a tower with blood and establisheth a city by
inquity ! "
CHAPTER V.
JUDAS MACCAB/EUS, THE HEBREW WILLIAM TELL.
The kingdom of Judah escaped destruction at
the hands of Sennacherib, but its respite was short.
Soon afterwards Babylon, closely related to Assyria,
and the heir of its dominion, swept into captivity in
distant Mesopotamia nearly all that were left of
Hebrew stock. For a time the nation seemed to
have been wiped from the face of the earth. The
ten tribes of Israel that had been first dragged forth
never returned to Judea, and their ultimate fate,
after the destruction of Nineveh, whose splendor
they had in their servitude done so much to enhance,
was that of homeless wanderers. The harp of Judah,
silent upon the devastated banks of the Jordan, was
hung upon the Babylonian willows, for how could
the exiles sing the Lord's song in a strange land !
But the cry went forth at length that Babylon had
fallen in her turn, just as destruction had before
overtaken Nineveh. In the middle of the sixth
century ];.('., Cyrus, the Mede, made a beginning of
restoring the exiles, who straightway built anew the
Temple walls.
In David's time the population of Palestine must
have numbered several millions, aiul it largely in-
58 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
creased during; the succeeding reij^ns. Multitudes,
however, hail perished by the sword, and other mul-
titudes were retained in strange lands. Scarcely
fifty thousand found their way back in the time of
Cyrus to the desolate site of Jerusalem, but one
hundred years later, the number was increased by a
reinforcement under Ezra. From this nucleus, with
astonishing vitality, a new Israel was presently de-
veloped. With weapons always at hand to repel the
freebooters of the desert, they constructed once more
the walls of Jerusalem. Through all their harsh
experience their feelings of nationality had not been
at all abated ; their blood was untouched by foreign
admixture, though some Gentile ideas had entered
into the substance of their faith. The convicticMi
that they were the chosen people of God was as
unshaken as in the ancient time. With pride as
indomitable as ever, entrenched within their little
corner of Syria, they confronted the hostile world.
But a new contact was at hand, — for the Jews, and
for the world at large, far more memorable even
than that with the nations of Mesopotamia, — a con-
tact whose consequences affect at the present hour
the condition of the greater part of the human race.
In the \ear y-^2 n.C, the high-priest, Jaddua, at
Jerusalem, was in an agony, '"'^ not knowing how he
should meet certain new invaders of the land, before
whom Tyre and Gaza, the old Philistine stronghold,
had fallen, and who were now marching upon the
city of David. But God warned him in a dream that
he should take courage, adorn the city, and open the
* Josephus.
JUK KEIUni.DJNG OF THE TEMPLE.
6o THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
gates ; that the people should appear in white gar-
ments of peace, but that he and the priests should
meet the strangers in the robes of their office. At
length, at the head of a sumptuous train of generals
and tributary princes, a young man of twenty-four,
upon a beautiful steed, rode forward from the way
going down to the sea to the spot which may still
be seen, called, anciently, Scopus, the prospect, be-
cause from that point one approaching could behold,
for the first time, Jerusalem crowned by the Temple
rising fair upon the heights of Zion and Moriah.
The youth possessed a beauty of a type in those
regions hitherto little known. As compared with
the swarthy Syrians in his suite, his skin was white,
— his features were stamped with the impress of
command, — his eyes filled with an intellectual light.
With perfect horsemanship he guided the motions
of his charger. A fine grace marked his figure, set
off with cloak, helmet, and gleaming arms, as he ex-
pressed with animated gestures his exultation over
the spectacle before him. l^ut now, down from the
heights came the procession of the priests and the
people. The multitude proceeded in their robes of
white ; the priests stood clothed in fine linen ; while
the high-priest, in attire of purple and scarlet, — upon
his breast the great breast-plate of judgment with
its jewels, upon his head the mitre marked with the
plate of gold whereon was engraved the name of
God, — led the train with venerable dignity.
Now, says the historian, when the Phcenicians and
Chaldeans that followed Alexander thought that
they should have liberty to plunder the city, and
JUDAS MACCAB.EUS 6 1
torment the high-priest to death, the very reverse
happened, for the )'oung leader, when he saw the
multitude in the distance, and the figure of the high-
priest before, approached him by himself, saluted
him, and adored the name, which was graven upon
the plate of the mitre. Then a captain named Par-
menio asked him how it came to pass that, when all
others adored him, he should adore the high-priest
of the Jews. To whom the leader replied : " I do
not adore him, but that God who hath honored him
with his high priesthood ; for I saw this very person
in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in
Macedonia, who, when I was considering how I might
obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make
no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for
that he would conduct my army, and would give me
the dominion over the Persians." Then when Alex-
ander had given the high-priest his right hand, the
priests ran along by him, and he came into the city,
and he offered sacrifice to God in the Temple, ac-
cording to the high-priest's direction, and magnifi-
cently treated both the high-priest and the priests.
He granted all the multitude desired ; and when he
said to them that if any of thein would enlist them-
selves in his army on this condition, that they should
continue under the laws of their forefathers, he was
willing to take them with him, many were ready to
accomi)any him in his wars,
Wlien the higli-priest Jaddua and Alexander the
Great went hand in hand up into the mount of the
Temple, the Jew and the Aryan came together into
permanent contact. In the days of the early world,
62 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
in some mysterious region of Central Asia, a choice
strain of men began to grow numerous and powerful.
As the home became contractetl, a band departed
southward, whom we find, when histcjry begins, ad-
vancing from the north into India. In hymns which
have come down to us in the Vedas, they sang in
honor of fire : " Neighing like a horse that is greedy
for food, thy path, O fire, is dark at once"; and in
honor of the dawn : " She shines upon us like a
young wife; she is the leader of the clouds, golden-
colored, lovely to behold." Their descendants,
pressing forward, have possessed at length the \\hole
of India.
Ikit this Aryan troop that went southward is less
interesting to us than companies that departed west-
ward, for in these westward marching bands went
the i)rimeval forefathers, from whose venerable loins
we ourselves have proceeded. They passed into
Western Asia, and from Asia into Europe — each
migrating multitude impelled by a new swarm sent
forth from the parent hive behind. \\. the liead of
the Adriatic Sea an Ar\-an troop had dixided, send-
ing down into the eastern peninsuki the ancestors of
the Greeks, and into the western peninsula the train
destined to establish upon the sex'en hills the power
of Rome. Already the Aryan pioneers, the Celts,
on the outmost rocks of the western coast of Europe,
were fretting against tlie barrier of storm and sea,
across which they were not to find their way for
many ages. Already l'h(enician merchants, trading
for amber in the far-off Baltic, had become aware of
wild Aryan tribes j)ressing to the northwest — the
JUDAS MACCAB.-EUS. 6^
Teutons and Goths. Already, perhaps, upon the
outlying- spurs of the Ural range, still other Aryans
had fixed their hold, the progenitors of the Sclave.
The aboriginal savage of Europe was already nearly
extinct. His lance of flint had fallen harmless from
the Aryan buckler; his rude altars had become dis-
placed by the shrines of the new Gods. In the
Mediterranean Sea each sunny isle and pleasant
promontory had long been in Aryan hands, and now
in the wintry forests to the northward the resistless
multitudes had more recently fixed their seats. In
the Macedonians, the Aryans, having established
their dominion in Europe, march back upon the
track which their forefathers long before had fol-
lowed westward, and now it is tliat the Hebrews be-
come involved with the race that from that day to
this has been the master-race of the world. It was a
contact taking place under circumstances, it wenild
seem, the most auspicious — the venerable old man
and the beautiful Greek youth clasping hands, the
ruthless followers of the conqueror baffled in their
hopes of booty, the multitudes of Jerusalem, in
their robes of peace, filling the air with acclama-
ti(jns, as Alexander rode from the jilace of prospect
up the heights of Zion, into the solenm precincts
of the Temple. It was the prologue, however, to a
tragedy of the darkest, to a persecution of two thou-
sand years, the flames of which even at the present
hour can scarcely be said to have died down.
The successors of Alexander the Great made the
Jews a link between the Hellenic populations that
had become widely scattered throughout the TLast by
64 THE STOKY OF TIIK JEWS.
the Macedonian coiuiucsts, and the threat barbarian
races amon^; whom llic Greeks had placed them-
selves. The dispersion of the Jews, which had
already taken place to such an extent through the
Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, went forward
now more vii^orously. Throughout Western Asia
they were found everywhere, but it w^as in Eg)'pt that
they attained the highest prosperity and honor.
The one city, Alexandria, alone, is said to have con-
tained at length a million Jews, whom the Greek
kings of Egypt, the Ptolemies, preferred in every
way to the native population. Elsewhere, too, they
were favored, and hence they were everywhere
hated ; and the hatred assumed a deeper bitterness
from the fact, that the Jew always remained a Jew,
marked in garb, in feature, in religious faith, always
scornfully asserting the claim that he was the chosen
of the Lord. Palestine became incorporated with
the empire of the Seleucidai, the Macedonian princes
to whom had fallen Western Asia. Oppression at
last succeeded the earlier favor, the defences of
Jerusalem were demolished, and the Temple defiled
with Pagan ceremonies; and now it is that we reach
some of the finest figures in Hebrew history, the
great high-priests, the Maccabees.
There dwelt at the town of Modin," a priest, Mat-
tathias, the descendant of Asmona^us, to whom had
been born five sons, John, Simon, Judas Maccabajus,
or the hammer, T^leazar, and Jonathan. Mattathias
lamented the ravaging of the land and the plunder
of the Temple by Antiochus hLi)iphanes, and when,
* Joseplius and tlie Books of llie Maccabees.
JUDAS MACCAB.-EUS. 65
in the year 167 B.C., the Macedonian king sent to
Modin to have sacrifices offered, the Asmoua^an
returned a spirited reply. "Thou art a ruler," said
the king's officers, " and an honorable and great
man in this city, and strengthened with sons and
brethren. Now, therefore, come thou first : so shalt
thou and thy house be in number of the king's
friends, and thou and thy children shall be honored
with silver and gold and many rewards." But
Mattathias replied with a loud voice : " Though all
the nations that are under the king's dominion obey
him, and fall away every one from the religion ol
their fathers, yet will I and my sons and my brethren
walk in the covenant of our fathers. God forbid
that we should forsake the law and the ordinances!
We will not hearken to the king's words to go from
our religion, either on the right hand or the left."
An heroic struggle for freedom at once began
which opened for the Jews full of sadness. An
apostate Jew, approaching to offer sacrifice in com-
pliance with the command of Antiochus, was at once
slain by Mattathias, who struck down also Apelles,
the king's general, with some of his soldiers. As he
fled with his sons into the desert, leaving his sub-
stance behind him, many of the faithful Israelites
followed, pursued by the Macedonians seeking
revenge. The oppressors knew well how to choose
their time. Attacking on the Sabbath-day, when,
according to old tradition, it was a transgression
even to defend one's life, a thousand with their
wives and children were burnt and smothered in the
caves in which they had taken refuge. But Matta-
66
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
thiiis, rallyiiii,^ those that remained, tauj^ht them to
fight on the Sabbath, and at all times. The heathen
altars were overthrown, the breakers of tJie law were
slain, the uncircumcised boys were ever^'where cir-
cumcised. But the fulness of time approached for
Mattathias ; after a }'ear his day of death had come,
and tiiese were his parting words to his sons: "I
know that your brother Simon is a man of counsel ,
give ear unto him alua)-s; he shall be ii father unto
you. As for Judas Maccabajus, he hath been might}-
and strong even from his \-outh up. Let him be
)'our captain and fight the battles of the people.
Admit among you the righteous."
No sooner had the father departed, than it ap-
peared that the captain whom he had designated was
a man as mighty as the great champions of old,
Joshua and Gideon and Samson. He forthwith
smote with defeat ApoUonius, the general in the Sa-
maritan country, and when he had slain the Greek,
he took his sword for his own. Seron, general of
the army in Coele-Syria, came against him with a
host of Macedonians strengthened by apostate Jews.
The men of Judas Maccaba,'us were few in number,
without food, and faint-hearted, but he inspired thenii
with his own zeal, and overthrew the new foes at
Bethoron. King Antiochus, being now called east-
ward to Persia, committed military matters in Pales-
tine to the vicero)', Lysias, with orders to take an
army with elephants and conquer Judaea, enslave its
people, destroy Jerusalem, and abolish the nation.
At once the new invaders were upon the lantl ; of
foot-soldiers there were 40,000, of horsemen 7,000, and
yUDAS MACCABJEUS. 6y
as they advanced many Syrians and renegade Jews
joined them. Merchants marched with the army
with money to buy the captives as slaves, and chains
with which to bind those whom they purchased.
But Judas Maccabaeus was no whit dismayed. Caus-
ing his soldiers to array themselves in sack-cloth, he
made them pray to Jehovah. He dismissed, those
lately married and those who had newly come into
great possessions, as likely to be faint-hearted. After
addressing those that remained, he set them in the
ancient order of battle, and waited the opportunit}'
to strike. The hostile general, fancying he saw an
opportunity to surprise the little band of Hebrews,
sent a portion of his host against them, by secret
ways at night. But the spies of Judas were out.
Leaving the fires burning brightly in his camp, to
lure forward those who were commissioned to attack
him, he rushed forth under the shadows against the
main body, weakened by the absence of the detach-
ment. He forced their position, though strongly de-
fended, overcame the army ; then turned back to
scatter utterly the other party who were seeking him
in the abandoned camp. He took great booty of
gold and silver, and of raiment purple and blue. He
marched home in great joy to the villages of Judaea,
singing hymi:is to God as was done in the days of
Miriam long before, because they had triumphed
gloriously.
The next year Lysias advanced from Antiocli, the
Syrian capital, with a force of 65,000. Judas Macca-
baeus, with 10,000, overthrew his vanguard, upon
which the vicero)', terrified at the desperate fighting,
68 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
retired to assemble a still greater army. For a time
there was a respite from war, during which Judas
counselled the people to purify the Temple. The
Israelites, overjoyed at the revival of their ancient
customs, the restoration of the old worship in all its
purity, and the relief from foreign oppressors, cele-
brated for eight days a magnificent festival. The
lamps in the Temple porches were rekindled to the
sound of instruments and the chants of the Levites.
But one vial of oil could be found, when, lo, a mira-
cle ! The one vial suf^ced for the supply of the
seven-branched golden candlestick for a week. This
ancient Maccabrean festival faithful Jews still cele-
brate under the name of the Hanoukhah, the Feast
of Lights.
Judas subdues also the Idumeans to the south-
ward, and the Ammonites. His brethren, too, have
become mighty men of valor. Jonathan crosses the
Jordan with him and campaigns against the tribes to
the eastward. Eleazar is a valiant soldier, and Simon
carries succor to the Jews in Galilee. But at length
the Macedonian is again at hand, more terrible than
before. The foot are 100,000, the horse 20,000 ; and
as rallying-points, thirty-two elephants tower among
the ranks. About each one of the huge beasts is
collected a troop of i,ooo foot and 50Q horse; high
turrets upon their backs are occupied by archers ;
their great flanks and limbs are cased in plates of
steel. The host show their golden and brazen shields,
making in the sun a glorious splendor, and shout in
their exultation so that the mountains echo. In the
battle that fallows fortune does not altogether favor
JUDAS MACCAB.^MS. 69
the Jews. In particular, the champion Eleazar lays
down his life. He had attacked the largest elephant,
a creature covered with plated armor, and carrying
upon his back a whole troop of combatants, among
whom it was believed that the king himself fought.
Eleazar had slain those in the neighborhood ; then
creeping beneath the belly of the elephant, had
pierced him. As the brute fell Eleazar was crushed
in the fall. Judas was forced to retire within the
defences of Jerusalem, where still further disaster
seemed likely to overcome him. Dissensions among
themselves, however, weakened the Macedonians.
Peace was offered to the Jews, and permission to live
according to the laws of their fathers — proposals
which were gladly accepted, although the invaders
razed the defences of the Temple.
The peace was not enduring. New Macedonian
invasions followed ; new Hebrew successes, the Mac-
cabees and their partisans making up, by their fierce
zeal, their military skill, and dauntless valor, for their
want of numbers. But a sad day came at last.
Judas, twenty times outnumbered, confronts the
leader Bacchides in Galilee. The Greek sets horse-
men on both wings, his light troops and archers be-
fore the heavier phalanx, and takes his own station
on the right. The Jewish hero is valiant as ever ;
tile right wing of the enemy turns to flee. The left
and centre, however, encompass him, and he falls
fighting gloriously, having earned a name as one of
the most skilful and valorous of the world's great
vindicators of freedom. For three years he had liccn
high-priest, and as such had resolved to form an alii-
^0 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ancc with a new power, far to the west — of whose
conquests the Oriental world in those days was just
beginning to hear — the power of Rome. When the
messengers of Judas Maccaba^us stood before the
Senate, the City of the Seven Hills saw then, for the
first time, the Jew, — the race she was in time des-
tined to conquer, at whose hands she herself, in a
spiritual sense, was destined to undergo conquest.
It was the beginning of a very memorable connec-
tion, but as yet all was unknown. Simon and Jona-
than, the brethren, received the body of the hero
by treaty, and buried him solemnly at Modin by the
sepulchre of their father.
Like Eleazar and Judas, John, the eldest son of
Mattathias, undergoes a soldier's death. At one
time the land is given to apostates, and the faithful
undergo such sufferings as have not been seen since
the l^abylonish captivity. Simon and Jonathan sur-
vive, however, and possess the Asmona.'an heart and
arm. If there are times of humiliation, times of
triumph succeed. The splendor of Jerusalem is re-
newed ; messengers bring to the Maccabees vessels
of silver, purple garments, buttons of gold, as signs
of favor. Jonathan is confirmed in supremacy over
Jud;ea and four prefectures, and Simon is made gen-
eral over the country stretching from Tyre to I<lg}'pt.
They in their turn die, not on the field, but by the
hand of treachery. One following the other, each
has been high-priest, and now with lamentations the
people entomb them in magnificent sepulchres at
Modin with the other mighty priests, Judas and
Mattathias. Each has tried to confirm the alliance
yUDAS MACCABEUS. 71
with Rome, for the masterful quahty of the ItaHan
power in those years unfolds itself more and more.
Thoufjh the old father has gone, and all his sons,
the Asmonaean vigor still lives, in grandsons and
great-grandsons. As one traces the details, a multi-
tude of traits, pathetic, picturesque, terrible, heroic,
appear upon the page. An Asmonaean prince, John
Hyrcanus, like his ancestors, high-priest, besieges
Jericho during civil dissensions, a city defended by a
kinsman, who holds in his keeping the mother and
brethren of the prince. These are brought upon the
wall and tortured before the prince's eyes. Threats
are made that they will be cast down headlong if the
siege is persisted in. The mother spreads out her
hands and begs John Hyrcanus to persist in spite of
the fate that may overtake her and her children ; but
when he sees her beaten and torn to pieces, his cour-
age fails.
The same John, besieged at another time in Jer-
usalem, by still another Antiochus, begs for a truce of
seven days at the time of the Feast of the Tabernacles,
that the festival may be worthily honored. The truce
is granted, and more ; for as the feast begins, lo, from
the enemy's camp proceeds a magnificent sacrifice,
messengers bearing sweet spices and cups of gold
and silver, and leading bulls with gilded horns, sent
by Antiochus to be offered upon the altar of the
Lord.
Miraculous portents abound in the Asmonaean
days. Heliodorus, sent by his Macedonian master,
undertakes to rob the Temple. " Throughout the
whole city no small agony was felt. Priests, prostrat-
T2 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
iiifT themselves before the altar, besought that things
given them to be kept might be safely preser\-ed.
The people rushed in terror from their houses.
Women shrouded in sackcloth abounded in the
streets; and the virgins, that were ordinarily kept in,
ran, some to the gates, some to the walls, and some
looked out of windows. All made supplication,
and it would have aroused any one's pity to see the
falling down of the multitude of all sorts, and the
anguish of the high-priest. Heliodorus, however,
unmoved, set about the fulfilment of his commission ;
but there appeared unto him a horse with a terrible
rider, and adorned with a very fair covering ; and he
ran fiercely and smote at Heliodorus with his fore-
feet. His rider wore a complete harness of gold ;
moreover, two other }-oung men appeared before
Heliodorus, notable in strength, excellent in beaut}',
and comely in apparel, who stood on either side and
scourged him continuall}-. The desecrator fell to the
earth and was compassed about with great darkness.
When he had been carried away in a litter, he came
at length to himself, and with softened heart offered
sacrifices." Still more memorable than the wonders
seen by Heliodorus, was the appearance in the
heavens, at a time of confusion, of a vast and mag-
nificent army. From buckler and spear-point flashed,
as it were, lightnings. Above the clouds there
gleamed innumerable golden helmets. Rank on
rank they moved in shining arms.
So passed the time of the Asmonseans, with its
sufferings, its lieroism, its solemn portents. In each
generation the league was knit with Rome, and after
yUDAS MACCAB^EUS.
73
a hundred years, in 6^ B.C., tlic Roman came. Pom-
pey, with his centurions, overpowered Jerusalem
and lifted the veil before the Holy of Holies ; and
Crassus, on the way to his Parthian grave, stripped
the Temple of its treasures. Palestine became
tributar)' to the new conquerors, and Herod ruled, a
vassal kinc-
-.^V
CHAPTF.R VI.
THE l^KAUTY OF HOLINESS.
The short-lived independence of tlie Jews, brought
to pass two thousand years ago by the prowess of
the Maccabees, and closed by the encroachments of
Rome, is a very memorable period in Hebrew story,
because then, for the last time, they were, as a nation,
their own masters, in their ancient seats. The boun-
daries of Judah were extended, and a certain degree
of internal prosperity was attained. Although as
bondmen they had beheld and in part created the
splendor of Nineveh and Babylon — at length, indeed,
stood sometimes in places of honor in the midst of
the brilliant life in Mesopotamia, — it is not probable
that the Israelites, after their return to Palestine, es-
tablished a splendid civilization. Unlike so many
of the ancient countries, there are no ruins in the
Holy Land to show that there once stood there
magnificent cities. The Hebrews were not great
builders ; if the Temple of Solomon was of beautiful
architecture, it was made so by the skill of the
Tyrian workmen, whom the king obtained from
Hiram, his Phoenician all}-. It is not probable that
other arts flourished. The prohibition of Moses
against the making of graven images, or likenesses of
THE BEAUTY OE HOLINESS. 75
any thins^ in the heavens above, or on the earth be-
neath, or in the waters under the earth, crippled com-
pletely painting and sculpture ; and even music, an
art in which in modern times the Jews have shown
themselves so accomplished, was probably in a rude
condition. The people were generally farmers and
shepherds, men of simple ideas. Commerce, with
its influences so stimulating in the way of giving
breadth and intelligence, had made but feeble
progress.
The Jews were sharply divided into a higher and
lower class : the former claiming to be the " holy
seed," descendants of the unmixed Hebrew race who
had returned from Babylon for the rebuilding of the
Temple ; the latter of blood more or less commin-
gled, the hybrid progeny of Israel and stocks of
Canaanitish or other foreign derivation. Of the
holy seed were the twenty-four orders of priests and
the townsmen of higher rank ; of the lower class,
the villagers and peasants, who, in the times to which
we have descended, had lost the ancient Hebrew
tongue, employing a dialect known to scholars as the
Aramaic.
Since the independence of the Hebrews might have
been preserved far longer and their career as a nation
been far grander, but for the violent internal dissen-
sions into which they fell, some account of the sects
and factions into which they became broken is proper.
Popular belief assigned to Ezra, the great leader who
in the middle of the fifth century before Christ re-
stored the Jews to their former home in Palestine, the
establishment of the Canon of the Old Testament;
'J^i THE STONY OF THE JEWS.
but it \\;is, probably, gradually formed during two
or three centuries. ''' From the time of the Maccabees,
the Old Testament appears as a whole, though it is
probable that even yet the separate parts were not
placed on an ecjual footing, or regarded universally
with ecjual reverence. A little later Josephus desig-
nates as the Canon, or books of authority, the five
books of Moses, or the Law, the Torah ; thirteen
books of the prophets ; and four containing hymns
or directions for life. So, substantially the Canon
has stood until the present day. A number of Jew-
ish writings, of comparatively late origin, are some-
times bound up \\ith the l>ible under the name of
the Ai)ocrypha, but these are held to be without au-
thority. To the Canon of the Old Testament, the
Jews, wherever dispersed and of whatever station,
have always shown the greatest reverence. In 277
];.C,, at the request of the king of Egypt, seventy
learned men were sent by the high-priest from Jeru-
salem, who made in Alexandria the Greek transla-
tion known as the Septuagint. Paraphrases of Scrip-
ture, made in the Aramaic dialect, were communi-
cated orally to the people, to the mass of whom
Hebrew had become an unknown tongue ; some of
these, finally committed to writing and handed down
to later times, are called the Targums.
It was a Hebrew belief that Moses, upon Sinai, re-
ceived not only certain laws which he wrote down,
but likewise a second revelation interpreting the first
and containing also additional precepts. When he
descended from the mount, it was said that he sum-
* Smith : " Diet, of tlic r.iblc."
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 77
inoncd Aaron, to whom he gave first the tablets, and
then recited the hiter, more complete communica-
tion, in the same order in which it had been im-
parted. Moses recited the oral Law to the sons of
Aaron, also ; then, to the Sanhedrim, or grand coun-
cil of the nation ; and, lastly, to all the Israelites who
were disposed to hear. Moses then withdrawing,
Aaron repeated the oral Law as he had received it ;
his sons did likewise, and after them the Sanhedrim.
Through these frequent rehearsals the oral Law
became firmly fixed in the minds of its first recipients,
by whom it was handed down from father to son,
age after age. With the original communication,
much became, in process of time, incorporated which
did not properly belong to it. Ezra, therefore, be-
sides arranging the written Law, in the case, also, of
the oral Law, carefully separated the original nucleus
from the subsequent accretions, and the revised code,
handed down as before, was held in undiminished
respect by the nation in general.
A minority of the nation, in the days following the
time of P2zra, neglected the oral code, declaring that
duty was fulfilled by observing the regulations of the
written Law. Such observance made men worthy
of the title " Zadikim," or the righteous. The ma-
jority, who superadded to the observance of the writ-
ten Law, that of the traditional Law also, of which
the recjuirements were in many respects more strict,
took the name " Chasidim," or the pious, accounting
themselves to be more holy. The former sect be-
came known in time as the Sadducces, taking their
name from Sadoc, one of their teachers. From the
/S THE STOKY OF 7 HE JEWS.
" Chasidim," who united with the observance of the
traditicjnal Law a disposition to hold themselves
aloof from all Gentile contact, arose in time the
Pharisees.
The Sadducees denied not onh' the authority of
the traditional law, but also the immortality of the
soul, the existence of angels and spiritual beings,
and among the canonical books of Scriptures at-
tached importance only to the five books of Moses.
They believed in the freedom of the human will,
and, hence, were noted, when they sat in judgment,
for the severity of their sentences. Though fewer
in number than the Pharisees, they surpassed them
in wealth and quality. They looked with kinder
eyes, moreover, upon the Gentiles, and out from
their number at last was developed the party of
Merodians, a body which, taking a name from the
tributary princes whom at length the Romans had
set up, favored strongly the Roman influence.
The Pharisees derived their name from a Hebrew
word meaning to separate ; and received the title
either from the fact that their superior strictness set
them apart from their fellows, or because they
wished to avoid all contact with the world about
them. The observance of the minute injunctions of
the oral Law brought it to pass that their conduct
became very ceremonious and scrupulous. They
practised washings and fastings without number,
were distinguished by the breadth of their phylac-
teries (bands of parchment inscribed with scriptural
passages, and attached to their garments, or even
their faces), and were intolerant toward dissent from
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 79
their own ideas. They thought themselves defiled
by contact with publicans and sinners, observed the
Sabbath exactly, paid their tithes with care, and
made long prayers in public places. Though not
the richest and highest placed of the Jews, they
formed a very large and influential class, compre-
hending most of the scribes and the lawyers, among
whom was preserved the lore of the nation. While
they believed in the freedom of the human \vill, they
are also said to have held that all events are predes-
tined, in some way reconciling doctrines which ap-
pear conflicting. They believed in the resurrection
of the dead and immortality, holding in the earlier
period the idea of the transmigration of souls. An-
gels and spirits played a large part in their scheme;
they were zealous in making proselytes, to which
practice the Sadducees were indifferent. Converts
were, however, never admitted to an equal footing
with themselves, since none of Gentile birth could
stand with those of Hebrew blood. The Pharisees
came to constitute the vital portion and core of the
Jewish race, absorbing, as time went on, more and
more of its vigor. As from the Sadducees sprang
the lax Herodians, so froni the Pharisees proceeded
the Zealots, in whom Pharisaic strictness of every
kind was carried to extreme.
There was still another remarkable division. In
the days which we have reached, there might liave
been often seen, moving austerely among the tribes
that came up to Jerusalem to the Temple service, or
going from house to house in the villages on kindly
missions of healing or comfort, certain figures robed
8o THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ill w liitc and bcllctl about by a peculiar distinctive
l^iidlc. These were Mssenes, a body everywhere
held in honor, but about whose real oricjin and char-
acter a certain mystery has always prevailed. Some
regard them as an offshoot of the Pharisees, origi-
nating in the deserts in a time of persecution ; some
hold them to have been, at a later time, neither more
nor less than a company of Christians.* A portion,
though not all, were austere — indeed, monastic in
their habits; they lived in seclusion, taking upon
themselves vows of charity and chastit}-, and holding
their goods in common. In their places of retire-
ment, in the intervals of religious exercises they cul-
tivated the soil ; they condemned wedlock, keeping
up their number, like the modern Shakers, by the
adoption of children. Unlike the extreme Pharisees,
they respected the foreign rulers; they were much
venerated by the people, who believed them to
possess prophetic power. The Esscnes rendered a
substantial service as physicians, for they made it a
point to understand the healing properties of herbs.
Philo, a famous Alexandrian Jew, writing just after
the beginning of the Christian era, describes one
class of the Ei^scnes, the Practici, i:i such terms that
one \\'ould say they must have formctl an almost
ideal community. The whole duty of man was
comprised within the three definitions — love of God,
love of x'irtue, love of man. All men were held to
be equal before God, ;.nd slavery was condemned.
Large cities and wicked places were avoided through
fear of temptation ; in this, perhaps, we may see a
* See De Quincey's essay, " The Essenes."
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 8 1
touch of over-scrupulousness, as also in their absti-
nence from trade as promoting' covetousness. Strife
of words was unknown among them, as well as strife
with the sword, for peace was held to be the proper
state. They had recourse to arms, however, in self-
defence. Among themselves their charity was per-
fect ; they held their goods in common, and the sick
and weak never suffered. Much time was spent in
the study of moral and religious duties, the relation
of man and wife was held in honor, children received
careful nurture, and age was reverenced. After
death an immortality for the soul was anticipated.
The ascetic Essenes correspond remarkably in habit
and discipline with the monastic orders of later ages,
which undoubtedly borrowed many usages from these
ancient recluses.
We must also glance at the followers of Hillel,"'^ an
enlightened teacher, who, coming from Babylon,
appeared in Judea not far from the time when the
Herodian rule displaced that of the Asmonaeans.
Anticipating work which was, as we shall see, to be
performed at a later time, he had already made a
beginning of writing down the Mischna, as the oral
Law was called, of whose transmission an account has
just been given. His doctrine was in some respects
near that of the Pharisees, but he gave a far nobler,
more generous interpretation to the words of Moses.
His disciples are said "to have made the Law light,
not because they lightly esteemed its authority, but
because they revived the beneficent spirit of the
original."
* C. R. Condcr : "Judas Maccabeus."
82 THE SrOKY OF THE JEWS.
Amoiit^ those whom the unmixed Israehtes, the
hol\- seed, regarded as of corrupt derivation, the
Samaritans reccivx^d the greatest scorn. They were
not distinct enough to be regarded as a separate
nation, and yet they were too distinct to be properly
a sect. The Jews declared that they were originally
a separate people, Cutheans, and idolaters. Their
territory became an asylum for renegade Jews who
had rendered themselves obnoxious to punishment
by breach of the law. In process of time the Jewish
element came to prevail in the Cuthean nation ;
idolatry was abolished, the authority of the law
established, and Jehovah recognized. This drawing
near of the Samaritans to the Hebrews did not win
from the latter favor, and as years passed events
brought about the highest pitch of hatred. The
builders of the new Temple after the return from
Babylon, were actively annoyed by Samaritan for-
ays; for the mongrel race had built a shrine of their
own upon Mt. Gerizim, which they maintained to
be the only place where Jehovah could be properly
worshipped. The Samaritans accepted of the scrip-
tures, only the five books of Moses, and rejected also
the traditions, in this resembling the Sadducees.
Sadoc, founder of the Sadducees, was reported,
indeed, to have learned his doctrine while an exile
among the Samaritans. The Pharisees, however, the
bulk and the most earnest part of the Jewish race,
prevented the upspringing of any sympathetic feel-
ing. As years passed, hatred increased, until finally
a bitter Hebrew curse was pronounced upon
Samaria, involving land and people. The fruits
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 83
of the earth were declared to be as swine's
flesh, unclean ; to taste even water of Samaria
was pollution. A Samaritan remnant still haunts
the ancient seats of the people, in the vale of
Shechem, about the well of Sychar. Their faces yet
give evidence of their kinship with the Hebrews,
and they have preserved to the present time, upon
mouldering scrolls of parchment, a copy of their
holy law, which is one of the most ancient manu-
scripts in existence.
Thus disunited, Palestine, though free from the
Macedonian yoke, invited subjection at the hands of
Rome. Religious observances absorbed a large
amount of the time and energy of all. Twice in
each year every male Jew was under obligation to
visit Jerusalem and remain one week. Of the
twenty-four orders of priests, one each week con-
ducted the Temple service. The new order arrived
on Friday, the old left on the first day of the week;
so that on the Sabbath there was always a double
company, and every order visited the Holy City
twice in each year. In a similar way the whole
nation was divided, a certain proportion of the laity
going to the Temple with each company of priests.
Thus the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lortl, to
give thanks unto the name of the Lord. The posi-
tion of the "standing men," the representatives of
the congregation, w^as one held in great respect.
After a special purification these were admitted to
the Inner Temple, where they stood in an elevated
place before the court in which rose the altar.
Jielowtheni in a great square enclosure gathered the
84 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
main congrctjation, the women occupying galleries
above. On steps leading lo the gate Nicanor, the
Levites were ranged for chanting the Songs of
Degrees, and the priests, in a position above all,
blessed the congregation. These constant gath-
erings to Jerusalem and the Temj^le service gave
opportunity to people of remote districts to become
acquainted with one another, and so the nation was
bound together.''^
The feasts and the fasts were occasions of great
importance, observed, in great part, even to the
present du}-, by every faithful Jew with scrupulous
care. Each new moon was celebrated by a festival
of trumpets. The heavens were carefully watched
for its appearance everywhere in Jud?ea, and whoso
saw it first hastened to inform the Sanhedrim^ at
Jerusalem, to whom was committed the princii)al au-
thority. Such witnesses sometimes hurried to Jeru-
salem by scores. A beacon was forthwith lighted
upon the Mount of Olives, answered by fires on the
more distant hills, till the whole land was alight.
Early in April was celebrated the Passover; at the
end of May, the Pentecost ; at the beginning of
October, the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast
of I'urim, commemorating the national deliverance
through Esther, and the Ilanoukhah, Feast of Lights,
in remembrance of the renewal of the Temple wor-
ship by Judas Maccaba^uis, were later additions to
the list of holy times. Besides the feasts there were
six solemn fasts, in commemoration of national
calamities. Of these, the great Day of Atonement,
* Conder.
THE BEAUTY OE HOLINESS. 85
at the end of October, was most important, when
the scapegoat, dedicated to the spirit of evil, was
led forth, burdened with the sins of the people, to
be dashed in pieces from a cliff in the dreary desert
near Jericho.
No period, no race, is satisfied with its present
condition. There is always a looking back to some
golden age in the past, from which there has been a
degeneration, and an anticipation of a happy time in
the future, when all shortcomings shall be made
good. Among the Hebrew race such anticipations
were coupled with the vivid expectation of a Mes-
siah, a heaven-sent leader, under whose guidance
the chosen people were to attain the splendor and
supremacy which were appropriately theirs. Many
passages in Scripture were believed to foretell the
coming of the great national Saviour. Even in the
ancient Law it stood written: "The Lord thy God
will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto him ye
shall hearken." The desolated holy places were re-
stored, in the expectation that " there should come a
prophet to show them what should be done." Ac-
cording to Isaiah, " he was to be a rod from the
stem of Jesse," — "a branch of the house of David,"
according to Jeremiah ; and so again and again,
until at least seventy scriptural passages were be-
lief ed to have a Messianic character. In the time
of Judas Maccabajus, it was a great prophet rather
than a mighty prince upon whose coming the hopes
of the nation were fixed. As the glory of the
Asmonaeans faded, and the Romans were called in
86 THE STOKY OF THE JEWS.
as arbitrators in their (}uarrcls, the Jews consoled
themselves by the hope of a future king, whose right
to the throne of the Hebrews should be undisputed,
and who should magnificently vindicate his race.
The expectation became more and more intense,
some holding that the empire of the Messiah to
come was to be purely spiritual, while the people
generally looked for a glorious temporal prince, to
be born at Bethlehem of Judaja of the house of
David.
The Hebrew strength had k^ig been wasting itself
in oppressive ceremonials, and the dissensions of
factions. Independence, won at such cost by the
children of Mattathias, had been for many years
lost, when at length there went out a decree from
Caesar Augustus, the Roman arbiter of the Isracl-
itish destinies, that all the world should be taxed,
and all went to be taxed every one into his own
city. From the town of Nazareth in Galilee a man
named Joseph, with Mary his espoused wife, people
poor and simple, but of illustrious lineage, went up
to Bethlehem of Juchea, to pay the tribute. Mary,
being great with child, brought forth a son, and be-
cause there was no room for them in the inn, she
wrapped this, her first-born, in swaddling clothes,
and laid him in a manger. In the same country
shepherds watching their flocks by night had seen
great portents. While the glory of the Lord shone
about them, an angel had announced tidings of great
joy, the birth at last of the Saviour; and while the
angels sang "Glory to God in the highest," the shep-
herds, departing, came with haste, and found Mary
88 THE STORY OF THE JEIVS.
and Joseph, and the babe lyinij in the manger. Wise
men from the East, moreover, came, sayin;^: " Where
is he that is born kin;^ of the Jews, for we have seen
his star in the East, and have come to worship him ?"
and lo, the star which they saw in the East went
before them till it came and stood over where the
youni^ child was. When Herod, the tributary prince,
who under Rome now ruled the country, heard of
these things, he was sore troubled, feeling that his
power was threatened, and he slew all the children
of Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two
years and under, hoping thus to destroy the new-
born king; but Joseph, warned in a dream, had de-
parted with the young child and his mother into
Egypt, where they remained until the death of
Herod made it safe to return.
It is the most familiar of tales. The child whose
life had been preserved by the flight into Egypt, be-
come a boy of twelve, is lost by his parents at Jeru-
salem, whither they had gone, after the custom of
the nation, to observe the Passover. Sitting in the
midst of the doctors in the Temple, he astonishes all
that hear him by his understanding and answers, for
he is already about his I<"ather's business. John the
Baptist, while the people muse whether he be the
Christ or not, proclaims the mightier one who shall
come, the latchet of whose shoes he is not worthy to
unloose ; the young man Jesus is baptized, the
Holy Ghost descending in bodily shape upon him
like a dove, while the heavenly voice declares him,
" My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
He is led into the wilderness to be tempted of the
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 89
Devil, and at last enters upon his wonderful mission.
The predictions of ancient seers are fulfilled ; the
blind are made to see, the deaf to hear, the lepers
are cleansed, the dead are raised up, and the poor
have the gospel preached to them.
The preaching of the gospel — this last and great-
est — and what is this gospel ? To love God and
our neighbor, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk-
humbly with God, to be meek, to be peace-makers,
pure in heart, to be persecuted for righteousness'
sake, not to remember the old presciption, "an eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," but to love
them that curse us, to bless our enemies, to pray for
those who despitefully use and persecute us, — these
are the things which make us children of our Father
who is in Heaven ; even as he is perfect, so we are
to be perfect.
The agony in Gcthsemanc is undergone, Judas be-
trays, the high-priest rends his clothes, saying, Jesus
has spoken blasphemy; Pilate, after scourging him,
delivers him to be crucified between the two thieves.
As he yields up the ghost, the veil of the Temple
is rent in twain, the graves are opened and the
bodies of saints which slept arise and appear unto
many. The angel of the Lord, descending from
heaven, rolls back the stone from the door of the
sepulchre. His countenance is like lightning, and
his raiment white as snow, as he tells Mary Mag-
dalen and the other Mary that Christ is risen
from the dead and goes before them into Galilee.
And when the disciples see the risen one, they wor-
ship him, but some doubt. And he bids them
90 run STORY OF I HE JEWS.
go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever he
had commanded them, and promising to be with
them always, even unto the end of the world.
The disciples go forth and teach, and those whom
they teach in turn bear the message to others ; and
so it came about that the zealous Stephen, arousing
wrath, was cast out of a city and stoned, the mur-
derers laying down their clothes at a young man's
feet whose name was Saul. Saul consented to his
death, and breathing out threatenings and slaughter,
went ui)on another mission of persecution. But sud-
denly there shined about him a light from heaven,
and he fell to the earth and heard a voice, saying :
" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " and when
he had been instructed, there fell from his eyes as it
had been scales, and straightway he preached Christ,
that he is the Son of God. Thus the band gained
the great apostle to the Gentiles, who at length
could give this summing up of w^ork and danger:
" In labors abundant, in stripes above measure, in
prisons frequent, in death oft : of the Jews five times I
received forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten
with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered ship-
wreck, a day and a night I have been in the deep: in
journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of
robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils
by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the
wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness,"
92 THE STORY OF THE JF.WS.
What preachers of a great cause have ever suffered
more ! What preachers of a great cause lia\'e ever
won success so triumphant !
Not all, even of those who claim the Christian
name, have believed that in this first-born of a
Jewish mother, God became flesh and dwelt with
men. Not all have been able to believe that
about the plain facts there has been no accretion of
myth ; that the stories of the multitudinous heav-
enly host appearing among the clouds, of the water
blushing into wine, of the new pulses of life in the
corrupting bodies of Lazarus and the son of the
widow of Nain, or of the multiplying of the loaves
and fishes, arc to be received with faith as undoubt-
ing as that a great teacher once walked by Gali-
lee, and spoke to his countrymen from the Mount.
Whether ordinary occurrence or unparalleled marvel,
the ancient record narrates the circumstances with
equal simplicity and directness. Fortunately it docs
not belong to him who writes this story of the Jews
to say whether cr not the narrative shall be accepted
without reservation ; or, if it be granted that some
things arc to be questioned, to try to ascertain the
line be}'ond which a just faith becomes credulity. To
some this child (f the Jew is the incarnate Deity;
to others, \\hile not divine, he is nevertheless super-
human ; to others still he is a man with no other
inspiration than " the light which lighteth ever\' man
that Cometh into the world." ]5ut whatever differ-
ences of view may exist as to the nature of Jesus of
Nazareth and the real facts of his career, Jew,
Christian, Heathen, all haw, at any rate, this stand-
THE BEAUTY OE HOLINESS.
93
ing-ground in common — that there is no higher
wisdom or excellence than is contained in his pre-
cepts and was lived out in his life. It is the very
beauty of holiness ; and the remembrance of this life,
the hope of the realization of its promises, and the
faith in the truth of its teachings, have been the
support and the inspiration of thousands upon thous-
sands of weary pilgrims, patient sufferers, and noble
mart\-rs in the long ages that have passed.
^k^S^J)
CHAPTKR VII.
VKSl'ASIAN AND JOSKl'IIUS.
More than a century had passed since tlie Jews
liad i)aid tribute \o Rome, when Gessius Florus, a
man of tyrannical nature, became procurator. The
Jews resisted his exactions, in spite of the exhorta-
tions of the more prudent spirits among them, who
foresaw tliat Rome would make a pretext of the
refusal to raise a charge of rebellion, and after that
destroy the nation. The counsel prevailed among the
Jews to refuse the offerings sent by the Romans for the
Temple service, but this was a practical casting-off of
the Roman yoke. The party known as the Zealots,
fanatical maintainers of independence, gained power,
and at length Roman blood was shed, upon which
I'lorus marched against Jerusalem with the 1 2th
legion. At a battle in the suburbs of the cit\-, the
masters of the w^orld v>'ere roughly handled ; never-
theless, made bold by dissensions which broke out
.'unong their adversaries, they entered the city and
besieged the rebels, who took refuge in the Temple.
Making a tortoise with their shields, so that with
backs and heads perfectly protected they could work
directly beneath the walls, the Romans brought the
besieged to great straits. Morns, however, who as a
VESPASIAN AND JOSEPH US. 95
leader was inferior, drew his soldiers off when success
was just at hand. As he retreated through difficult
passes, his rear was attacked, and he and his army
came near meeting the fate which a generation or
two before had overtaken Varus in Germany. Leav-
ing four hundred of his bravest legionaries to make
head against the furious pursuers, four hundred who,
like Romans, died almost to a man, he gained time
to escape -with the main body, losing, however, to-
gether with the detachment, his baggage and the
great war engines, which were an immense gain to
the victors.
Open war henceforth existed, and Josephus, a Jew
of the lineage of Aaron, trained according to the
best discipline of his race, and who had also been
well received at Rome, was put by his countrymen
in command of the province of Galilee. Afterwards
as an historian he described the events. Soon a very
different leader took the place of the weak Florus.
The veteran, Vespasian, the best soldier of Rome,
appeared with an army of 60,000. Galilee was at
once attacked, whose people, following the orders of
Josephus, fled to their fenced cities. Pie himself,
with the bravest, finding it impossible to make head
against the invaders, shut himself up in Jotapata, on
a high precipitous hill. It could be approached only
from the north, and here a mighty wall formed the
defence. Vespasian spent four days in building a
road by which his army could approach nearer,
encamping at last at the distance of a mile. For
five days the works were stormed with desperate
fighting on both sides. Then the Romans drew off,
96 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
and determining to use slower means, reared oppo-
site tlic defences a high bank, upon which were set
one hundred and fift}' engines, discharging javehns,
lighted brands, and stones. The besieged, no less
energetic, dragged away in sorties the mantlets which
sheltered the workmen, and set fire to the timbers.
As the bank continued to rise, Josephus on his side
built the wall of the city higher, protecting the
workmen with raw hides of oxen stretched upon
stakes, against which Vespasian's missiles fell power-
less. Thus the height of the wall was increased by
thirty feet, and the Romans, for the moment dis-
heartened, ceased in their efforts to overtop it.
A strict blockade was now resorted to that the
stronghold might be starved out. While there was
food sufficient, water was scanty, the sole supply
being cisterns, which in summer were nearly diy.
Of this the enemy had a suspicion, but Josephus
deceived them by making the people dip garments
in water and hang them, dripping, over the wall.
Meantime he sent messengers, disguised in skins so
that they might pass for dogs at night, who made
their way by steep overgrown paths, which the
Roman sentries overlooked, out into the country, to
arouse all Galilee. Vespasian renewed his assaults.
The Jews were lighter and quicker than the heavy-
armed Romans; but the catapults were never quiet,
and at length the dreaded rams, of the length of the
mast of a ship, headed with iron, and hung from a
high frame by the middle, began to shake the wall.
A great compan)' of men, protected by hurdles and
hides, dashed the might)' beam against the works,
98 THE srORY OF THE JEWS.
made top-heavy by the added height, while the
Arabian auxiliaries, with bows and slings, tried to
prevent the interference of the besieged. Josephus
managed to let down sacks filled with straw, which
received the thrust of the rams : the Romans, by
blades of iron fixed to long poles, cut the ropes by
which the sacks were suspended. In sorties the
Jews burned the hostile engines with bitumen, pitch,
and sulphur. Vespasian was wounded by a spent
javelin ; but the siege was pressed with loud noise
from the machines and the whizzing of the stones.
One suspects from some of the descriptions of
Josephus, as he speaks of the effects of the machines,
that he himself knew how to draw a long bow. He
declares that the head of a man at his side, struck
off by a stone from a catapult, was driven nearly half
a mile. There is no reason, however, to doubt his
substantial accuracy.
The Romans at length made a breach, and against
the impending storm Josephus ranged his bravest
soldiers. " Shut your ears against the shouting of
these men," he said, " and as for their missiles, kneel
and hold your shields over your heads till the archers
have spent their arrows. Figlit when the stormers
come." Cries and the sound of the trumpets
announced the Roman charge ; the day was dark-
ened by their arrows; the column climbed slowly
upward pressed together, with a roof of shields
closely overhead, like an armored serpent. The
Jews, however, poured upon the testudo boiling oil,
which, creeping under the armor of the assailants,
covered them from head to foot. A slij)j)cr\' paste.
VESPASIAN AND JOSEPH US. 99
made from boiling the herb fenugreek, cast liberally
upon the gangways which the Romans had prepared,
made the footing uncertain. Again Vespasian was
foiled. He built a bank, however, placing upon it
three towers fifty feet high, cased with iron.
On the forty-seventh day of the siege, Vespasian
learned from a deserter that the defenders slept in
the last watch of the night. Assembling the army
at that hour, Titus, son of Vespasian, and the cen-
turion, Domitius Sabinus, succeeded in reaching the
wall unperceived. In a heavy mist, they slew the
guards, opened the gates, and the destruction of the
city was accomplished. Together with forty of the
chief men of the town, Josephus found a hiding-
place in a cavern opening out from a well, but
through treachery the place of concealment was
made known. Vespasian, anxious to take the Jew-
ish leader alive, sent the tribune, Nicanor, who had
been his friend, to induce him with fair promises to
surrender. Josephus was about to give himself up,
but was prevented by his companions. " We will
care," said they, " for the honor of our country." At
the same time they offered a sword and " a hand that
shall use it against thee." Josephus called every
one by name : " at some he looked sternly, as a cap-
tain might do, and another he would take by the
hand, and another he would beseech by many pray-
ers, turning as a wild beast when it is surrounded by
the pursuers, to each one as he came near." He
proposed that they should perish together, but by
the hands of one another, instead of suicide. Lots
were cast. He who drew the first offered his neck
ICX) THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
to him wlio stood next, and so forward. Finally,
through marvellous fortune, Josephus and one other
alone were left, and here the slaughter ended. The
two survivors surrendered to the Romans. A great
concourse of soldiers collected to see Josephus brought
before the general, and many demanded that he should
be put to death. The magnanimous Titus, however,
stood his friend, and by his great influence with his
father, thwarted the ferocity of the troops. Josephus
now played upon the superstitions of the victor.
" Have I not been sent to thee of God ? " he ex-
claimed. " Thou shalt be emperor — thou and thy
son after thee. Bind me, therefore, and keep me, to
see wdiether my words are true or no." The flatter-
ing prophecy brought for Josephus a respite, for he
was held in honor, though not yet relieved of chains.
The subjugation of Galilee followed, after the fall
of Jotapata, with all the terrible circumstances of
ancient warfare. Jerusalem for a time was spared,
its strength making it formidable. At Rome, more-
over, the emperor died, and the purple, passing
to short-lived successors, fell at last, according to the
prophecy of Josephus, upon Vespasian, who cut the
chains from the limbs of the captive, in sign that all
dishonor was removed, and assigned to his son Titus
the task, so long deferred, of humbling the mighty
towers of Mount Zion.
The capture of Jerusalem by Titus is one of the
most memorable events in the history of mankind.
It caused the expulsion o{ an entire race from its
home. The Roman valor, skill, and persistence were
I02 77/ A- S'I'OA'Y OF THE JEWS.
never more conspicuously displayed. No more
tlesperate resistance was ever opposed to the eagle-
eniblemed mistress of the ancient world. There is
no event of ancient history whose details are more
minutely known. The circumstances in all their
appalling features are given to us by the eye-witness
Josephus, so that we know them as vividly as we do
the events of the career of Grant. To understand
fully the story of the siege, we must first look with
some care at the city.
The site on which Jerusalem stands is bounded on
three sides by deep gorges. Of these, one on the
east, called anciently Kidron, or the " Valley of
Jehosaphat," runs north and south ; another to
the west, called Hinnom, running at first parallel
to Kidron, turns at last eastward — the bottoms of
the two gorges meeting at a point full five hundred
feet below the hills which they cut. The ravines
form thus a rough parallelogram, with the northwest
side left open. They are everywhere deep, with
here and there precipices of red rock. The area,
more than five miles about, thus bounded contains a
basin-shaped depression called the Tyropoeon, to the
east of which, immediately over Kidron, rises Mount
Moriah, upon which stood the Temple. On the west
of theTyropceon, a narrow neck of high ground swells
out southward, into a high, broad hill, almost cut off
from approach by the surrounding gullies. This was
Mt. Zion, the original city of David, afterward known
as the " Upper City," by nature the strongest point
in Jerusalem. The Tyropoeon formed before the
Temple a kind of amphitheatre, within which was
VESPASIAN AND JO SEP II US. IO3
built much of the city. Streets ran along the upper
edge, others lower down and parallel, all connected
by cross-ways which descended from the higher
ground toward the bottom of the basin.
On Moriah rose first the great walls of Solomon.
Spacious courts, paved throughout with marble,
covered immense reservoirs, containing large sup-
plies of water, which gushed out by mechanical con-
trivances. The enclosure within which the Temple
stood was square, an eighth of a mile on each side.
On one side was precipice, where the gorge came
close up to the foundations ; on the others Solomon's
wall, some of the stones of which were sixty feet in
length. The cloisters by which it was surrounded
were roofed with cedar ; upon the pillars of the outer
court, the Court of the Gentiles, was written in
Greek : " Let no stranger enter the Holy Place."
Ascending a flight of fourteen steps, the inner court
was reached, where the Holy Place became visible
through its lofty porch. No doors were within the
gate, that it might be signified that the heavens are
always open. Over it was trained a golden vine with
clusters as large as a man's body, and it was draped
with Babylonian curtains, whose colors symbolized
the elements, — blue for air, yellow for earth, scarlet
for fire, and purple for the sea. Within stood the
golden candlestick of seven branches, typifying the
planets ; the table, whose twelve loaves of shew-bread
typified the signs of the zodiac ; and the altar, whose
incense signified that God was the possessor of all
things. From this spot the Holy of Holies was ap-
proached, within whose solemn vacancy it was law-
I04 rilE STORY OF THE JEV/S.
ful fur no nuiii to look. Of the Temple gates, that
called " Beautiful " was the finest, full seventy-five
feet in height, fifty feet wide, and built of Corinthian
brass. Its doors ^\■ere so ponderous that twenty men
could shut them only with difficulty. " The outward
face of the Temple in its front wanted nothing that
was likely to surprise cither men's minds or their
eyes, for at the first rising of the sun it reflected back
a very fiery splendor, and made those who forced
themselves to look upon it, to turn their eyes away,
just as they would have done at the sun's own rays.
It appeared to strangers when they were at a dis-
tance, like a mountain covered with snow, for those
parts of it that were not covered with gold were ex-
ceeding white."
Vast and splendid the Temple certainly was. The
Romans were then at the height of power, and
familiar with all the magnificence of the earth, yet it
seemed to them one of the wonders of the world.
No doubt it far surpassed in greatness and beauty
the structure of Solomon, upon whose foundations it
was reared. The Herods had lavished upon it vast
treasures.
The Temple possessed, besides its splendor, all the
strength of a fortress ; but just north of it rose a
stronghold more formidable, the Antonia, named for
Mark Antony, who had been, a century before, a
redoubtable figure in all this region. The Antonia
stood upon an elevated crag, of which the sides were
faced with smooth stones, and the top surmounted by
a wall enclosing a great tower or keep of the height
of sixty feet. Turrets stood upon the corners of this,
loC THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
one risinj^ to a hcis^ht of more than a liundrcd feet,
which commanded a view of the whole interior of
the Temple. The fortress comprehended spacious
apartments, courts, and camping grounds. During
the Roman occupation, it was always garrisoned by
a legion, who, by convenient passages, could march
forth into the Temple or the city, if it were the gov-
ernor's will.
For external defences, the city had before it three
walls, except where protected by deep ravines, in
which places there was but one. The construction
was most massive, the walls rising to the height of
thirty feet, with frequent towers, provided with
chambers and cisterns for the rain, on which the city
was largely dependent for its water. The number of
these towers was one hundred and sixty-four. Akra
and Ophel were quarters of the city closely adjoining
the Temple ; while Bezetha, a populous suburb, had
shortly before been included within the defences by
Herod Agrippa, the builder of the third wall. With
such citadels and defences, manned by men fanatical
in their patriotism, the city may well have seemed
impregnable.
Forebodings of calamity, however, filled the minds
of the people. The most direful portents were be-
lieved to have been seen. At the feast of the Pass-
over, a light like noonday had been beheld within
the Temple in the ninth hour of the night. The
great bronze door of the gate Beautiful, with its
bolts of iron and posts of stone, the door which twenty
men could scarcely move, opened of itself in the
sixth hour of the night. Before sunset, seven chariots
VESPASIAN AND JOSEPH US.
107
had been seen driven across the sky ; hosts of men in
battle order surrounded cities in the clouds, and
prophets, going about the streets, foretold woe to
Jerusalem.
CHAPTER VIII.
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION.
The respite which the city had was long, but
Vespasian at length was firmly seated on the im-
perial throne, and the news spread that Titus was
approaching. It was the month of April of the year
70 of our era. The Roman army numbered fully
100,000 men, as it advanced from Caesarea. There
were the three legions which Vespasian had formerly
commanded, hardened in the fierce campaign in
Galilee. With these the 12th was joined ; the 5th,
too, marched to meet Titus by Emmaus, and the
redoubtable loth by Jericho. The ranks of all were
filled to the full complement, and there were multi-
tudes of Syrian auxiliaries. In the order of their
march the auxiliaries formed the vanguard. Titus,
with the spearmen came later, followed by the great
engines, — the rams, the balista;, the catapults. Then
proceeded the legions, marching six men abreast, —
the terrible short swords for the time in the scabbard,
the eagles glancing in the sun, and the trumpets
waking every echo. Rome itself had perhaps never
before made a more formidable display of power.
Besides the buckler, lance, and sword, each foot-
man carried a saw, basket, pick-axe, and axe, a thong
TITUS ON 'J- HE RUINS OF ZION. IO9
of leather, a hook, and provisions for three days.
The horsemen were as thoroughly accoutred, as
well for siege as battle, and the entire host, by the
marvellous Roman discipline, was linked and welded
together into a fearful machine. " Not the bodies
of the soldiers only but their souls were trained by
their preparatory exercises. Death followed not only
desertion, but any slothfulness ; at the same time
great rewards were ready for the valiant. The whole
army was, as it were, but one body, so well coupled
together were the ranks, so sudden their turnings
about, so sharp their hearing as to what orders were
given them, so quick the sight of their ensigns, so
nimble their hands when set to work. What they
did was done quickly, — what they suffered was
borne with the greatest patience. What wonder is
it that the Euphrates on the east, the ocean on the
west, the most fertile regions of Libya on the south,
and the Danube and Rhine on the north, are the
limits of this empire ! One might well say that the
Roman possessions are not inferior to the Romans
themselves."
Imposing, however, as was the Roman array, it
might, perhaps, have dashed itself in vain against the
rock-fenced city, had it not been for the factions
among its defenders, which hated one another
scarcely less than they hated the invaders. Of
these, there was a moderate party, at the head of
which stood the high-priest Ananus, which at first
secretly favored making conditions with Rome, in the
idea that her victory was inevitable and it was only
inviting destruction to oppose her. Against these
I lO THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
stood the Zcaiots, who woukl hear of no com-
promise. Troops of robbers, who, from the ravaged
country, were now driven into the city, were ready
for any violence. Crowds, less ill-disposed, also
sought refuge within the walls. From Galilee in
particular came a noteworthy figure, a fierce and
fanatical chief, John of Giscala. The foe had de-
stroyed his town and driven its population forth, but
he nevertheless declared that the Romans had suf-
fered much and could be easily defeated. The war-
fare between the factions was no mere strife of
words. The Zealots, reinforced by John of Giscala,
and entrenched within the Inner Temple, summoned
to their help the Idumaians from the south, a popu-
lation brave and intensely patriotic. The Iduma^ans,
arriving outside the walls, found the entrances barred
by the party of Ananus, and while a tempest beat
upon them, against which they sheltered themselves
by locking their shields over their heads, they en-
camped for the night outside the walls. But the
guards of Ananus slept, and the Zealots, taking the
sacred saws of the Temple, found means, while the
wind and thunder drowned all sound, to cut through
the bolts of the gates and admit their allies; upon
which ensued such a strife that the Temple swam in
blood.
As the Romans drew near, the dissensions only
grew more complicated. Among the Zealots, the
most violent separated themselves from John of
Giscala, and seized upon the Inner Temple. John
made himself master of the Outer Temple, \\hile the
city beyond still remained in the hands of the friends
TITUS OM THE KUINS OF ZION. Ill
of Ananus. The high-priest, however, had fallen in
the battle with the Iduma^ans, and the head of his
party, the new champion, was now a certain Simon
Gioras. The doughty John of Giscala, between two
foes, built on the one hand towers to defend himself
against the violent Zealots, while, with war-engines
made from consecrated timber, cedars of Lebanon
of great size and beauty, he defied, on the other
hand, the party of Simon Gioras.
The Romans had hoped with good re^ison that
Jerusalem, thus distracted, would make but a feeble
defence, and becoming unwary, narrowly escaped, at
the beginning of the siege, no less a disaster than the
capture of their leader. Titus, leaving his host in
camp in the Valley of Thorns, more than a league
from the city, set out upon a reconnoissance with a
party of six hundred horse. We may suppose that
he rode forth from the northward upon the spot
called " Scopus," the place of prospect, where, four
hundred years before, Alexander had paused to re-
ceive the greeting of the people and the priests. As
Titus approached the walls no soul was in sight, the
gates were shut, and he rode too intrepidly forward.
At the last moment, when the blast of the Roman
trumpets could actually be heard, the factions had
united, and all confronted the common danger. The
combined host of the defenders acted at once with
the greatest promptness and courage. A sudden
sally from the town, and Titus was cut off from his
escort. Without helmet or breastplate he faced
almost alone a crowd of foes, making his way at last
to safety only with the greatest difficulty.
112 JHE STORY OF THE JEWS.
The Roman leader now stationed his host warily,
placing the tenth legion in the post of special danger,
on the Mount of Olives, to the east, whence, across
the narrow ravine, they fronted the city close at
hand. But before the legionaries had entrenched
themselves in their advanced position, so fierce a
sortie was made from the gates that these, the very
flower of the army of Titus, were with difificulty
saved by a strong rescue party, which the com-
mander himself brought to their aid as they were on
the point of being overthrown. Retreating for a
moment, the Jews, upon the signal of a cloak waved
from the lofty battlements, attacked again, and it
was only by desperate fighting that they were beaten
off. The Romans at last prevailed, and presently
the practised soldiers had reared for themselves
an entrenched camp — a fortress too strong to be
stormed, upon whose banks stood engines that
threatened the walls at close range.
The host of Titus now levelled the plain on the
northern side to the walls, and the camps of the
other legions were drawn to within quarter of a mile
of the towers. One day a Hebrew troop came out
from a gate, apparently driven forth by those
within. While Titus prepared to receive them
kindly, they cunningly attacked his escort, which
had too incautiously approached. It had been only
a ruse, and Titus again suffered disaster. The hard-
. . It
ened Romans, however, were above panic or discour-
agement. Slingers and archers swarmed behind the
great banks which were built ; pent-houses of skins
and wicker-work defended them against the Jewish
114 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
missiles; the great engines were vigorously plied.
The catapults of the tenth legion cast stones of a
talent in weight a distance of two furlongs. Watch-
men stationed upon the walls, seeing the great white
stones coming, exclaimed, '' It cometh," giving the
defenders opportunity to seek shelter. The Romans
at last blackened the stones, and they could no
longer be seen as they approached.
The Jews opposed the Roman artillery with the
engines captured from Cestius, which had been kept
in the great arsenal of Antonia. When the batter-
ing-rams were brought to bear by Titus, they sallied
forth again with fire and sword, but Titus forced
them back, slaying twelve with his own hand. Strip-
ping the whole country of its timber, he built five
towers, seventy-five feet in height. One, defended
with iron, fell, through its enormous weight, upon its
builders, to their great consternation and loss. But
at length the immense ram called the " Conqueror,"
made a breach, and on this day, the fifteenth of the
siege, the Romans became masters of the third wall.
Four days later the second wall was also taken, and
Titus, to make an impression of moderation, com-
manded that no prisoners should be slain, nor houses
burned. He caused his army to display its strength
before the besieged. Resting for a few days from
toil, and strengthened by the distribution of an
abundance of provisions, the Romans marched be-
fore the first wall in magnificent review. First went
the infantry, clad in breastplates, and with arms un-
covered ; the cavalry appeared with horses splendidly
caparisoned ; the whole space near glittered with
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. II5
warlike pomp. Joscphus, now the friend of Titus,
approached to advise his countrymen to yield, de-
claring that the invaders would now show mercy,
but upon further resistance would become implaca-
ble. Many of the Jews began to regard their posi-
tion as desperate, and were moved by the words of
Josephus. But the leaders never wavered; they
rejected all overtures, and relentlessly slew all who
could be suspected of entertaining the design to
submit.
Very appalling was now the situation of the de-
fenders. The hot summer sun beat upon the crowds
in the city, still immense in number, though war
had swept them off in troops. From the Mount of
Olives, across the narrow Kidron, hurtled day and
night the projectiles which crushed houses and their
inmates. Exactly what the power may have been
of those engines of the tenth legion we do not
know, nor how it was obtained and applied. But by
the twisting of great cables, and the skilful employ-
ment of elastic timber, the Roman engineers, it is
plain, had secured a force which, though of course
inferior to gunpowder, was still very formidable.
Through the ravines surrounding the city prowled
the hostile parties, on the watch to secure any un-
guarded footpath, or to scale the precipices, if there
was any negligence in the watch. To the north, in
their new positions within the captured lines of wall,
the ruthless legions, refreshed by their rest and
abundant food, crouched ready for the spring that
was to carry the last defences. But worse even than
these outer dangers, a dreadful famine began to pre-
Il6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
vail. The fighting men, ravenous, sought for food
within the houses, and put to the torture the wretched
inmates, to make them disclose their hidden stores.
Wives snatched food from their husbands, children
from their parents, mothers from their babes — for
the closest bonds had become loosened. Certain
poor wretches made their way by night beyond the
walls, in search of herbs that might support life. Part
were caught by the Romans, and, for an example,
crucified before the defences. Those who managed
to return were, as they climbed back, robbed by the
Jewish soldiers. The battlements of the Antonia
frowned, the Temple front flashed white from Mo-
riah far over the hills. Beneath them what scenes
of pain and death in the city like an amphitheatre
that had once been so proud ! It was now an arena
for the rioting of terror.
Notwithstanding his successes, Titus had not yet
gained his end. Four legions worked seventeen days
to build new banks, but John of Giscala ran a mine
deep into the earth beneath them, which he stored
with pitch and sulphur. At the right time it was
fired, and the legionaries and their constructions
perished in the sudden volcano. Even while the
devouring crater thus opened beneath the feet of
Titus, and his army was for the moment astounded,
Simon, son of Gioras, at the head of a furious col-
umn, with the wildest war shouts and weapons
naked, rushed forth in a sortie, burning tlie ruins
with fire, and smiting hundreds with the sword.
The confusion among the Romans was but for a
moment. In three days Titus surrounded the city
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. II7
with a wall nearly five miles in circuit, producing
by the blockade distress so great that the bodies of
those who had perished by famine were cast out into
the ravines, and lay in the streets of the city in
heaps. Many desperate Jews leaped from the walls.
Horrors so multiplied that even the stern Titus
called God to witness that he was not responsible.
But still he pressed the siege. Timber was brought
from twelve miles distant for new towers and en-
gines. Attacking once more with the rams, holding
their shields linked into a tortoise over their heads,
the Romans broke four great stones out of the last
wall, and made a breach. Lo, John of Giscala had
built another wall behind, and stood on its summit
defiant !
But now the end was really near. It was an-
nounced one day that twenty soldiers with the
standard-bearer of the fifth legion had scaled the
wall of Antonia, and sounded their trumpets from
the top. Titus was at hand with supports and the
fortress was presently in his possession, John and Si-
mon fleeing to the Temple to stand at bay. Choos-
ing thirty from each company, with a tribune over
every thousand, and Cerealis, a valiant leader, captain
over all, Titus sent a chosen band to attack by night,
while he oversaw all from a watch-tower. The last
days of Jerusalem had come, but the death-throes
were Titanic. From the ninth hour of the night to
the fifth hour of the day neither side had advantage.
The Antonia was destroyed to facilitate access to the
Temple walls, and the Romans swarmed upon the
roof of a cloister by which the Jews might be ap-
Il8 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
proachcd. Rut the besieged preparing a conflagration
with wood, sulphur, and bitumen, consumed them in
a terrible holocaust. From hour to hour it was con-
stant sortie and repulse, until at length for the He-
brews a direful day arrived, the anniversary of the
destruction of the Temple by the power of Babylon.
A soldier, then, upon the shoulders of a comrade,
succeeded in casting a torch through a door in the
wall which led to the chambers on the north side of
the Temple. Titus would have avoided this, for he
was reluctant to destroy what was the glory of the
whole world. The conflagration spread, however,
fanned by a tempest ; in the flames, besiegers and
besieged, locked into the final struggle, perished until
the bodies were piled against the very altar, and the
blood ran down the steps. The ground could not be
seen for the dead. The furious priests brandished
for weapons the leaden seats and spits of the Temple-
service, and rather than }-ield, threw themselves into
the flames. Titus and his captains, entering the
Holy Place, found it beautiful and rich beyond all
report. The fire fastened upon all but the imperish-
able rock ; the Roman standards were set by the east-
ern gate, and Titus received the salutes of the legions
as emperor.
Joshua, the priest, surrendered the candle-sticks,
the tables, and the cups, all of gold — the curtains
and garments of the priests — the precious stones, the
dyes, purple and scarlet, — the cinnamon, cassia, and
spice for the making of incense. The last place of ref-
uge in the upper city yielded and the Romans shouted
from the walls. All \\'as at length over. John of
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. II9
Giscala died in prison of starvation. Simon, having
put on a white tunic beneath a purple robe and sur-
rendered, appeared afterward at Rome in the great
triumph of Titus. The city was razed, excepting
three towers and part of the wall, which were pre-
served that all might know how great a city Rome
had taken. The soldiers were rewarded with crowns
of gold, with spears having golden shafts, with chains
and ensigns of silver. Of the Jews, says Josephus,
1,100,000 had been slain, 97,000 survived as cap-
tives, of whom the handsomest young men were sent
to Rome to grace the triumph of the conqueror ; the
rest were sold into slavery.
What a picture is suggested to the imagination by
the fearful tale ! From the northern mountains, the
forests were fairly swept to furnish timber for the
military engines. The herds and harvests disap-
peared upon the plains, that the invaders might
have food. In the ruined cities, the people had
been slain, or had fled from the sword to take ref-
uge in Jerusalem. How the mind of the world in
those days was fastened upon those heights, so fear-
fully contested ! The grim veteran wearing the pur-
ple at Rome thought of his son there in armor, and
exulted or trembled as the messenger galleys brought
the varying news, — now that Titus had stormed a line
of wall, — now that John or Simon had destroyed
a cohort by a mine or brought down a tower. Far
and wide, from Asia, from Africa, from Furope, had
been gathered the soldiery which the genius of Rome
had been able to turn into such an instrument of iron.
120 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
In all the corners of the earth men and women hung
expectant upon word from the great Hebrew strong-
hold, for sons and neighbors were there among the
strivers. It was indeed brought low, but at the cost
of what devastation to the victors !
The narrative of Josephus is made vivid by many
personal incidents. Antiochus of Commagenc, a
young Syrian prince of Macedonian descent, comes
with a band trained after the manner that had given
victory to Alexander, and haughtily depreciates the
conduct of the Romans, who allow theselvcs to be so
foiled. Titus gives the prince an opportunity to show
his own prowess. His band attack bravely, but the
Jews soon teach them to estimate more correctly the
difficulty of the task which the Romans have under-
taken. The horseman Pedanius, the Jews having
made a sortie, catches by the ankle a young soldier,
as they retreat. The youth is robust of body and in
his armor ; but so low does Pedanius bend himself
downward from his horse, even as he is galloping
away, so great is the strength of his right hand, and
so firm his horsemanship, that he prevails. He seizes
upon his prey as upon a precious treasure, and car-
ries him captive to C<i;sar. Artorius in the holocaust
being surrounded with fire upon the roof calls to him
Lucius, a fellow-soldier, a tent-fellow who is in safety.
" I do leave thee heir of all I have, if thou wilt come
and receive me." When Lucius comes, Artorius
throws himself down upon him, saving his own life,
but dashing his friend to death against the stone
pavement.
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. 121
In such terrible colors Josephus portrays the
destruction of Jerusalem. It is not probable that
the horrors are exaggerated, nor the desperate valor
of the besieged, nor the unshaken persistence of the
besiegers. Vast as are the multitudes put to the
sword and swept into captivity, the well-established
cliaractcr of ancient warfare makes the account of all
the ruthless slaughter and devastation entirely credi-
ble. The whole land was nearly depopulated, and the
Jews have henceforth been wanderers without a coun-
try. In some respects the story of Josephus must be
received with abatement. He himself can scarcely
be regarded as other than a renegade, living at ease
among the Romans with quite too much equanimity
while his countrymen undergo such terrible ruin.
Probably his portraiture of Titus is too favorable, as
on the other hand his picture of Simon, John of
Giscala, and other defenders of the city, is quite too
dark. He has, however, narrated a great chapter in
the world's story, with a patient fulness of detail
almost unexampled among the writers of antiquit)',
and wc stand in his debt. He follows Titus to
Rome, and appropriately continues his account of
the wars of the Jews, with a description of the
splendid and cruel triumph of Titus.
Vespasian welcomed with joy his victorious son,
and on the appointed day the emperor and the
conqueror, coming from the temi)le of Isis, appear
before the multitudes of Rome, crowned with laurel,
and wearing the ancient purple habits belonging to
their family. Seated in ivory chairs upon a tribunal
before the cloisters, without arms, and clad in silk
122 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
instead of steel, the stern soldiers viewed the stream-
ing pageant, and received the acclamations of the
legions, marching past with all possible military pomp.
Josephus finds it impossible to describe the multi-
tude of shows, the silver, gold, and ivory, contrived
into innumerable shapes, and so borne along, that it
did not appear as if carried, but ran on like a river of
splendor. The richest purple hangings, liabylonian
embroidery, precious stones in crowns of gold and
ouches, spoils of the conquered, — of these there was
such a number that none could think them to be
rarities. A crowd of captives, whose costly adorn-
ment concealed the cruel wounds received in battle,
and the emaciation produced by hunger in dungeons,
bore along the objects, once the possession of their
countrymen, but now the booty of the victors.
Great structures rolled forward three or four stories
in height, draped and spread with rich carpets and
set off with precious metals. Upon these were pre-
sented with all possible vividness portraitures of war.
There was to be seen a happy country laid waste,
entire squadrons slain, the flight of fugitives, the
seizure of captives. High walls were represented
overthrown by machines, upon which an army poured
itself through the breach. Then followed the suppli-
cations of enemies no longer able to defend them-
selves, the conflagration of temples, the casting
down of houses upon their owners. Rivers, also,
after they came out of a large and melancholy
desert, ran down not into a land cultivated, nor as
drink for men or cattle, but through a land still on
fire on every side, — for the Jews related that such a
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. 1 23
thing they had undergone during the war. The
workmanship of all this was so lively and magnifi-
cent that it seemed to the spectators as if they were
really present at actual scenes.
Then, after a great number of ships and other
spoils had passed, was borne along the booty from
the temple. These were the golden table of many
talents weight, the golden, seven-branched candle-
stick, the sacred tablets inscribed with the laws of
the Jews. The broken-hearted Hebrews were forced
to behold these objects, heretofore preserved in their
innermost shrines, and possessed of the utmost sancti-
ty, now exposed to the gaze and touch of the Gentile
rabble. Rome, however, exulted in the humiliation.
Images of victory were carried aloft, following the
trophies. When the long train had slowly moved
past, Vespasian, Titus, and his brother Domitian,
descending from their lofty seats, proceeded after,
while all the people shouted for joy. Vespasian
built a shrine to Peace, in which were laid the golden
vessels and instruments from the Jewish Temple : the
tables of the Law and the purple veils o^ the Holy
Place were deposited in the royal palace itself.
Conspicuous in the great procession had moved the
captive Simon, son of Gioras, the brave defender of
Jerusalem. No trace of magnanimity appeared in
the treatment accorded to him. A halter was set
upon his head, — by way of mockery a train of seven
hundred of the handsomest captives attended him, —
as he proceeded he was tormented by his conductors.
He was slain at last at the temple of Jupiter Capi-
tolinus.
124 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
The arch of Titus still spans the ancient Sacra Via
at Rome, at the top of the Velian ridge. Its beauti-
ful proportions make it one of the most interesting
monuments of the eternal city. Its noble sculptures,
unfortunately, have not been well preserved, but
still within the vault can be traced the seven-
branched candlestick, the golden tabic, and the sor-
rowful train of Jews, as the captives bear the dese-
crated relics of the destroyed Temple beneath the
cruel eyes of their conquerors. So, after eighteen
hundred years, the solemn marble commemorates a
tragedy than which calamity was never more com-
plete !
Is the volume closed ? Is the career of the Jew
finished ? Not so. In a century or two, he has
accomplished as an outcast the most momentous of
human conquests. We have already followed in
brief the career of the Aryan races, in their majestic
descent from their mysterious mountain cradle until
they possess Europe, — then at last in the power of
Greece, and a little later, in the power of Rome,
come into contact with the Jew. The Aryan races
go forward, as the centuries lapse, to make Europe,
among the divisions of the world, the especial seat of
power and civilization. As upon the night of bar-
barism, there flashed first the splendor of the Hellenic
beacon, followed soon by the blaze of Rome, so, in
his turn, came the Goth, kindling slow like anthracite,
then through long centuries making bright the
central plains and the islands of the sea. A torch,
late, but vivid with promise, shone at last upon the
ARCH OF TITUS.
126 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Northeastern steppes. Meanwhile the Athintic
barrier of tempest and surge was at last broken, and
the Western world, even to the Ocean of Peace, has
become all alight. So the Aryan, with face ever tow-
ard the setting sun, has run his flashing series, till the
West is East again, and the round world is becoming
belted with his light. It is a tale of conquest never
ending, — of the spreading of a radiance that never
grows dim.
There was one, however, to master even the
master, — to bring light even to the light-bringer.
In the midst of his path the exultant Aryan en-
countered this swarthy, burning-eyed Semite of the
Syrian hills and plains. His limbs were marked
by the weight of the fetters he had worn as a bond-
man in Egypt. Scarcely had he been able to
cope with the puny tribes of Syria, with Philis-
tine, and Amoritc, and the men of Moab. Driven
by the lash of taskmasters, he had constructed
the palaces of Nineveh. In Babylon he had been
broken and sundered. Suffered at last to return
from exile, as he built anew his temple-walls, his
feeble hands could scarcely quell the attacks of the
petty freebooters of the wilderness. What respect
could a creature, so crushed and dismembered, re-
ceive from the superb brethren of the great Aryan
household, robust of limb, imperial in brain, tramp-
ling the world into servitude! He was but a
despicable opponent. So thought the sons of the
captains of Alexander, and they tore him anew be-
neath the harrow of invasion. So thought the power
of Rome, and the ambitious Titus made the neck of
TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. 1 27
the Jew a stepping-stone to the imperial throne.
Where in the history of conquests has there been
annihilation so utter? But it was only a superficial
victory that the Aryan won. From the foot of a
cross upon which had died an obscure disturber of
the peace, of peasant birth, went forth twelve poor
men who had loved him. How trifling the circum-
stance ! One day at Athens, upon Mars Hill, the
travel-worn tent-maker, Paul, addressed, not far from
the altar to the unknown God, a supercilious crowd.
What mattered that small event ! At Rome the
passionate agitator, Peter, crucified at last head
downward, died, confessing to the last the teacher in
whose name he had spoken. But such things were
done every day. What could a Jew effect? In the
grapple between Aryan and Semite, the Semite was
apparently crushed out of life ; but even while the
knee of the ruthless victor was upon his breast, the
victim spoke a calm, strong mandate which abashed
and overcame. " Yield to me," said the prostrate
Jew, " in that point where the soul of man feels most
deeply, — his thought of the great invisible world.
Your deities, Zeus, Mars, Odin, are not gods but
phantoms. Elysium, Tartarus, Walhalla, it is all
unreal. Straightway dash in pieces your altars,
though the smoke of sacrifice has ascended thence
for ages. Straightway dismiss every hymn and
precept, every rite and rule. Ended forever be
libation and augury, obeisance of flamen, chant of
vestal, the oracular whisper of the sacred oaks, the
frenzy of the Pythoness aglow with the God. Dis-
miss it all as false. Take from mc a faith which
128 THE STORY OF TJ/E JEWS.
shall last you for ages, burn in your deepest soul, in
spire you to the grandest which you shall ever
undertake. Accept Jehovah, my God, as the only
God. Accept my race as the chosen race ; accept its
literature as sacred and infallible. Reverence my
land as a holy land. Accept a man of my race, not
only as the Redeemer of the world, but the incarnate
God himself. That your subjection may be the
more marked and utter, this crucified Galilean whom
I force you to receive as Lord and Saviour, I myself
will utterly reject and contemn, requiring you to
reverence what I despise as folly and superstition ! "
Thus spoke the eagle-faced, burning-eyed captive,
homeless, broken, humiliated, to his Aryan subducr
at his very proudest. Did the Aryan obey ?
Straightway the Aryan obeyed. Greek, Roman,
Celt, and Teuton pass under the yoke of the Jew.
In his turn comes the Sclave, equally submissive, all
the stronger brethren of the Aryan household en-
thralled really by the Semite, though superficially
they seem to have vanquished him — their subjuga-
tion maintained through all these nineteen slow-
lapsing centuries !
Is it a supernatural conversion, as the Christian
world has always maintained, or can it all be ex-
plained according to the natural sequence of cause
and effect, as the rationalist will assert ? Whether
natural or supernatural, the little race that has thus
brought the world to its feet has possessed a pre-
eminent force which has made its history unique.
What the Jew has wrought is a marvel among mar-
vels. It has been no strange thing upon the earth for
TITUS OiY THE RUINS OF ZION. I 29
beings in human guise to be made gods. Hercules,
Odin, Alexander, Caesar, and many another have
been raised to the heavens and worshipped. Only,
however, in the case of this first-born child of a
Jewish mother has the apotheosis endured.* He
stands in this exaltation, not in the wild fancy of
barbarians, but in the trained and cool judgment of
the races whose brain and vigor have made them
foremost among men. These have felt that he spoke
as never man spoke, and was the embodiment of his
•own gospel of love in his life and in his death. Who
will say that his name is not above every name ? If
we refuse, as some men do, to ascribe to him a super-
human character, then how astonishing the miracle,
that a Hebrew peasant has been able to so influence
the destinies of mankind !
* Disraeli: " Tancred."
PART II.
THE MEDIAEVAL HUMILIATION
CHAPTER IX.
now THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD.
The year 70 of our era brought the dreadful
tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem. In the
next generation the champion Bar Cocheba, whom
many Jews believed to be the Messiah, headed a
revolt which was soon put down by the Emperor
Hadrian. The taking of his stronghold, Bethar, was
the coup dc grace ; Palestine was utterly devastated ;
even the olive-trees had disappeared ; the land was
full of graves, the markets with slaves ; the towns
svere given over to wolves and hyenas. Even the
name of Jerusalem was lost ; a pagan city, Aelia
Capitolina, rose upon its site ; a temple of Jupiter
stood upon Mt. Zion, about which was gathered a
population of Roman veterans, of Greeks, Phoeni-
cians, and Syrians. So long as the Roman empire
endured, no Jew could enter the city under pain of
death.
Long before these events, the Jews, as we have
seen, had begun to wander. The ten tribes that had
disappeared in the Assyrian days were still to a large
extent present in their descendants in Mesopotamia,
or were scattered abroad in unknown regions. The
prosperity of the great colony at Alexandria had
134 THE srOKY OF THE JEWS.
given evidence of the constant favor of the Ptole-
mies. At Rome the Jewish face had become well
known, and they had penetrated with the legions into
Spain and Gaul. " How unjust," said often the suf-
fering Jew of the Middle Ages, " to persecute us
because Christ was crucified, when our fathers had
loft Jerusalem long before his time ! " — a plea often
well founded.
The religious faith they gave to others they re-
jected themselves. Christianity became from its
very origin the possession of the Gentiles, the Jew-
ish following being always insignificant. These un-
believers, where have they not gone upon the face
of the earth ?• It is said they are to be found in
China and the depths of India, upon the steppes of
Tartary, in inner Africa, in every market and capital
of Europe and America. Alike among Christians,
Moslems, and Heathen they have been outcasts
and subjects of persecution, exposed to suffering not
due entirely to the bigotry of the races among which
they have been cast, but largely owing to their own
exclusiveness and proud assertion of superiority. In
entering upon an account of events in which the
Christian world appears in a light so discreditable, it
is only fair to state distinctly, that in the position
which the Hebrews have constantly occupied toward
the races among which they have sojourned, there
has been much to exasperate men just rising out of
barbarism — much indeed which those well-civilized
have hardly been able to bear with equanimit)'.
The Christian has bitterly persecuted; but when
has the Jew been conciliatory? or, except in the
136 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
case of the nobler spirits of his race, whom he has
usually made haste to cast forth, when has he shown
the wide-extending sympathy which recognizes cor-
dially the brotherhood of the human race, and looks
toward the tearing down of walls of separation be-
tween man and man ? In this story of humiliation,
therefore, the victim is not to be held quite blame-
less. Let no Christian, however, presume to claim
that the guilt is not mainly with his houshold of
faith.
The Jews, originally, had no special turn for trad-
ing.* In the earlier day their life we have seen to
be that of herdsmen, tillers of the soil, and handi-
craftsmen of the simplest sort. Their trafific was in-
significant even after their return from the exile, until
the Macedonian days, when mercantile intercourse
with other nations became among them a more fre-
quent pursuit. Even then commerce was far from
absorbing them. But in the countless lands into
which they were at length carried by the dispersion,
they were often forced to follow quite other paths
than the old. The prejudice of the races among
which they came frecjuently forbade to them the
ownership of land and the following of the handicrafts.
Commerce became to them the easiest, most natural
resource ; as they practised it, their dexterity in-
creased. The success they reached aroused a dispo-
sition which their ancestors did not possess. The
awakened trading-spirit favored the dispersion ; the
dispersion, on the other hand, stimulated the trading-
* Ilerzfeld : " Handelsgeschichtc tier Judon dcs Allerthums," 271,
etc.
I/O IV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 37
spirit, until, through the interaction, the Jews were
everywhere scattered and everywhere merchants.
That the Jews have been in the latter ages pre-
vailingly traders, has been made a reproach to them,
but for the reasonable of our day it needs no excuse.
Honest trading is recognized as by no means worse
than any other legitimate and necessary occupation.
It may be claimed perhaps, that it has contributed
more than any other to the elevation and comfort of
man. During the breaking down of the Roman em-
pire, the Jewish merchants were the connecting links
between Asia and Europe. At the beginning of the
Middle Ages they were an economical necessity.
Forced into this channel by the fate which had over-
taken them, confined to it more and more closely as
fanaticism, growing more and more suspicious, shut
before them the doors of other callings, they deserved
not contempt but gratitude, as they helped the com-
fort, the prosperity, the civilization of so many peo-
ples. As to the honesty with which they have traf-
ficked, Israelite historians successfully show that they
were honorably distinguished in antiquity. Not Phoe-
nician or Babylonian, not Greek or Roman, e(|ualled
them. They were not Jews who made the same divin-
ity stand at once as the god of thieves and of mer-
chants. In later days also, in spite of the slanders of
the learned and the unlearned, the impartial investiga-
tor will find the Jews in their business relations rather
above than below the level of common morality,
their faith in this as in every other department re-
quiring of them an ideal purity."
* Ilerzfeld.
138 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
After its wonderful seizure of the Ar}'an soul,
Judaism encountered presently a form of faith more
nearly related to itself than Greek, Roman, and
Teuton ideas. It might be expected that from
Maiiometans, the Jew would receive somewhat
better treatment than from races unallied. The
Arabs, a stock which like the Israch'tes looked to
Abraham as a progenitor, gave to Islam its prophet.
In reality it is only at times, that the outcast people
has received kindness at their hands, fiery Mussul-
man intolerance bringing more often to pass a perse-
cution scarcely less bitter than that from Christian
hands. Throughout Arabia, Mesopotamia, and
Babylonia, however, the Hebrews spread, in the
cities establishing thriving colonies, and maintaining
at various points schools where a learning profound,
though fantastic, was taught by the Rabbis to
crowds of pupils. They followed with their con-
geners in the path of the advancing crescent
through Northern Africa, and helped essentially in
the conquest by means of wdiich the old Visigothic
power of Spain was displaced. The bloom of Moor-
ish civilization followed ; Averroes and Avicenna,
with torches kindled upon Greek altars, lighting in
the west the fire of philosophy. An art came to
flourish which could create the Alhambra; a poetry
was developed that softened and ennobled manners;
many a truth of physical science was anticipated— a
night, meantime, almost unbroken enveloping every
part of Christendom. It was, on the whole, a happy
time for the Jews. Given free course under the
tolerant sway of the Caliphs, their striving was an
HOPV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 39
important factor in producing the beautiful result.
When at length to the rest of Europe came the
Renaissance, the Jews, going and coming in their
intercourse with their brethren everywhere, now in
the land where the arts were thriving, and now in
regions where all was waiting, were among the chief
mediators who bore the fructifying pollen from the
sunny, blossoming spots to the more shadowed
regions which awaited impregnation.
Among the Saracens in their time of power the
lines of Israel did not fall ill, nor was its position one
of difficulty when the modern world first began to
emerge. Under Charlemagne, Jews were tolerated —
indeed, befriended and honored. In the famous
embassy to Haroun al Raschid, the honored figure is
that of the Jew Isaac; and, in other positions than
diplomatic, Hebrews were friends and helpers of the
great path-breaker. Under the immediate succes-
sors of Charlemagne, still greater good fortune was
enjoyed ; but we cannot pass even the threshold of
the Middle Ages without encountering a Hebrew
persecution which is perhaps the most dreadful page
of history.
Not a single Christian people has kept itself clear
from the reproach of inhumanity to the Jews.
To afflict them has been held to be a merit. The
times when religion has been most rife and the con-
science most sensitive have witnessed the sharpest
scourgings and the most lurid holocausts. When
the nations were aroused to redeem the Holy Sepul-
chre from dishonor, when the cathedrals were rising,
gushes of devotion from the popular heart, fixetl in
140 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
stone to stand for centuries, it was precisely then that
the faggots were heaped highest and the sword was
most merciless. The Jews and the Saracens were
allied stocks, between whom a secret understanding
may sometimes have existed. "If we are to fight in-
fidels," said fanaticism, " wh}- not fight them at home
as well as in Syria?" Men and women chivalrous
and sainth' have denounced and wrung the Jew
almost in ])roporti()n to their chivalry and sanctity,
and this has endured almost to the present hour, —
Richard Coeur-de-Lion, St. Louis of France, Ferdi-
nand and Isabella, Luther, Savonarola, Maria
Theresa, — yet how great is the debt of civilization to
these men so cruelly hounded ! They had become a
trading race, indeed, but not entirely so. They had
a large share in the restoration of learning and the
cultivation of science in the time of the Renaissance.
Through them many Greek writers were translated
into Arabic, thence to be rendered into tlie tongues
of Europe and made accessible to the }-oung univer-
sities of the West. Through them medicine was
revived, to become the parent of physical science in
general. They were universal translators, publishers,
and literary correspondents. Their schools at Mont-
pellier in France, Salerno in Italy, and Seville in .Spain,
abounded in erudite men and scientific experiment-
ers. While superstition reigned elsewhere, they
were often comparatively free from it. The deserts
of the Hebrews in these respects must never be for-
gotten, though perhaps here they accomplished less
than as merchants, almost the only representatives
of commerce as the}' were, " the fair, white-winged
irolV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. I4I
peacemaker" flying across field and flood among the
distant cities of men, binding them into a noble
brotherhood.
We are to follow the footsteps of the broken
nation into the lands of their exile, so utterly cold for
them — footsteps of blood in a wintry landscape.
But before taking up the story, something must be
said about the standards which the Hebrews held in
honor, now that their independence as a nation was
destroyed, — standards venerated without abatement
down to the present hour; a veneration almost uni-
versal, and a principal cause why the Jews, though so
sundered and smitten, have maintained a solidarity.
First, the Jew held in honor the Scriptures, con-
taining the Law of Moses, the sacred Torah, the
Prophets, and the Hagiographa, or sacred writings.
The Canon, as we have seen, had been formed in the
age of Ezra : the centuries which had followed had
deepened respect for it ; and as the Gentile world
gradually became Christian, that, too, received the
canon of Ezra, under the name of the Old Testament,
with faith as undoubting as that of the Hebrews
themselves.
But the reader will remember that when the
written Law was brought from Sinai, a body of pre.
cepts was, it was believed, at the same time imiiarted,
which was for many ages handed down oral!}-. This
was called the Mischna, and not until the time of the
teacher Hillel, a generation or two before Christ, was
an)' beginning made of reducing these traditions to
writing. In the sad days which resulted in the
142 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
destruction of Jerusalem, no one was found to carry
out the work of Ilillel, but a time came when it
was brought to fulfihrient, and the result was the
Talmud.
The latest Jewish authority " declares the composi-
tion of the Talmud to be the most important fact of
Hebrew history during the four centuries that follow
the fall of Jerusalem. In order to strengthen the
written Law and supplement it where it was silent,
recourse was had to those oral traditions which all
Israel believed had come down from Moses himself.
During the period mentioned the Jewish doctors
made these the subject of ardent and minute study, — -
a labor believed to be necessary, since the destruc-
tion of the Temple and ever-increasing dispersion of
the nation no longer allowed tradition to perpetuate
itself as formerly. As this second code became de-
veloped, it was much more detailed than the Torah,
embracing in its prescriptions the whole civil and
religious life of the Jews, and ensuring unity of faith
by the uniformity which it brought about in cere-
monial practices.
The Rabbis, however, were not satisfied with the
drawing up of the " Mischna." An attempt was
further made to develop and reconcile, to render an
account of whatever was mysterious ; in fine, to apply
to real or fictitious cases which the ancient doctors
had not foreseen, the principles which they had
stated only generall}-. This labor, pursued with dili-
gence in the schools both of Palestine and Babylonia,
* Reinach : ' ' I listoire des Israelites depuis leur Dispersion jusqu' i
110s Jours," Paris, 1885.
HO IV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 43
resulted in the " Gemara," which was given to the
world at last in two immense compends, the Tal-
muds of Jerusalem and Babylon, the latter and most
important of which, even in the partial form which
has survived to us, comprises twelve large volumes.
To all but the most patient students, the work would
seem to be a hopeless chaos. The subtle Rabbis took
a lively pleasure in puzzling over insoluble difificul-
ties, discussing to an infinite extent the opinions of
their predecessors, discovering difficulties, sometimes
imaginary, and trying to harmonize things quite irre-
concilable. The contents are most varied, — satirical
allegories, popular proverbs, fantastic imaginary
stories, historical recitals strangely distorted, scien-
tific discussions, medical prescriptions in which
Chaldaic superstitions play a large part, — an irregu-
lar familiar talk, often, without rule or plan.
The authority whom I follow maintains that
whereas to the Talmud in some ages has been
assigned an importance quite exaggerated, it is at
present by many critics quite improperly decried and
depreciated.* The character of the men to whom
the Talmud addressed itself is forgotten. At the
time when the dispersion of Israel was beginning, it
was necessary to raise about Judaism, at every price,
a double and triple moral barrier, an exterior wall, to
protect it against dissolving influences from outside.
The Talmud was such a wall. It was long the prin-
cipal, if not the sole, intellectual food of the scattered
Hebrews. Its destinies have been those of the
* For an example of such criticism see Depjoing : " Die Juden im
Mittelaller," 14, 15.
144 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Jewish race, and whenever it has been burned, the
burning of the Jews themselves has been not far off.
If some minds have become stultified in its debates,
minute and often inane, others have gained by their
study a subtle and penetrative power. Many a rabbi,
trained by the study of the Talmud, has developed
and made fruitful other sciences. The philosophy of
many a beneficent Jewish thinker had here its root.
The first translators of Aristotle and Averroes
passed their youth in the rabbinical schools. If the
Jews escaped in a measure the eclipse of the Dark
Ages, so total over the Christian world, they owe it
to the Talmud.
A Gentile has great difficulty in obtaining any
coherent idea of this strange old work. The Rabbis
seem to prescribe and condemn tolerance, to approve
and forbid usury, to recommend and despise agricul-
ture, to honor and depreciate women. It seems
strange it should have been held in such honor.
One Rabbi said the written Law was water, the
Mischna wine, and the Gemara an aromatic liquor
very precious. I give a passage from still another
Jewish scholar of our own time, who is believed to
have been a most accomplished Talmudist '" : " Well
can we understand the distress of mind in a medi-
aeval divine, or even in a modern savant, who, bent
upon following some scientific debate in the Tal-
mudical pages, feels, as it were, the ground suddenly
give way. The loud voices grow thin, the doors and
walls of the school-room vanish before his eyes, and
in their place uprises Rome the great, and her
* Emanuel Deutsch : " Literary Remains," 45, etc., 151,
HO IV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 145
million-voiced life. Or the blooming vineyards a-
round that other city of hills, Jerusalem the Golden
herself, are seen, and white-clad virgins move dream-
ily among them. Snatches of their songs are heard,
the rhythm of their choric dances rises and falls.
Often, far too often for the interests of study and
the glory of the human race, does the steady tramp
of the Roman cohort, the shriek and clangor of the
bloody iield, interrupt these debates, and the arguing
masters and their disciples don their arms, and with
the cry, ' Jerusalem and liberty,' rush to the fray.
" It shows us the teeming streets of Jerusalem,
tradesmen at work, women at home, children at
play, priest and Levite, preacher on hillside, story-
teller in the bazaar, — nor Jerusalem alone, but the
whole antique world is embalmed there, Athens, Al-
exandria, Persia, Rome. * * * y^ strange, wild,
wierd ocean, with its leviathans and its wrecks of
golden argosies, and with its forlorn bells that send
up their dreamy sounds ever and anon, while the
fisherman bends upon his oar, and starts and listens,
and perchance the tears may come into his eyes."
While it is so dif^cult to derive from the Talmud
any system or history, the poetical scholar goes on
to compare these fanciful pictures to photographic
slides, half-broken and faded, but startlingly faithful.
As the most childish of trifles found in an Assyrian
mound may lead the scholar to great results, so may
the trifles in the Talmud. That the old volumes
contain shrewd worldly wit as well as profound
spiritual wisdom, the following sentences will show :
" Be thou the cursed, not he who curses. Be of them
146 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
that arc persecuted, not of them that persecute.
There is not a single bird more persecuted than the
dove, yet God has chosen her to be offered upon his
altar. He who offers humility unto God and man
shall be rewarded as if he had offered all the sacri-
fices in the world. When the righteous dies it is the
earth that loses. Thy friend has a friend, and thy
friend's friend has a friend, — be discreet. Commit a
sin twice and you will think it perfectly allowable."
Of the strange and beautiful romance of the Tal-
mud, no better example can be taken than the story,
to which Longfellow has given a form so charming,
of Sandalphon.
Have you read in the Talmud old,
In the legends the Rabbins have told
Of the limitless realms of the air, —
Have you read it, — llie marvellous story
Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory,
Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer?
How, erect, at the outermost gates
Of the city celestial he wails.
With his feet on the ladder of light,
That, crowded with angels unnumbered,
By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered,
Alone in the desert of nighl ?
The angels of wind and of hre
Chant only one hymn, and expire
With the song's irresistible stress ;
Expire in their rapture and wonder.
As harp-strings are broken asunder
By music they throb to express.
But, serene in the rapturous throng.
Unmoved by the rush of the song.
HOW THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 47
With eyes unimpassioned and slow,
Among the dead angels, the deathless
Sandalphon stands listening breathless
To sounds that ascend from below ; —
From the spirits on earth that adore,
From the souls that entreat and implore
In the ferver and passion of prayer ;
From hearts that are broken with losses,
And weary with dragging the crosses
Too heavy for mortals to bear.
And he gathers the prayers as he stands,
And they change into flowers in his hands.
Into garlands of purple and red ;
And beneath the great arch of the portal,
Through the streets of the City Immortal,
Is wafted the fragrance they shed.
It is but a legend, I know, —
A fable, a phantom, a show
Of the ancient Rabbinical lore ;
Yet the old medixval tradition.
The beautiful, strange superstition,
But haunts me and holds me the more.
"When I look from my window at niglit,
And the welkin above is all white,
All throbbing and panting with stars,
Among them majestic is standing
Sandalphon, the angel, expanding
His pinions in nebulous bars.
And the legend, I feel, is a part
Of the hunger and thirst of the heart,
The frenzy and fire of the brain,
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden.
The golden pomegranates of Eilen,
To quiet its fever and pain.
148 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
As in antiquity the traditioual Law was rejected
by the Sadducees, who indeed found nothing worthy of
respect but the five books of Moses, so in the modern
era a sect known as the Karaites rejected the work
of the Tahnudists, and a bitter strife came to pass
between these protestants of Judaism, and the Rab-
banites, who accepted the work of the doctors. They
mutually excommunicated one another, wrestled in
the sharpest controversy, and refused to one another
all friendship and alliance. Though Orthodoxy pre-
vailed, Karaism is still not extinct, lingering on in a
few communities in Lithuania and the Crimea.
Before dismissing the consideration of Torah and
Talmud, a word must be said as to a very valuable
and practical part of their precepts. The hygienic
rules which they contain arc said to possess great
wisdom."" The idea of parasitical and infectious
maladies, of which we now hear so much, occupied
also the mind of Moses. He indicates with great
wisdom the animals to be used as food, excluding
those liable .to parasites, as swine, rabbits, and hares.
He prescribes the thorough bleeding of animals to
be eaten, and the burning of the fat ; it has been
established that it is precisely the blood and the fat
which are most liable to retain parasitic germs and
carry infection. The Talmud, moreover, directs that
the liver, lungs, and spleen shall be carefully scruti-
nized. Precisely those organs are especially liable to
disease. With reference to dwellings and clothing,
and the satisfying of natural Avants, the rules of
* Dr. Noel Gueneau de Mussy : Hygienic Laws of Moses. New
York Medical Abstract, March, 1885.
HOM^ THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. I49
Torah and Talmud are excellent ; in point of health,
the advantage of a careful observance of the Sabbath
is very great ; even circumcision can be defended as
an excellent sanitary expedient. In several respects
the Mosaic Law is declared to have anticipated mod-
ern science by several thousand years. Throughout
the entire history of Israel the wisdom of the ancient
lawgivers in these respects has been remarkably
shown : in times of pestilence, the Hebrews have
suffered far less than others ; as regards longevity
and general health, they have in every age been
noteworthy; at the present time in the life-insurance
offices the life of a Jew is said to be worth much more
than that of men of other stock ; Sir Moses Monte-
fiore dies at one hundred, and in his great age as well
as in so many other ways, he is only a type of his
nation.
Clasping thus in his arms as his chief treasures the
scrolls of the Torah and the Talmud, the incongruous
mixture of divine wisdom with curious follies, of ex-
alted poetry with grotesqiie and repulsive super-
stition, the Jew comes forward in his long pilgrimage
through the centuries. From the time of those fierce
figures whom wc saw struggling to the last against
Titus among the wild spear-brandishings and con-
flagrations in the midst of which Jerusalem went
down, to the era of the revival of learning, there is
no Hebrew character before whom we need to pause ;
but here we come upon a memorable personage.
An illustrious type of the noble students and
thinkers of the Renaissance was Maimonides, a native
ISO THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
of Cordova in Spain, who died in Cairo at the be-
ginning of the thirteenth century. Even in youth
he had mastered all the knowledge of his time,
receiving inspiration especially from the great Aver-
roes, the Moorish teacher to whom the revival
of learning owed so much. Persecution from his
brethren drove him from his birthplace, pursuing
him elsewhere also, until at last he found himself at
Cairo, where, winning the favor of the broad-minded
Sultan Saladin, he became court physician, and stood
in a place of high honor. At the same time he
taught as Rabbi among his own people, spreading
abroad through speeches in the synagogue, but more
especially through abundant writings in Hebrew and
Arabic, a multiform knowledge. He communicated
instruction in medicine, mathematics, and astronomy ;
better than this, he sent far and wide a noble phi-
losophy which anticipated in its freedom and reason-
able spirit the thought of a far later day. Though
he suffered harsh treatment at the hands of his fellow-
Jews and the blind world in which his lot was cast,
he found defenders ancf followers; his words com-
municated the hints from which the master-spirits of
later ages have caught the inspiration which filled
them ; to-day men look back upon him, standing
there, just where the dark ages are beginning to grow
brighter, as a form lofty and venerable. Not that he
was a man before his age. In some of his writings
he dwells unduly upon Talmudic trifles and stupidi-
ties, and cherishes a true Hebrew scorn towards the
notions of the Gentiles. But at other times he de-
nounces astrology, draws up certain rules to be held
HO IV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 151
as fundamental principles, which proclaim mono-
theism and the immortality of the soul ; and in a book
called the " Teacher of the Perplexed," tries to make
easy for the common man the understanding of
Scripture. In this work he so over-rides the confu-
sion of the Talmud, that he was long held by ortho-
dox Jews as a heretic, or possibly a secret Christian.
He won, however, respect in life, and a pure and
widely extended fame. His house in Cairo was
besieged by the sick, who found in him a healer kind
and skilful. Some declared him to be the first man
truly great who had appeared among the Jews since
the time of Moses, and it was written upon his grave
that he was " the elect of the human race."
%&^
CHAPTER X. ^
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN.
We arc now to examine the Hebrew story as it is
told in the annals of one Christian race. The Jews
have claimed that their progenitors were in the Iberi-
an peninsula even in the days of Carthaginian rule.
The Romans and Visigoths in turn succeed, and at
length, through the Visigothic King Sisebut, the
Hebrews undergo their first sharp persecution. They
gladly exchange the Christian for the Moslem yoke,
and, as we have seen, flourish with the Moors in
brotherly accord. With the ebb of the Saracen
power Navarre, Castile, Arragon, take shape on the
strand that is laid bare, until in the fifteenth century
the Cross supplants the green banner of the prophet
even in Granada, and the forces of the whole penin-
sula, blended so that they can be wielded by a single
arm, become the mighty power of Spain. The Jew
changed masters, not to his advantage, but his mis-
fortunes did not begin at once. The Spanish Israel-
ites, the " Sephardim," as they call themselves, have
always claimed that they were of nobler rank than
elsewhere ; at first they were prosperous and wealthy,
with no mark of the degradation induced by being
forced to debasing means of extorting riches. They
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. 153
owned and tilled the soil, were the agents of com-
merce, cultivators of the arts. In particular, they
were the physicians of the country. " Every one,"
says Milman, "sat under his shady fig-tree or cluster-
laden vine singing hymns to the mighty God of
Israel who again had mercy on his people." In the
Crusades Spain took little part, embarrassment from
infidels close at hand pressing much too sharply.
The Jews, too, were spared for a time the outbursts
of fanatical rage which overtook them elsewhere in
Christendom, but the respite was brief. In 1212, a
great battle having been lost against the Moors, as
was said on account of the love of the king for a
Jewess, twelve thousand Hebrews were massacred.
Christian cruelty, however, was at first fitful. The
outburst of rage was speedily followed by favor, and
for two centuries we trace alternations of cruelty
and sufferance until the union of the crowns of Ar-
ragon and Castile. To avoid persecution many Jews
became nominally Christian. The converts were
almost universally still Jews at heart, though many
ascended to positions of the highest eminence. Even
in the Church the frock of the friar covered thousands
whose confession was only a pretence. There were
heads indeed surmounted with the mitre whose
sincere homage was rendered not to the Host, but in
secret, before the parchment tables of the Law. To
discover how widely covert Jewish practices pre-
vailed, it is said, it was only necessary to ascend a
hill on their Sabbath, and look down on towns and
villages below. Scarce half the chimneys would be
seen to smoke, for the multitudes of secret Jews
154 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
celebrated their holy time. Among men of the
bluest Castilian blood were those of Hebrew strain.
The lordliest hidalgos bowing before the altar of
the Virgin in public, often, when in private, lifted a
tapestry, and by a secret door entered a shrine set
forth with Israelitish symbols. Such a shrine is thus
described by a descendant of the Spanish Hebrews,
following, probably, traditions handed down from
an ancient time.*
" The edifice was square, and formed of solid blocks
of cedar ; neither carving nor imagery of any kind
adorned it, yet it had evidently been built with skill
and care. There was neither tower nor bell. A
door, so skilfully constructed as when closed to be
invisible in the solid wall, opened noiselessly. The
interior was as peculiar as its outward appearance.
Its walls of polished cedar were unadorned. In the
centre, facing the cast, was a sort of raised table or
desk, surrounded by a railing, and covered with a
cloth of the richest and most elaborately worked
brocade. Exactly opposite and occupying the cen-
tre of the eastern wall, was a sort of lofty chest or
ark, the upper part of which, arched, and richly
painted, with a blue ground, bore in two columns
strange hieroglyphics in gold ; beneath this were por-
tals of polished cedar, panelled and marked out with
gold, but bearing no device ; their hinges set in
gilded pillars, which supported the arch above. Be-
fore these portals were generally drawn curtains of
material rich and glittering as that upon the reading-
desk. But this day not only were the curtains drawn
* Grace Aguilar, in the " Vale of Cedars."
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. 155
aside, but the portals themselves flung open, as the
bridal party neared the steps which led to it, and dis-
closed six or seven rolls of parchment, folded on
silver pins, and filled with the same strange letters,
each clothed in drapery of variously colored brocade
or velvet, and surmounted by two sets of silver or-
naments, in which the bell and pomegranate were,
though small, distinctly discernible. A superb lamp
of solid silver was suspended from the roof, and one
of smaller dimensions, but of equally valuable mate-
rial, and always kept lighted, hung just before the
ark."
It was very seldom that the zeal of the monkish
preachers won a new convert."
One is struck with wonder at the energy of the
fanaticism that should undertake to crush out a form
of unbelief so widely spread and so strongly placed.
The attempt was made, and the instrument employed
was the most dreadful engine which superstition
ever devised — the Inquisition. In the city of Nu-
remberg one may go into the <incient torture-cham-
ber — a room preserved unchanged, still retaining all
* From ancient times to the present day, indeed, the Hebrews have
yielded few proselytes to Christianity — a fact amusingly hit off not
long since by Punch, who describes the work of the English Society
for the Conversion of the Jews in language substantially as follows :
" It appears from the report of the Society for the Conversion of the
Hebrews, that during the past year there has been an outlay of £s>^^^i
as the result of which four large Israelites and one little one have
been converted to Christianity. To effect tiie change, therefore,
costs ;^i,ooo per Jew. Mr. Punch would respectfully intimate to his
Hebrew friends tliat he is acquainted with large numbers of Chris-
tians who would be very happy to become Jews at a much smaller
figure."
156 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
its dismal apparatus for causiiii^ suffering. No mem-
ber of the body appears to be forgotten ; for each
is the appointed contrivance to wring and tear.
Then by winding subterranean passages you are led
to the vault in the bowels of the earth, where stands
the " iron maiden," the apparatus for secret execu-
tion. At the touch of a spring the rude woman's
figure flies apart, the blood-rusted spikes of its inte-
rior dreadfully visible in the light of the smoking
torch, as in ancient days before the eyes of con-
demned men ; and below, the yawning pit, from whose
abyss sounds far down the splash of the sullen wa-
ters into which the mangled body fell. To speak of
such things almost requires an apology. The man
of modern times groans and shudders at these sights.
" Whence came," he cries, " the people who made
and used these engines? How can I believe that
these beings are of the same nature with my own ? "
At Regensburg, at Salzburg, in Baden Baden, in
those deep caverns hollowed out in the heart of the
rock, where doors of stone close behind you with a
heavy groan, and the loudest cry is mufifled at once
into a whisper, one may see the grisly apparatus of
Nuremberg duplicated, and these cities are not
alone. There are grim volumes on the history of
torture, from which may be learned that through
antiquity and mediceval times there was no law-
ful court which did not have, not far off, some
such dismal appurtenance, the legitimate and recog-
nized appliance, not only for the punishment of
crime, but for the examination of witnesses. To my
mind, there is no thin"; which so measures the leneth
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. 15/
of the forward step the world has taken, as the sick-
ening dread with which the modern man contem-
plates these things which were once every-day and
matter-of-course.
In the Inquisition there was a wholesale employ-
ment of all this nightmare machinery. The Inquisi-
tion was established in the first instance to terrify
into faithfulness apostate Jews, the sincerity of
whose conversion to Christianity was suspected, and
in almost all cases, with good reason. Seated in some
vast and frowning castle, or in some sunless cavern
of the earth, its ministers chosen from the most
influential men of the nation, its familiars in every
disguise, in every corner of the land, its proceedings
utterly secret, its decrees overriding every law, it
would be impossible to draw a picture which would
exaggerate its accumulated horrors. Men and
women disappeared by hundreds, suddenly and com-
pletely as a breath annihilates the flame of a lamp,
some gone forever without whisper as to their fate ;
some to reappear in after years, halt through long
tortures, pale and insane through frightful incarcera-
tion. When in the cities the frequent processions
wound through the streets, with their long files of
victims on the way to the place of burning, children
bereaved of father and mother flocked to see
whether among the doomed they might not catch a
last look of the face of the long-lost parent. The
forms that were observed were such a mockery of
justice! In the midst of the torture came the cold
interrogation of the inquisitor. Fainting with terror
and anguish, the sufl"erer uttered he knew not what.
158 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
to be written down by waiting clerks and made the
basis of procedure. Grace Aguilar, in one of her
stories, makes her heroine to disappear through the
floor of a chamber of Queen Isabella herself, who
had sought to protect her, borne then by secret
passages to a vast hail, where a grandee of Spain
superintends cruelties of which my words give but
an adumbration. She recites the traditions that
have came down in Jewish families, and history con-
firms all that they report. No earthly power could
save; no human fancy can paint the scene too dark.
For a time the situation of the Jews who dared to
profess their faith openly, was preferable to that of
those who made Christian pretences while really
unchanged. It was not that the latter were regard-
ed with greater favor, but because the powers hesi-
tated before the magnitude of the task of dealing
with a class numbering hundreds of thousands and
comprehending a vast proportion of the intelligence
and ability of the nation. But fanaticism rose to
cope with the undertaking, showing a force and per-
sistence that have something admirable even while
so devilish. In 1492 a decree was passed, that the
Jews, a multitude though they were, and often in
high places, must depart from the land. Isabella,
though well-meaning, was completely under- priestly
influence, and soon assented to the plan. Ferdinand,
through motives of policy rather than humanity,
hesitated long. When the decision was at length
made, a dramatic scene is said to have taken place in
the palace. Abarbancl, a Jew of the highest posi-
tion and worth, a man compared to the prophet
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. I 59
Daniel for his authority among his own race, and the
respect he had forced from the oppressors of his
people, penetrated to the presence of the sovereigns,
and threw himself at their feet. He implored that
his people might not be driven forth, and offered a
bribe of 300,000 ducats that the decree might be
recalled. Suddenly into the presence stalked, in his
monkish robe, the gloomy form of the chief inquisi-
tor, Torquemada, bearing a crucifix. "Judas Iscari-
ot " cried he, unshrinkingly, to the abashed rulers,
"sold his master for thirty pieces of silver; you wish
to sell him for 300,000. Here he is; take him and
sell him ! " I do not know what sadder tale can be
told than the relation of the scenes of their depart-
ure. The Hebrews had come to love Spain like
their own Canaan. They visited the graves of their
ancestors, bidding them a long farewell. Sometimes
they removed the tombstones to carry them in their
wanderings. Along the high-roads proceeded the
long files of outcasts, sometimes to the beat of the
drum which the rabbis and elders caused to be
struck that the hearts of the people might not
utterly sink, bearing with them the scrolls of their
holy Law, and the remnant of their possessions.
Valuable lands, in the forced sales, were exchanged
for a little cloth ; fine houses for a pair of mules.
Vast sums that were owed them were confiscated ;
in every way they became the prey of the rapacious.
Stuffing their saddles and furniture with such gold
pieces as they could secure, they made their way to
the harbors. Alone of the nations of the world, the
Turks of the Levant were ready to receive them with
l6o THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
some kindness. Those who made their way to
Morocco and Algiers were sold into slavery, starved,
ripped open by oppressors, who hoped to find jewels
or gold which the persecuted ones had swallowed.
Christendom was barred against them almost as with
walls of brass. Italy alone showed some trace of
mercy. The great trading cities tolerated them,
though for purely selfish reasons. The general poli-
cy of the popes, too, be it said to their credit, con-
trasts favorably with that of other sovereigns, though
it was harsh enough, and such features of leniency as
it possessed, came usually from no good motive.
But even in Italy there was tragedy of the sad-
dest.
In Portugal there was at first a prospect of mild
treatment, and the greater part of the outcasts went
thither. Rut a marriage of the king with a princess
of Spain, which soon took place, brought to pass
woes deeper, if possible, than elsewhere. Not only
must the Jews depart, but their children were taken
from them to be brought up as Christians, till at last
mothers in despair threw their babes into the rivers
and wells, and killed themselves. The stories of mas-
sacres are wellnigh incredible. But Spain pursued the
policy without relenting. Those whom she cast out
were of the best middle class, which both created the
wealth of the land and kept it in constant movement,
like blood within the body. They were not only
capitalists, merchants, physicians, and scholars, but
farmers, artisans, and laborers. The spirit of enter-
prise and culture left Spain with the Jews. Her
population became spiritless and diminished, and the
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. l6l
land sank into a debasement which has never passed
away.*
Following the details as given by the Israelite his-
torian Graetz in his great work of eleven volumes,
there are scores of vivid touches making all too plain
this dreadful harrying and expatriation. " Spain," he
says, "was full of the corruption of dungeons and
the crackling pyres of innocent Jews. A lamentation
Avent through the beautiful land which might pierce
bone and marrow ; but the sovereigns held back the
arms of the pitiful." " The beautiful land !" so do
the Hebrews call it, for they had come to love it,
and looked back to it as to a paradise. " In our
time," says Isaac Arama at the end of the 15th
century, " the smoky column ascends to heaven in
all the Spanish kingdoms and islands. A third of
the new Christians (the nominally converted Jews)
have perished by fire — a third wander as fugitives
trying to hide, in continual fear of arrest. Beautiful
Spain has become a flaming Tophet whose fiery
tongue is all-devouring."
Two hundred years later the spirit of Spain was
unchanged. I find in a Jewish writer an account of
an auto-da-fe celebrated in 1680, in honor of the
marriage of Charles II. with Marie Louise, niece of
Louis XIV. Upon the great square in Madrid an
amphitheatre was reared, with a box for the royal
family upon one side, opposite to which was a dais
* This is the statement of Graetz : " Geschichte des Jiulenthums,"
volume VIII. , the Spanisli chapter. It can hardly be said, however,
that Spain showed sym])toms of decline until one hundred years later,
at the time of the revolt of the Netherlands and rise of the Dutch
Republic.
l62 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
for the grand inquisitor and his train. The court
officials were present in gala uniforms, the trade
guilds in their state dresses, the orders of monks, an
immense concourse of the populace. From the
church towers pealed the bells, among whose sounds,
were heard the chants of the monks. At 8 o'clock
entered the procession. Before the grand inquisitor
was borne the green cross of the Holy Office, while
the bystanders shouted : " Long live the Catholic
faith ! " First marched a hundred charcoal burners,
dressed in black and armed with pikes. It was their
prescriptive right to lead the procession, as having
furnished the fuel for the sacrifice. A troop of
Dominican monks followed, then a duke of the bluest
blood, hereditary standard-bearer of the Holy Office.
After friars and nobles carrying banners and crosses
came thirt\--five effigies of life size, with names at-
tached, borne by familiars of the Inquisition, repre-
senting condemned men who had died in prison or
escaped. Other Dominicans appeared, a ghastly row
carrying coffins containing the bones of those con-
victed of heresy after death ; then fifty-four j)enitents
with the dress and badge of victims, bearing lighted
tapers. In turn came a company of Jews and Jewesses
(in the interval since Ferdinand and Isabella a portion
of the Jews had returned from banishment), mostly
persons of humble rank, in whom the interest of the
ceremony chiefly centred ; these were to be burned
as obstinate in their refusal of the faith. Each wore
a cloak of coarse serge, yellow in color, covered with
representations, in crimson, of flames, demons, ser-
pents, and crosses. Upon their heads were high-
THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. 1 63
pointed caps, with placards in front bearing the
name and offence of the wearer. Haggard they
were through long endurance of dungeon damp and
darkness, broken and torn from the torture cham-
bers, glad, for the most part, that the end of their
weary days had come.
As the procession moved past the station of the royal
personages, a girl of seventeen, whose great beauty
had not been destroyed, cried out aloud from among
the condemned to the young queen : "Noble queen,
cannot your royal presence save me from this ? I
sucked in my religion with my mother's milk ; must
I now die for it?" The queen's eyes filled with tears,
and she turned away her face. She was unused to
such sights. Even she, probably, could not have
interceded without danger to herself. The suppli-
cating girl passed on with her companions to her
fate. High mass having been performed, the pre-
liminaries to the terrible concluding scene are trans-
acted. The sun descends, the Angelus is rung from
the belfrys, the vespers are chanted, the multitude
proceeds to the place of suffering. It is a square
platform of stone in the outskirts of the city, at
whose four corners stand mis-shapen statues of
prophets. Those who repent at the last moment
have the privilege of being strangled before burning.
The effigies and bones of the dead are first given to
the flames. Last perish the living victims, the king
himself lighting the fagots ; their constancy is so
marked that they are believed to be sustained by the
devil. Night deepens ; the glare of the flames falls
upon the cowl of the Capuchin, the cord of the
164
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
I'>anciscan — upon corselet and plume — everywhere
upon faces fierce with fanaticism. In the back-
ground rises the gloomy city — all alight as if with
the lurid fire of hell.
CHAPTER XL
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY.
In one of the old towns on the Rhine,* I went to
see a synagogue which, tradition says, was built
before the Christian era. In Roman legions served
certain Jews, who, stationed here on the frontier of
Gaul, w4iich had just been subdued, founded a temple
of their faith. I felt that the low, blackened walls
of time-defying masonry had at any rate an immense
antiquity. The blocks of stone were beaten by the
weather — the thresholds nearly worn through by the
passing of feet ; a deep hollow lay in a stone at the
portal, where the multitude of generations had
touched it with the finger in sacred observances.
Within the low interior my Jewish guide told me a
sorrowful legend, which was, no doubt, in part true,
relating to a lamp burning with a double flame
before the shrine. Once, in the old cruel days, that
hatred might be excited against the Jews of the city,
a dead child was secretly thrown by the Christians
into the cellar of one of that faith. Straightway an
accusation was brought by the contrivers of the
trick; the child was found, antl the innocent Hebrews
accused of the murder. The authorities of the city
* See the author's " Short History of German Literature."
l66 7^ HE STORY OF THE JEWS.
threatened at once to t.hrow the chief men of the
congregation into a caldron of boiling oil if the
murderers were not produced. Time pressed ; the
rabbi and elders were bound, and heard already, close
at hand, the simmering of the preparing torture.
There appeared two strangers, who gave themselves
into the hands of the magistrates, voluntarily accus-
ing themselves of the crime. Into the caldrons they
were at once thrown, from which, as they died,
ascended two milk-white doves. Innocent, with a
pious lie upon their lips, they sacrificed themselves
to save others. To commemorate their deed, the
lamp with the double flame had been kept forever
burning within the low arch.
I walked one day through the Judcn-gasse at Frank-
fort. The modern world is ashamed of the cruelty and
prejudice of the past, and would like to hide from
sight the things that bear witness to it. The low,
strong wall, however, was still standing, within whose
narrow confine the Jews were crowded, never safe
from violence or even death if they were found out-
side at times not permitted. Many of the ancient
houses still remained, the fronts discolored, channelled,
rising in mutilation and decay that were pathetic.
The Hebrews of to-day seem to take pleasure in
contrasting their present condition with their past
misery. They have chosen to erect their stately
synagogue among the old roofs, — upon the founda-
tions even of the wall with which the past tried to
fence them off from all Christian contact. Among
such surroundings, how does the story, so long and
so tragic, come home to us !
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 16/
The persecution of the Jews in Germany, a chapter
ages long, culminated* at the time of the Black
Death, 1 348-1 350. This scourge, which carried off
a quarter of the population of Europe, afflicted the
Jews but lightly, on account of their isolation, and
their simple and wholesome way of life. This com-
parative exemption from the pest was enough to
make them suspected. The Jews poison the wells
and the springs, it was said. The rabbis of Toledo
were believed to have formed a plot to destroy all
Ch»stendom. The composition of the poison, the
color of the packages in which it was transported, the
emissaries who conveyed them, were all declared to
have been discovered. Confirmations of these re-
ports, extracted by torture from certain poor crea-
tures, were forthcoming, and the people flew upon
the Jews until entire communities were destroyed.
The " Flagellants," fanatical sectaries, half naked and
scourging themselves, swarmed through Germany,
preaching extermination to all unbelievers. Basle
expelled its Jews, Fribourg burned them. Spires
drowned them. The entire community at Strass-
bourg, 2,000 souls, was dragged upon an immense
scaffold, which was set on fire. At Worms, Frank-
fort, and Mainz, the Israelites anticipated their fate,
setting their homes on fire and throwing themselves
into the flames.
A picture, derived from Jewish authorities,f shall
make vivid for us the condition of the Israelites in
mediaeval Germany.
* Reinach : " Histoire des Israelites."
f Based upon the incomplete novel of Heine, ' ' Tlie Rabbi of
Bacharach," and accounts contained in the history of Graetz.
1 68 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
The little community of Hebrews which already in
the time of the Romans had settled in the town of
Woistes, on the Rhine, was a body isolated, crowded
out of all civil rights, and weak in numbers, notwith-
standing that it had received in times of persecution
many fugitives. The suffering had begun with the
Crusades. Familiar accusations that were made at
an early day, were that the Jews stole the con-
secrated Host to pierce it with knives, and also
that they killed Christian children at their Passover,
for the sake of using their blood in the service at night.
The Jews, hated for their faith, and because they
held the world to such an extent in their debt, were
on that festival entirely in the hands of their ene-
mies, who could easily bring about their destruction
by some false accusation. Not infrequently through
some contrivance a dead child was secretly intro-
duced into a Jewish houce, to be afterwards found
and made a pretext for attack. Great miracles were
sometimes reported and believed, as having happened
over such a corpse, and there are cases in which the
Pope canonized such supposed victims. St. Werner
in this way reached his honors, to whom was dedi-
cated the magnificent abbey at Oberwesel, now a
picturesque ruin, whose carved and towering pillars
and long-pointed windows are such a delight to the
tourists who pass on pleasant summer days, and do
not think of their origin.
The more outside hate oppressed them, however,
so much the closer did the bond become, in these
times, among the Jews themselves ; so much the
deeper did their piety take root. The Rabbi Abra-
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 169
ham at Woistes was an example of excellence, a man
still young, but famed far and wide for his learning.
His father had also been rabbi of the little synagogue,
and had left to his son as his only bequest, a chest of
rare books, and the command never to leave Woistes,
unless his life were in danger. Rabbi Abraham had
acquired wealth through marriage with his beautiful
cousin Sarah, daughter of a rich jeweller. He prac-
tised conscientiously, however, the smallest usages of
the faith ; he fasted each Monday and Thursday, en-
joyed meat and wine only on Sundays and holidays,
explained by day to his pupils the diviiie Law, and
studied by night the courses of the stars. The
marriage was childless, but there was abundant life
about him ; for the great hall of his liouse by the
synagogue stood open to the congregation, who went
in and out without formality, offered hasty prayers,
and took counsel in times of distress. Here the
children played on the Sabbath morning while the
weekly lesson was read in the synagogue ; here the
people collected at weddings and funerals, quarrelled
and became reconciled ; here the freezing found
warmth and the hungry food. A crowd of kinsmen
moved also about the rabbi who celebrated with him,
as head of the family, the great festivals.
Such meetings of the kindred took place especially
at the Passover time, when the Jews celebrate their
escape from Egyptian bondage. As soon as it i.i
night the mistress of the house lights the lamps,
spreads the table-cloth, and lays upon it three flat
unleavened loaves ; then covering these with a napkin,
she places on the little mound six little plates, i!i
170 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
which is contained symbolical food — namely, an egg,
lettuce, a radish, a lamb's bone, and a brown mixture
of oranges, cinnamon, and nuts. Then the master of
the liouse, seating liimself at the table with all his
guests, reads aloud out of the Talmud a mixture of
legends of the forefathers, miraculous stories out of
Egypt, controversial questions, prayers, and festal
songs. The symbolical dishes are tasted at set times
during the reading, pieces of the unleavened bread
are eaten, and cups of red wine are drunk. Pensively
cheerful, seriously sportive is this evening festival,
full also of mystery ; and the traditional intonation
with which the Talmud is read by the father of the
house, and sometimes repeated after him by the
hearers, in a chorus, sounds so strangely intimate, so
like a mother's lullaby, and at the same time so
stimulating, that even those Jews who have long
since apostatized and sought friends and honors
among strangers, are affected in their deepest hearts,
if by chance the old Passover songs come to their
ears.
Rabbi Abraham was once celebrating, in the great
hall of his house, the Passover, with kindred, pupils,
and guests. All was polished to an unusual bril-
liancy ; on the table lay the covering of silk,
variously embroidered, with fringes of gold hanging
to the earth. The plates with the symbolical food
gleamed brightly, as did also the tall \\ine-filled
beakers, on which were embossed sacred scenes.
The men sat in black mantles, black flat hats, and
white ruffs. The women, in glistening attire of ma-
terial brought from Lombardy, wore on head and
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 171
neck ornaments of pearl. The silver Sabbath lamp
poured its festal light over the pleased and devout
faces of old and young. On the purple velvet cushion
of a seat raised above the rest, and leaning as the
usage requires, Rabbi Abraham intoned the Talmud,
and the contrasting voices of the chorus answered or
joined in unison at the prescribed places. The rabbi
wore also his black festival garment ; his noble, some-
what severely formed features were milder than
usual. His beautiful wife sat upon a raised velvet
seat at his side, wearing, as hostess, no ornament,
while simple white linen alone wrapped her form and
face. Her countenance was touchingly fair, of that
beauty which Jewesses have often possessed ; for
the consciousness of the deep misery, the bitter
contempt, and appalling dangers in which they and
their kindred are forced to live, spreads often over
their features a trace of suffering and loving anxiety
which strangely entrances the heart. She looked into
her husband's eyes, with now and then a glance at
the copy of the Talmud lying before her, a parch-
ment volume bound in gold and velvet, an heirloom
from the time of her grandfather, marked with
ancient wine stains. The gay pictures which it con-
tained, to look at which had been part of her amuse-
ment as a child, at the Passover time, presented
various Biblical stories : Abraham with a hammer,
dashed in pieces the stone idols of his fathers; Moses
struck dead the Egyptian ; Pharaoh sat magnificent
upon his throne ; again, the plague of frogs left him
nocjuiet, and finally he was drowned in the Red Sea;
the children of Israel stood open-mouthed in their
172 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
wonder before Sinai ; pious King David played the
harp ; and finally Jerusalem with the towers and
pinnacles of the Temple was illuminated by the sun.
The second cup was already poured out. The
faces and voices of the guests were becoming always
clearer, and the Rabbi, seizing one of the unleavened
loaves, and holding it up with a cheerful greeting,
read the following words : " Lo, this is the food of
which our fathers in Egypt partook ! every one who
is hungry let him come and eat ; let the afflicted
share our Passover joy ; for the present we celebrate
the festival here, but in the coming years in the land
of Israel ; we celebrate now as bondmen, but here-
after as sons of freedom." Just here the door of the
long hall opened, and two tall, pale figures entered,
wrapt in broad cloaks, one of whom said : " Peace
be with you. We are your companions in the faith,
who now are journeying, and we wish to celebrate
the Passover with you." The Rabbi answered
quickly and kindly : *' Peace be with you ; sit here
by me." The strangers seated themselves at the
table, and Abraham continued his reading. Often,
while the by-standers were still occupied with the
responses, he addressed sportively caressing words fo
his wife, then again took up his part, how " Rabbi
Eleazar, Rabbi Asaria, Rabbi Akiba, and Rabbi
Tarphcn, sat in Bona-brak and talked together the
whole night of the Exodus, until their scholars came
and called out to them that it was day, and in the-
synagogue great morning-prayer was already being
read," or some similar passage from the quaint dis-
jointed record.
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 1 73
As the Hebrew woman reverently listened with
eyes fixed on her husband, she saw that his face
suddenly became distorted with horror, the blood
fled from his cheeks and lips, and his eyes stood out
in dreadful astonishment. Instantly, however, he
recovered himself. The agitation passed off like a
momentary spasm, his features resuming their former
quiet cheerfulness. Presently a mad humor, quite
foreign to him, seemed to take possession of him.
The wife was terrified, less on account of the signs
of astonished fear than on account of the insane
merriment. Abraham pushed his cap in wild sport
from one ear to the other, plucked and curled the
locks of his beard like a buffoon, sang the text of
the Talmud like a street minstrel; and in counting
up the Egyptian plagues, when the index-finger is
dipped several times into the full beaker, and the
drop hanging from it thrown to the ground, the
Rabbi spattered the younger girls with red wine,
and there was loud complaint over destroyed ruf-
fles, and resounding laughter. This convulsive
levity on the part of her husband seemed constantly
stranger to Sarah, and she looked on with nameless
anxiety, as the guests, incited by Abraham, danced
back and forth, tasted the Passover bread, sipped
the wine, and sang aloud.
At length came the time of the evening meal, and
all prepared to wash themselves. The wife brought
the great silver laver, adorned with figures of beaten
gold, and held it before each guest, who poured
water over his hands. While she was performing
this service, her husband made a significant sign to
174 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
her, and during the preparations slipped unnoticed
from the room. As she followed him immediately,
he seized her hand with a hasty clutch, drew her
quickly forth through the dark lanes of the town,
and passed at length out of the gate to the high-
road along the Rhine. It was one of those quiet
nights of spring which, indeed, is mild and bright,
but fills the soul with a strange thrill. The flowers
exhaled an oppressive odor, the birds filled the air
with a kind of anxious twitter, the moon threw white
streaks of light uncannily over the dark, murmuring
stream. The lofty cliffs of the bank seemed like
heads of giants threateningly nodding ; the watch-
man on the tower of a lonely castle opposite blew
from his bugle a melancholy note, and now sounded
forth the death-bell from the abbey of St. Werner,
quickly pealing. The wife still carried in her right
hand the silver basin, while Abraham kept fast his
clutch upon her left wrist. She felt that his fingers
were icy cold and that his arm trembled, but she
followed in silence, foreboding she knew not what,
while the sights and sounds of the night seemed to
her, in her mood, pervaded with such strange terror.
Reaching at length a rock which overhung the river-
shore, the Rabbi mounted with his wife, looked
warily in all directions, then stared upward at the
stars. The moon illuminated his pale face in a
ghastly way, showing a mingled expression of pain,
fear, and devotion. As he suddenly snatched the
laver from her hand and flung it down into the river
she could no longer bear it, but throwing herself at
his feet, begged him to reveal the mystery. The
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 1 75
lips of Abraham moved, but at first no sound came
forth. At length he stammered : " Do you see the
angel of death there hovering over Woistes ? We,
however, have escaped his sword, praised be the
Lord ! " With voice still trembling with horror he
then related, his spirit growing calmer gradually as it
found utterance, how, while in pleasant frame he
sat chanting from the Talmud, he had happened to
look under the table, and had beheld there at his feet
the bloody corpse of a child. " Then I saw," he went
on, " that the two tall strangers were not of the
congregation of Israel, but of the assembly of the
godless, who had taken council to accuse us of
child-murder, and afterwards excite the people to
plunder and slay us. I dared not let it be seen that
I had discovered the work of darkness. I should
have hastened our destruction by doing so, and only
cunning and promptness have saved us. Be not
anxious, Sarah. Our friends and kindred will be
saved. The ruthless men coveted my death alone.
Since I have escaped them, they will satisfy them
selves with our silver and gold. Let us depart to
another land, leaving misfortune behind us ; and in
order that misfortune may not pursue us, I have
thrown away in atonement the last of our posses-
sions, the basin of silver. The God of our fathers
will not abandon us. Come down, thou art tired.
Wilhelm, the dumb boy, waits with his boat there at
the shore ; he will carry us down the Rhine."
Speechless and as if with broken limbs, the beauti-
ful Sarah had sunk away into the arms of Abraham,
who bore her slowly down toward the shore. There
176 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Stood Wilhclm, who, the support of his old mother,
the Rabbi's neighbor, followed the calling of a fisher-
man, and had here fastened his boat. He seemed to
have already guessed the intention of the Rabbi, and
to be waiting for him. About his closed lips played an
expression of gentle pity, his great blue eyes, full of
feeling, rested upon the fainting woman, whom he
carried tenderly to the little boat. The look of the
dumb boy aroused her from her stupefaction. She
felt suddenly that all which her husband had told her
was no mere dream, and streams of bitter tears
poured down her cheeks, which were now as white
as her robe. There she sat in the middle of the boat,
a weeping form of marble, — by her side her husband
and Wilhelm, who plied the oars vigorously.
Whether it is the monotonous stroke of the oars,
or the rocking of the craft, or the fragrance of those
mountainous shores, upon which grow the clusters
that inspire man with joy, it always happens that the
most afflicted man is strangely calmed, when on a
spring night, in a light skiff, he sails upon the beauti-
ful Rhine. Old good-hearted father Rhine cannot
bear, indeed, to have his children weep. He rocks
them in his faithful arms, stilling their sobbing, re-
lates to them his finest tales, promises them his
richest treasures, perhaps the hoard of the Nibelun-
gen, sunk so long ago. Sarah's tears flowed at last
less passionately. The whispering waves charmed
away her sorrows, the night lost its gloom, and the
mountains about her home wished her, as it were, a
tender farewell. As she mused, at length it seemed
to her as if she, a child, were once more seated upon
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 1 7/
the little stool before her father's velvet chair, who
stroked her long hair, laughed at her pleasantly, and
rocked back and forth in his ample Sabbath dressing-
gown of blue silk. It must have been the Sabbath,
for the flower-embroidered covering was laid on the
table. All the utensils in the room shone brightly
polished, the white-bearded servant of the congrega-
tion sat at her father's side and talked Hebrew.
Abraham too came in, as in his boyhood, bearing a
great book, and wished to expound a passage of Holy
Writ in order that his uncle might be convinced that
he had learned much the past week. The little fel-
low laid the book on the arm of the broad chair, and
gave the story of Jacob and Rachel, how Jacob had
lifted up his voice and wept aloud, when he first be-
held his cousin Rachel, how he had spoken to her
intimately at the well, how he had been obliged to
serve for Rachel seven years, how quickly they had
passed, and how he had married Rachel and had
loved her forever. Sarah remembered that her
father suddenly cried out in merry tones : " Wilt
thou not marry just so ? " Whereupon the little
Abraham answered earnestly : " That will I, and she
shall wait seven years."
As the figures passed vaguely through the fancy
of the fugitive, they became strangely confused.
The Rhine seemed at length to murmur the monoto-
nous melodies of the Talmud, and the pictures she
had known in her childhood appeared to rise large
as life, and distorted. Old Abraham dashed in
pieces the forms of the idols, which grew quickly
together again ; Mt. Sinai lightened and flamed ;
178 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Kinj^ Pharaoh swam in tlic Red Sea, holding fast in
his teeth his crown of gold with its points ; frogs
with human countenances swam behind, the waves
foamed and roared, and a dark, gigantic hand was
thrust threateningly forth. Coming to herself for a
moment, Sarah looked up to the mountains of the
shore, upon whose summits the lights of the castles
flickered and at whose foot the moonlit mist was
spread. Suddenly she seemed to see there her
friends and kindred, hurrying along the Rhine full
of terror, with corpse-like faces and white, waving
shrouds. A blackness passed before her eyes, a
stream of ice was poured into her soul, and vaguely
into her half swoon came the voice of the Rabbi,
saying his evening prayer slowly and anxiously, as
by the bedside of people sick unto death. But
suddenly the gloomy curtain was draw^n away.
Above the Hebrew woman appeared the holy city
of Jerusalemi with its towers and gates. The Temple
shone in golden splendor ; in its court she beheld
her father, in his Sabbath attire, and with joyful
countenance. From the windows her friends and
kindred treated her joyfully ; in the Holy of Holies
knelt pious King David, with purple mantle and
sparkling crown, sending forth afar the music of
psalm and harp. Peacefully smiling at length, as if
comforted by the vision, she slept.
When she opened her eyes again upon the world,
she was almost blinded by the bright beams of the
morning sun. The lofty towers of a great city rose
close at hand, and Wilhelm, standing upright with
his boat-hook, guided the boat through a thick press
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 1 79
of gay-pennoned craft. " This is Niegesehcnburg,"
said Abraham. " There you see the great bridge,
with its thirteen arches, and in the midst the little
cabin, where, they say, dwells a certain baptized
Jew. He acts for the Israelite congregation, and
pays to whomsoever shall bring him a dead rat six
farthings ; for the Jews must deliver yearly to the
city council five thousand rat-tails." Presently they
landed, and the Rabbi conducted his wife through
the great crowd on the bank, where now, because it
was Easter, a crowd of wooden booths had been
built.
What a various throng ! For the most part they
were trades-people, bargaining with one another
aloud, or talking to themselves while they reckoned
on their fingers ; often heavy-laden porters ran be-
hind them in a dog-trot to carry their purchases to
their warehouses. Other faces gave evidence that
only curiosity had attracted them. The stout city
councillor could be recognized by his red cloak and
golden neck-chain ; the iron-spiked helmet, the yel-
low leather doublet, and the clinking spurs announced
the man-at-arms. Under the black-velvet cap, which
came together in a point on the forehead, a rosy
girl's face was concealed, and the young fellows who
followed her appeared like fops, with their plumed
caps, their peaked shoes, and their silken parti-col-
ored dress. In this the right side was green, and
the left side red ; or on one side streaked rainbow-like,
the other checkered, so that the foolish fellows
looked as if they were split in the middle. Drawn
on by the crowd, the Rabbi, with his wife, reached
l80 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the great market-place of the town, surrounded by
high-gabled houses, chief among them the great
Rath-haus. In this building the emperors of Ger-
many had been sometimes entertained, and knightly
sports were often held before it. King Maximilian,
who loved such things passionately, was then present
in the city, and the day before, in his honor, a great
tournament had taken place before the Rath-haus.
About the lists which the carpenters were now
taking away many idlers were standing, telling one
another how yesterday the Duke of Brunswick and
the Margrave of Brandenburg had charged against
each other amid the sound of trumpets and drums;
and how Sir Walter had thrust the Knight of the
Bear so violently out of the saddle that the splinters
of his lance flew into the air, the tall, fair King
Max standing meanwhile among his courtiers on the
balcony, and rubbing his hands with joy. The cov-
ering of golden material still lay upon the balcony
and in the arched windows of the Rath-haus; the
rest of the houses of the market-place were still in
festal dress.
What a crowd of every station and age were
assembled here ! People laughed, rejoiced, played
practical jokes. Sometimes the trumpet of the
mountebank pealed sharply, who, in a red cloak,
with his clown and ape, stood on a lofty scaffold,
proclaimed aloud his own skill, and praised his mi-
raculous tinctures and salves. Two fencing-masters,
swinging their rapiers, with ribbons fluttering, met
here as if by chance, and thrust at one another in
apparent anger ; after a long battle, each declared
THE BLOODY HAND IJV GERMANY. 161
the other invincible, and collected a few pennies.
With drum and fife, the newly-constituted guilds of
archers marched past. The sound was at last lost,
and the long-drawn chanting of an approaching
procession was heard. It was a solemn train of
tonsured and bare-footed monks, carrying burning
tapers, banners with images of the saints, or great
silver crucifixes. At their head went acolytes in
robes of red and white, with smoking censers; in the
midst, under a beautiful canopy, priests were seen
in white robes of costly lace, or in stoles of variegated
silk, one of whom bore in his hand a golden vessel,
shaped like the sun, which he held on high before
the shrine of a saint in the market-place, while he
half shouted and half sang Latin words. At the
same time a little bell sounded, and all the people
fell upon their knees and crossed themselves.
The Rabbi drew his wife away by a narrow
lane, then through a labyrinth of contracted, crooked
streets, to the Jewish quarter. This was provided
with strong walls, with chains of iron before the
gates, to bar them against the pressure of the rabble.
Here the Jews lived, oppressed and anxious in the
recollection of previous calamity. When the Flagel-
lants, in passing through, had set the city on fire,
and accused the Jews of doing it, many of the latter
had been murdered by the frenzied populace, or
found death in the flames of their own houses.
Since then the Jews had often been threatened
with similar destruction, and in the internal dis-
sensions of the city, the Christian rabble had always
stood ready to storm the Jewish quarter. The great
1 82 THE STOKY OF THE JEWS.
wall which enclosed it had two gates, which on
Catholic holidciys were closed from the outside, and
on Jewish holidays from within.
The keys rattled, the gate opened with a jar, as
the Rabbi and his wife stepped into the Judengasse,
which was quite empty of people. " Don't be sur-
prised," said the Jewish gatekeeper, " that the street
is so quiet. An our people are now in the syna-
gogue, and you come just at the right time to hear
the story read of the sacrifice of Isaac." The pair
wandered slowly through the long, empty street,
and approached at length the synagogue. Even
at a distance they heard the loud confusion of voices.
In the court the Rabbi separated from his wife, and
after he had washed his hands at the spring which
flowed there, he stepped into the lower part of the
synagogue, where the men pray. Sarah, on the other
hand, ascended the staircase, and reached the place
of the women above. This was a gallery, with three
rows of wooden scats, dull red in color, whose rail
was provided above with a hanging shelf, which
could be propped up for the support of the prayer-
book. Here women were sitting, talking, or stand-
ing erect as they earnestly prayed. Often they ap-
proached with curiosity the great lattice in the East,
through whose green slats they could look down into
the lower part of the synagogue. There, behind tall
prayer desks, stood the men in their black cloaks,
their pointed beards falling over their white collars,
and their heads more or less veiled by a square cloth
of white wool or silk, and now and then decorated
with irolden tassels.
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 1 83
The walls of the synagogue were whitened uni-
formly, and no other adornment could be seen than
the gilded iron lattice about the square platform
where the passages from the Law were read, and
the sacred shrine. This was a chest handsomely
wrought, apparently borne on marble columns with
luxuriant capitals, whose flowers and foliage were
beautifully entwined. On the velvet curtain which
covered it a pious inscription was embroidered with
gold, pearls, and many-colored stones. Here hung
the silver memorial lamp, near a raised stage with a
lattice, on whose rail were various sacred vessels,
among others the seven-branched candlestick. Be-
fore this, his countenance toward the shrine, stood
the precentor, whose chant was accompanied by the
voice of his two assistants, a bass and a treble singer.
The Jews have banished from their worship all in-
strumental music, thinking that the praise of God
ascends more edifyingly out of the warm human
breast than out of cold organ pipes. Sarah took a
child-like pleasure, when now the precentor, an ex-
cellent tenor, raised his voice, and the ancient, solemn
melodies which she knew so well rang out with a
beauty such as she had never imagined. While the
bass in contrast poured forth his deep, heavy tones,
in the intervals the soprano trilled with delicate
sweetness.
Sarah had never heard such music in the syna-
gogue of Woistes. A pious pleasure, mingled with
feminine curiosity, drew her to the lattice, where
she could look down into the lower compartment.
She had never as yet seen so large a number of
1 84 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
fellow believers as she beheld there below, and her
heart was cheered in the midst of so many people
so nearly allied to her through common descent,
belief, and suffering. But the woman's soul was
still more moved when three old men reverently
approached the sacred shrine, pushed the curtain to
one side, opened the chest, and carefully took out
that book which God had written with his own
sacred hand, and for whose preservation the Jews
had suffered so much misery and hate, insult and
death, a martyrdom of a thousand years.
This book, a great roll of parchment, was wrapped,
like a prince's child, in a richly embroidered mantle
of velvet, and wound about a pin set off with bells
and pomegranates. The precentor took the book,
and as if it were a real child, a child for whom great
pangs had been endured, and whom on that account
one loves all the more, he rocked it in his arms
pressed it to his breast, and as if thrilled by such
contact, raised his voice in joyful thanksgiving. It
seemed to the woman as if the columns of the holy
shrine must begin to bloom, and the wonderful
flowers of the capitals grow constantly higher. At
the same time, the tones of the more delicate voice
became like those of a nightingale, while the vaulted
ceiling of the synagogue threw back the powerful
notes of the bass.
It was a beautiful psalm. The congregation re-
peated the concluding verse in chorus. To the
elevated platform in the midst of the synagogue
strode slowly the precentor, with the sacred book,
while men and boys hastily pressed forward to kiss.
THE BLOODY HAND IN GERMANY. 1 85
or, indeed, only to touch the velvet covering. The
wrapping at last was drawn off from the sacred book ;
also the swathings in which it was enveloped, writ-
ten over with variegated letters, and out of the
opened parchment roll, in that intonation, which at
the Passover is strangely modulated, was re^d the
edifying tale of the temptation of Abraham. At
last a prayer of especial solemnity was intoned,
which no one is permitted to neglect. It was per-
formed while the congregation stood with faces
turned toward the East, where lies Jerusalem.
It is customary in the synagogue for any one who
has escaped great danger to step publicly forward
after the reading of the Law, and thank God for his
salvation. When now Rabbi Abraham arose in the
synagogue for such a thanksgiving, and Sarah recog-
nized the voice of her husband, she noticed that his
tone gradually dropped into the solemn murmur of
the prayer for the dead. She heard the names of
her familiar friends, and the conviction took posses-
sion of her that their kindred and loved ones at
Woistes had not, after all, escaped the sword. She
felt that some dread tidings must have reached
Abraham, and hope vanished from her soul.
But now from without the walls resounded a heavy
tumult. While the congregation had been gathered
in the synagogue, a friar proceeding through the
streets, carrying in a monstrance the Host to a dying
man, had come upon a group of Jewish boys, throw-
ing sand at one another in sport. Gravel-stones had
hit the robes of the monk, and those that followed
him had become so enraged that they pursued and
1 86 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
maltreated the boys. The parents of the children
had interfered to free them from the excessive pun-
ishment, upon which the friar had run to the market-
place, and cried with a loud voice that the Host, and
his own office, as priest, had been desecrated by
Jews. The rabble had attacked the Hebrew quarter,
and the ominous sounds, at first not understood, that
were heard within the synagogue, were the tumult of
their frenzied onset. The Hebrews were overpow-
ered wherever they could be seized — as they rushed
from their houses, or made their way from the tem-
ple,. — and given the alternative of death or baptism.
The persecuted were, with few exceptions, steadfast,
and destruction fell upon them. In their despera-
tion they laid hands upon themselves. Fathers slew
first their families, then took their own lives. The
details are too dreadful to be dwelt upon. Rabbi
Abraham and Sarah had escaped death the night
before, only to find it now in a form not less terrible.
The synagogue was burned, and the holy Law torn
and trampled under foot. Thousands perished that
day and the night following, only here and there a
fugitive escaping.
As the tidings spread in Germany, the venerable
Rabbi whose authority had become greatest among
his people, counselled them as follows: " I have been
told of the sufferings which have befallen our breth-
ren — of the tyrannical laws, the compulsory bap-
tisms, the exiles, and now at length of the massacres.
There is woe within, and woe without. I hear an
insolent people raise its raging voice over the faith-
ful ; I see it swing its hand against them. The
i88
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
priests and the monks rise against them and say:
' We will persecute them to extermination ; the
name of Israel shall no longer be named.' How the
holy German brotherhood is handled ! We are
driven from place to place. We are smitten with
the sharp sword, flung into flaming fire, into raging
floods, or poisonous swamps. Brethren and friends !
I cry to you that the land of the Turks is a land
where nothing is wanting. If you consent to go
thither, it may still be well with you. You can
safely proceed thence to the promised land. Israel,
why dost thou sleep ! Up, and depart from this
accursed soil ! " The Hebrews obeyed in multi-
tudes. They sought the far East, and found in the
dominions of the Sultan a sway which, as contrasted
with that of the sovereigns of Christendom, was
merciful, even benignant.
What wonder that those who found their way
back to Jerusalem established among the fragments
of the ancient glory of their fathers, a wailing-place !
CHAPTER XII.
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE IN ENGLAND, ITALY,
AND FRANCE.
The reader will have had a surfeit of tragedy in
the details that have been given of Hebrew tribula-
tions in Spain and Germany, but whoso tells the
story faithfully must give yet more. The treatment
accorded the Jews by Englishmen was no kinder,
though the persecution was less colossal, from the
fact that the number of victims was smaller. The
Israelites probably came to Britain in the Roman
day, antedating, therefore, in their occupation, the
Saxon conquerors, by two or three centuries, and
the Normans by perhaps a thousand years. With
the beginnings of English history their presence can
be traced, the inevitable proscription appearing as
far back as the time of the Heptarchy. Saxon
strove with Briton, and Dane with Saxon, and all
alike were at enmity with the Jew. Canute banished
them to the Continent, where they took refuge in
Normandy, and were well received. With the
conquering William they returned to England, and
for a time were protected by a kindly policy. Wil-
liam Rufus, in particular, showed them indulgence.
He appointed a public debate in London between
icp THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
rabbis and bishops, and swore by the face of St.
Luke that if the churchmen were defeated, he would
turn Jew himself. This favor, however, was tran-
sient ; the Hebrews soon found themselves again
under the harrow, their suffering culminating at the
accession of Richard CcEur de Lion, in 1 189.
The imprudent Israelites, over-anxious to win the
favor of the new reign, thronged to the coronation
in rich attire, and bearing costly gifts. The crusad-
ing spirit was rife ; the presence of such infidel sor-
cerers at the ceremony was held to be of evil omen.
An attempt was made to exclude them from West-
minster Abbey, which many evaded, and the bold-
ness of the intruders cost the Jews dear throughout
the entire kingdom. Not a Hebrew household in
London escaped robbery and murder, and outrage
proceeding through the land wreaked enormities in
the provinces that exceeded those of the capital.
The preaching friars, omnipresent, taught that the
rescue of the Holy Sepulchre could well begin with
a harrying of infidels at home ; and at York, at last,
occurred a tragedy which only in Israelite history
can find a parallel.
The great body of the Jews sought refuge in the
castle, whence they defied the fanatics. The people,
fired by the exhortations of the monks, who prom-
ised salvation to such as should shed the blood of an
unbeliever, and who themselves, cross in hand, in
their cowls, led the attacks, soon made it plain
that resistance was hopeless. As in tlie old days of
the Maccabees, a priest was at the head of the Jews.
The chief rabbi of York, a man of great learning and
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. I9I
virtue, thus addressed them : " Men of Israel, this
day the God of our fathers commands us to die for
his Law — the Law which the people have cherished
from the first hour it was given, which we have pre-
served through our captivity in all nations, and for
which can we do less than die ? Death is before our
eyes ; let us escape the tortures of the Christians, who
prowl about us like wolves athirst for our blood, by
surrendering, as our fathers have done before us, our
lives with our own hands to our Creator. God seems
to call for us ; let us not be unworthy !
The old man wept as he spoke, but the people
said he had uttered words of wisdom. As the coun-
cil closed, night descended, and while the besiegers
watched upon their arms, lo, within the stronghold
flared the blaze of a furious conflagration. In the
morning an entrance was easily forced, for the walls
were no longer defended. The fathers had slain
with the sword their wives and children, then fallen
by the hands of one another, the less distinguished
yielding up their lives to the elders. These in turn
had fallen by the hand of the chief rabbi. He at
last stood alone ; upon the congregation about him,
man and maid, child and graybeard, had descended
the everlasting silence. The flames that had been
kindled devoured not only the possessions, but con-
sumed the people like the sacrifice upon an altar. A
final stroke and the old man lay with his fellows,
leaving to the persecutors an ash-heap which en-
tombed five hundred skeletons.
For a century longer a remnani of tlie Israelites
maintained tliemselves in England ; but Edward I.,
1 9- THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the " English Justinian," though in so many ways a
great and good i)rincc, drove them forth, 16,500 in
number, and from that time {ox nearly four cen-
turies, there is no evidence that British soil felt a
Hebrew footprint. At length sat in the place of
power a man mightier than Plantagenet or Tudor or
Stuart, — Cromwell, the plain squire, lifted to the
rulership by the uprisen people. With him pleaded
for tolerance Menasseh ben Israel, a Hebrew of the
synagogue of Amsterdam, wise and gentle, and the
pleading was not in vain. The heart of the ruler
was softened, the gates of the land swung open to
admit the descendants of the banished. At first it
was the barest sufferance, limited by every kind of
disability; but the chain has fallen from the linibs.
of the children of those men. Just as this record is
completed, a son of Jacob is made a peer of the
realm.
Near one of the arches of London Ijridge, the
" bridge of sighs," beneath which the sullen current
pours so gloomily seaward, there is a spot in the river
where at a certain stage of the tide the waters whirl
in a strange, uncanny agitation. There, says tradi-
tion, in far off, terrible days, a company of Jews were
thrown in and drowned. Men once believed, and it
is said there are men who still believe, that the mys-
terious, uneasy l)ubbling and rush of the flood dates
from the day when it coldly stifled the death-cries of
those perishing victims. It is as if that stream of
tragedy, which has helped and hidden so much of
ghastly crime, liad somewhere a conscience of its
own, and, remorseful through the ages for having
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. 1 93
been the accomplice in wickedness so terrible, be-
trayed its secret trouble even to the present hour.
In Italy, the hardships which the Jews were forced
to suffer were somewhat less terrible than elsewhere.
The land had no political unity : the great trading
republics, Venice, Florence, Genoa, dominated the
northern portion ; the power of the Church held the
centre ; the influence of Spain made itself balefully
felt in Sicily and at the south. There was no har-
monious policy in the great peninsula, thus disin-
tegrated. Each little state was, as regardeed the
Hebrews, sometimes oppressive, sometimes favorable;
when in any city or district the skies grew dark for
them, the Jews could often find more easily in the
principalities than in the great kingdoms a convenient
refuge. In the commercial states no prejudice, of
course, was felt toward the Israelites from the fact that
they were traders and money-lenders. What else were
Venetian, Florentine, Lombard, and Cahorsin ?* They
were the Jew's rivals, not his contemners, and there
is good reason for thinking that these Christian usurers
were harsher and more extortionate than the sons of
Jacob, whose calling they had appropriated. Tiie
attitude of the mercantile cities toward the Hebrews
was generally that of surly tolerance, that brought,
however, .no exemption from insult, or indeed,
bodily ill-treatment, if caprice -turned that way.
In Rome, the fate of the Jews hung upon the per-
sonal character of the Popes, who sometimes bravel)'
* Moncy-leiulers who probably cnme from Piedmont. See I>ep-
ping. 175-
194 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
and humanely protected them ; sometimes threw
over them a shield from the selfish advantage they
might reap from their presence ; sometimes drove
against them with fagot and sword as bitter persecu-
tors. A little company of Hebrews had dwelt in
Rome even from ante-Christian da}'s, suffered to re-
main, it has been said,* as a monumental symbol,
presenting the Old-Testament root of Christianity.
Unmixed with Romans or barbarians, they had trans-
mitted their blood. The community had seen the
ancient Roman republic, after Brutus and Cassius
had fallen at Philippi, tumble about them into dust ;
the immeasurable marble city of the imperial time
had held them in its circuit ; when the maces of the
Goths had dashed this into ruins they lived on in
the desolation. More indestructible than a column
of brass, the little troop survived the fearful Neme-
sis of the ages. In the days of papal splendor they
prayed — yes, in our own day they pray — to the God
of Abraham and Moses in the same lanes, on the
bank of the Tiber, in which their fathers dwelt in
the times of Consul and Caesar.
Whenever, in mediaeval times, a pope was conse-
crated, the Hebrew congregation were among the
attendants, standing with slavish gestures, full of fear
or timid hope, while the chief rabbi at their head
carried on his shoulder the mysterious veiled roll of
the holy Law. They were accustomed to read their
fate in the gloomy or genial countenance of the new
pope. Was it to be toleration or oppression ? While
* Ciiidemann : " Die Judcn in Italinn wiilireiul des MiUelalters,"
P- 73-
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. 1 95
tlic rabbi handed the vicar of Christ the scroll for
confirmation, their eyes scanned keenly the face that
turned toward him. As the scroll was handed back,
this was the formula which the pope was accustomed
to utter : " We recognize the Law, but we condemn
the view of Judaism ; for the Law is fulfilled through
Christ, whom the blind people of Judah still expect
as the Messiah." Sometimes shielded, sometimes
hounded, they drove their bargains, exercised many
a profession, — in particular, as physicians, attended
peasant and prince, monk and nun, even the popes
themselves; but for them, as they went and came,
the frown was never far from the Christian's brow,
or the curse from his lip.
In Southern Italy the Jews had an especial note as
artisans. They were the principal dyers, raisers and
manufacturers of silk, blacksmiths, locksmiths, silver-
smiths. Ferdinand the Catholic forbade them to
carry on noisy labors upon Christian holidays. They
were also builders and miners. When the mournful
banishment of the Jews from the dominions of Spain
came about, the story of which has been related,
Sicily, as a country subject to Ferdinand, suffered
with the rest. The foremost magistrates and officials
of the island, however, interposed a protest, an elo-
quent testimony to the character of the exiles, a few
words of which it will be well to quote :
" A difficulty arises from the circumstance that in
this land almost all the handicraftsmen are Jews.
If, then, all depart at once, there will be a want of
workmen for the Christians — especially of workmen
able to carry on the iron industry, — the shoeing of
196 THE STORY OF TJ//i JEWS.
horses, the nuuuil"acti.ii'in<^ of fanninLj-tools, the niak-
iiiL; of vehicles, of ships aiul galleys." The LU)cuinent
continues in the same strain, illustrating convincingly,
as a Jewish scholar urges, how the Hebrews have la-
bored with eagerness wherever narrow-minded guilds
and a spirit of envy did not forbid them to do so. If
we may trust Sicilian testimon\-, relations of unusual
friendliness existed between the island population
and the Israelites thus suddenly banished. " It was
an entire race which went into banishment. An-
other race with which it had lived for centuries, stood
dumb, astonished, weeping, upon the city walls, the
galleries, and roofs of the neighboring buildings, to
give and receive a last greeting. The Jews aban-
doned Sicily — the land which had beheld so many
successive generations of their forefathers, holding
their ashes in its bosom. The despot who thus pun-
ished and drove forth the innocent, could not meas-
ure the infinite bitterness of such a separation. The
catastrophe of 1492 remains indelibly inscribed among
the saddest memories which the rule of Spain has left
in this island." *
It is worth while to dwell for a moment upon the
spectacle of this compassionate Christian multitude,
gathered there upon the shore of the summer sea,
weeping as they watched in the distance the depart-
ing sails of the exiled Hebrews. Rarely indeed did
the dark world of those times afford such a scene.
In a night of tempest the clouds will sometimes
divide for a moment and suffer to fall a gentle beam
* La Lumia: " The Sicilian Ilelircws," quoted by Gudemann.
p. 291.
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. I97
of moonlight.. For the Jews it was everywhere
storm and thick darkness — and how seldom came
any parting of those wrath-charged shadows !
For some time after the Jews of England and Ger-
many had found themselves oppressed, the situation
of their brethren in France, was an enviable one.
They were spread abroad even among the villages —
on the farms, and in the vineyards, as well as in the
towns, devoting themselves to agriculture, to medi-
cine, to the mechanic arts, to study ; traders and
moneychangers, however, they were for the most
part. The skies were usually favorable, a fitful hail of
persecution beating upon them only now and then ;
not until the accession of Philip Augustus, in 11 80,
did prince and populace, the upper and the nether
millstone, begin their pitiless grinding. For a time
it was less the fanatical hatred of the people, than
the avarice of the king and lords, that bore hard.
The treasures of the Hebrews were wrung from them
in all cruel ways; where torture was unavailing,
massacre was brought to bear, and at last a plun-
dered remnant were cast as off-scourings beyond the
frontiers. The term of exile was short. The re-
jected crept once more to their homes, to find they
were henceforth to be held as the serfs of the king —
themselves and their havings utterly subject to his
disposal. The blessed St. Louis,* whom history and
legend have so exalted, could sell his Jews like a
troop of cattle, while he did so tearing from them,
as a work of blasi)hemy, the beloved book, which in
* Rciimch : " Histoirc des Juifs," p. 160.
198 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the midst of sufferings was their supreme consola-
tion, the safeguard of tlieir morahty, and the bond
of their religious unity — the Talmud. St. Louis
burned the books of the Jews; Philip the Fair
burned the Jews themselves. In 1306, on the mor-
row of the fast commemorating the destruction of
Jerusalem, all the Jews of France, men, women, and
children, to the number of 100,000, stripped of every
possession for the benefit of the royal treasury, were
cast naked out of the land. As in the case of the
proscription of Philip Augustus, this, too, did not
endure. The kingdom languished for want of th<.Mn,
and in ten years such as survived were recalled.
They were scarcely re-established when there was a
new experience of steel and fire ; the " Pastoureaux,"
bands of fanatical shepherds and malefactors, swept
them away by thousands. Soon the " Black Pest "
was upon the land ; the Israelites protected in a
measure by observing the hygienic prescriptions of
their law, felt the sickness somewhat less; that the
pestilence spared them caused them to be suspected ;
the spear, the caldron, and the devouring flame were
again at work until victims failed and exhaustion fell
upon the persecutors. The cold extortions of heart-
less princes, enforced by dungeons and the rack —
the anathemas of bishop and monk — the whirling
cyclones of popular fury — how among them all could
a single one be saved ! From these times a tragic
Hebrew lay has been handed down to us, which
affords a glimpse into the souls of those who thus
suffered. It describes the immolation upon the
funeral pile of a rabbi and his family, — a chant char-
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. 1 99
actcristically Jewish, pathetic, tenderly affectionate,
but bitterly scornful to the last, and audacious in
its imprecations. A few passages from this follow * :
" Israel is in mourning, bewailing its brave mar-
tyred saints. Thou, O God, dost behold our flowing
tears. Without thy help we perish !
" O Sage, who day and night grew pale over the
Bible, for the Bible you have died.
" When his noble wife saw the flames burst forth,
'My love calls me,' she cried. 'As he died, I
would die.' His youngest child trembled and wept.
'Courage!' said the elder. 'In this hour Paradise
will open.' And the rabbi's daughter, the gentle
maid! 'Abjure your creed,' they cry. 'A faith-
ful knight stands here who dies for love of thee.'
' Death by fire rather than renounce my God ! it is
God whom I desire for my spouse.'
"'Choose,' said the priest, 'the cross or the tor-
ture '; but the rabbi said : ' Priest, I owe my body to
God, who now requires it,' and tranquilly he mounts
the pile.
"Together in the midst of the unchained flames,
like cheerful' friends at a festival, they raise high and
clear the hymn of deliverance, and their feet would
move in dances were they not bound in fetters.
" God of vengeance, chastise the impious !
Doth thy wralh sleep ?
What are the crimes which I am forced to expiate under the torch of
these felons ?
Answer, O Lord, for long have we suffered ; answer, for we count
the hours ! "
* Reinach, 163.
20O THE S TOR Y OF THE JE \VS.
Wc need look no further in that kiritl niedi;tval
world. The Hebrew story is everywhere the same
substantially — a constant moan as it were, with vari-
ations indeed, but seldom a note in which we miss the
quality of agony. In their best estate, the Jews were
but chattels of the sovereign, who sometimes fol-
lowed his interest in protecting them. The king
kept his Jews as the farmer keeps his bees, creatures
whose power for mischief is to be feared, but toler-
ated for their marvellous faculty of storing up some-
thing held to be of value. As the price of his pro-
tection, the prince helped himself from the Jew's
hoard, sometimes leaving the Jew enough for a live-
lihood, — enough sometimes, indeed, to maintain a
rich state. If they increased, however, the potentate
did not scruple to sell them, as the farmer sells his
superfluous swarms ; and if fanaticism drove out in
the royal mind the sense of greed, as in the case of
Richard Coeur de Lion, St. Louis, and Isabella, the
Jew had no defence against a world in arms before
him. If sickness prevailed, it was because the Jews
had poisoned the wells; if a Christian child were
lost, it had been crucified at a Jewish ceremony; if
a church sacristan was careless, it was the Jews who
had stolen the Host from the altar, to stab it with
knives at the time of the Passover. In many periods
in almost all lands, whoever sinned or suffered, the
Jew was accused, and the occasion straightway made
use of for attacks in which hundreds or thousands
might perish. The wild cry of the rabble, "Hep!
hep ! " said to be derived from the Latin formula,
'' Hicrosolynia est pcrdita^' might break out at any
THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. 20I
time. The Jew was made conspicuous, sometimes
by a badt^e in the shape of a wheel, red, yellow, or
parti-colored, fixed upon the breast. In some lands
the mark was square and placed upon the shoulder
or hat. At Avignon the sign was a pointed yellow
cap ; at Prague, a sleeve of the same color ; in Italy
and Germany, a horn-shaped head-dress, red or green.
This distinguishing mark or dress the Jew was forced
to wear, and when the " Hep, Hep ! " was heard,
he might well raise his hands in despair. He might
indeed flee to the Turk; but the tender mercies of
the Turk, tolerant as he was as compared with the
Christian, were often very cruel.
As time advanced, the spirit of early Protestantism
was often no milder toward them than that of the
old faith, though it may have refrained from fagots
and the rack. Men wise before their age have not
been able to rise to the height of charity for the
Jew.
Said Luther: "Know, dear Christian, and doubt
it not, that next to the Devil himself, thou hast no
more bitter, poisonous, violent enemy than a Jew,
who is set upon being a Jew," — a judgment of the
great reformer perhaps not far wrong, for the Jew is,
indeed, the best of haters. Luther's means, however,
for opposing Plebrcw enmity was not the law of kind-
ness, but to set against it a more energetic enmity.
In a similar spirit, tlie great Puritan body, which in
Cromwell's day lifted England into glory, through
their representative men, the ministers, set their
faces steadily against all tolerance of the Jew ; and
it should be c(n»«ted among the great Protector's
202
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
chief titles to a noble fame, that he bore down, with
all the weiy;ht of his tremendous personality, the
stubborn prejudice of his friends and upholders,
insisted that the decree of Edward I. should be
abrogated, and that the Israelite should once more
have a place in England.
Men standing quite aloof from Christianity, even
in times close to our own, have had regard scarcely
kinder. To Gibbon they stand as an obstinate and
sullen company who merit only his much-celebrated
sneer. Voltaire could speak of them as " an igno-
rant and barbarous people, who for a long time have
joined the foulest creed to the most frightful super-
stition, and most unconquerable hate against all who
endure and enrich them." Even Buckle can say
nothing kinder than to call them "that ignorant and
obstinate race."
CHAPTER XIII.
SHYLOCK — THE WANDERING JEW.
One cannot study this many-volumed record of
bloody outrage without feeling almost a sense of
satisfaction, when sometimes the writhing victim
turns and strikes a dagger into the persecutor who
crushes him so cruelly. The Jews have not been,
since the dispersion, a martial, combative race, but
their history shows in them abundant power to smite
when they have chosen to do so. When the Visi-
gothic king, Sisebut, opened for them the chapter of
persecution in the Spanish peninsula, they revenged
themselves by smoothing energetically the path of
the invading Moors. On Palm-Sunday at Toledo,
while the people went in procession to church out-
side the walls, the Jews secretly admitted the Sara-
cens into the city, joined their host, and fell upon
the Christians with the sword as they were returning
home.
One reads almost with pleasure of the conduct of
a Jew at Oxford, in 1272. The university was going
in procession to visit the shrine of St. I'rideswidc,
when an audacious figure started from the Jewish
quarter, wrested the cross from the hands of the
204 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
bearer, and, to the horror of the pious, trampled it,
with loud execrations, into the mire.
Amon<^ the portrayals of Shakespeare stands one
figure, — a figure which perhaps has affected us with
aversion, but which as wc view him with minds
thrilled by the story I have tried to make vivid, be-
holding him, as he towers from this mediaeval land-
scape, whose features are torture-chambers, massacre,
and the flame-encircled stake, is characterized not
only by fierce barbaric grandeur, but almost by a
certain sublime virtue, — the figure of Shylock.
Cast as our lot is in a humane age, as we go from
all our softened circumstances to sit for an evening
before the stage where the great magician reflects
for us a scene from one of those dreadful times of
blood and iron which we have left behind us, we
have, perhaps, felt the flesh fairly creep us that
arrogant hater, cringing so stealthil)', darting so tiger-
like, reaches with intense greed for the heart of the
Christian. "What news upon the Rialto ? " Ah,
what news might he have heard, indeed ! We are
told only in part how bad match came upon bad
match — the Goodwin sands breaking to pieces the
argosies of Antonio, — his treacherous daughter
squandering the stolen ducats, and bartering for
monkeys the relics of her dead mother. That was
all bad enough ; but there was other news, of which
the poet has told us nothing, which must have come
to those outcasts in the Italian trading-cities, cling-
ing, as it were, precariously to the gunwale, with
cruel clubs raised everywhere to beat off their hold,
in the midst of the raging sea of persecution and
SHY LOCK— THE WANDERING JEW. 205
death \\'hich tossed all around them. Tubal could-
have told him more from Genoa than of the heart-
lessness of Jessica — for instance, of a fleet of his coun-
trymen, driven from Spain, who arrived starving off
the harbor ; of their being allowed to land only upon
the bleak mole — men, women, and tender children,
beaten by the sea-wind, swept by the waves, so pale
and emaciated that if they had not moved a little
they would have passed for corpses ; there they were
allowed to lie with the dear land at hand, till hunger
and drowning brought the bitter end. This half-
crazed Jewess just arrived in a Lisbon caravel that
has brought a cargo to the Rialto — what tale has she
to tell ? That she was cast out of the city ; that
seven children were torn from her to be carried to
the Lost Islands — remote places to the West, on the
verge of the world, believed to be alive with serpents
and dragons ; that when she flung herself at the feet
of the king and begged that she might keep the young-
est — the babe at her breast, — the king spurned her,
and the babe's cries grew faint on her ear as rufifians
carried it away. This young man whose eyes can
scarcely meet the gaze of men, as if he were weighed
down by some unutterable humiliation, — what story
does Shylock hear from him ? " Under pain of being
burned at the stake, I was forced to go to the Domini-
cans of a distant city ; to ask that the bones of my
father, buried there, might be dug up and outraged, as
having died an infidel ; then bring back from them a
certificate, that at the request of me, the son, the
dead father had been insulted."
To some group of fugitives we may imagine
206 THE STORY OF TIJK JEWS.
Shylock cxclaimini,^ : " Aiul nou, i)oor wanderers of
our household, so bruised and maimed, whence
come }'e with your rac^s, ycuir broken bodies, your
hollow eyes ?" " We are from the four quarters of
Christendom, from the Elbe, the Seine, the Thames,
the Danube; from the duncjeons of nobles; from
galleys where vve were fettered to the oars until the
chains ate through the bone, and from the edge of
cauldrons of boiling oil. We poor remnant have
escaped. Ask not how many perished ! " In a
sordid i)ursuit the soul of the Venetian usurer has
become contaminated, but he is not without the
nobler affections. He loves his dead wife Leah, his
lost Jessica, — above all, his sacred nation, so cruelly
ground, — with passion fervid as the Syrian sun which
has given to his cb.eek its swarthy color. The
simoom of the desert is not so fierce as the hatred in
his strong heart, which he has been forced to
smother. He has read well the law of Moses: "An
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Amid the
humiliations of a lifetime he, for a moment, by
a strange chance, has a persecutor within his grasp.
As he crouches for an instant before tiie attack to
whet upon his shoe-sole that merciless blade, cannot
one see in the flash of his dark eye a light that is not
utterly devilish ! It is the lightning of revenge —
but then revenge may be a distorted justice.
Is there not something moving in this pcjrtraiture
of Shylock by his fellow Jew, Heinrich Heine?*
"When I saw the 'Merchant of Venice' given at
Drury Lane, there stood behind me a beautiful, pale
* Shakespeare's " Miidcheii uiid Fraucn."
SriYLOCK—l HE WANDERING JEW. 20/
English lady, who at the end of the fourth act wept
earnestly, and cried out several times : ' The poor
man is wronged. The poor man is wronged.' It
was a face of the noblest Grecian cast, and the eyes
were large and bl^ck. I have never been able to
forget them, those great black eyes which wept for
Shylock ! Truly, with the exception of Portia,
Shylock is the most respectable personage in the
whole play. The domestic affections appear in him
most touchingly.
Far more than all historic personalities does one
remember in Venice, Shakespeare's Shylock. If you
go over the Rialto, your eye seeks him everywhere,
and you think he must be concealed there behind
some pillar or other, with his Jewish gaberdine, with
his mistrustful, calculating face, and you think you
hear even his grating voice: "Three thousands ducats,
well!" — I, at least, wandering dreamer as I am,
looked everywhere on the Rialto trying whether I
could find Shylock. Seeing him nowhere, I deter-
mined to seek him in the synagogue. The Jews were
just celebrating here their holy day of reconciliation,
and stood, wrapped in their white robes, with uncan-
ny bowings of their heads, appearing almost like an
assembly of ghosts. But although I looked every-
where, I could not behold the countenance of Shy-
lock. And yet it seemed to me as if he stood con-
cealed there, behind one of those white robes, praying
more fervently than the rest of his fellow believers,
with tempestuous wildness even, at the throne of
Jehovah. I saw him not! But toward evening,
when, according to the belief of the Jews, the gates
208 THE SI DRY OF THE JEWS.
of heaven arc shut, and no prayer finds admission,
I heard a voice in wliich the tears were tricklint^ as
they were never we})! witli eyes. It was a sobbing
which might move a stone to pity; they were tones
of pain such as could come only from a breast that
held shut up within itself all the martyrdom which a
tortured race has endured for eighteen hundred
years. It was the panting of a soul which sinks
down, tired to death, before the gates of heaven.
And this voice seemed well known to me. I felt as
if I had heard it once, when it lamented in such
despair, " Jessica, my child."
The terrible tale of the Jews' humiliation is com-
pleted as far as I dare unfold it, and the effect of it
must be to leave the mind in a fit state to dwell
upon the pathetic legend of "The Wandering Jew."
Of all the old superstitions there is scarcely one so
sad and picturesque as that of the human being who
cannot die, but must sufTer on through the centuries,
until the day of judgment. The mediaeval chroni-
clers, from the thirteenth century downwards, report
with undoubting faith the appearances of the poor
fury-scourged pilgrim, and there are men in the
world to-day who think the story not impossible.
According to one version, Cartaphilus, gate-
keeper of the house of Pilate, as Jesus descended from
the judgment-hall, pushed the Saviour, bidding him
go quicker ; and Jesus looking back on him with a
severe countenance said to him : " I am going and
you shall wait till I return."
According to the more common tale, Ahasuerus, a
SIIYLOCK—THE WAAWERING JEW. 2O9
shoemaker, had done his best to compass the destruc-
tion of Jesus, beheving him to be a misleader of the
people. When Christ was condemned and about to
be dragged past the house of Ahasuerus on his way
to crucifixion, the shoemaker ran home and called
together his household tha^ they might have a look
at the one about to suffer. He stood in his door-
way when the troop ascended Calvary. As then
Christ was led by, bowed under the weight of the
heavy cross, he tried to rest a little and stood still a
moment ; but the shoemaker, in zeal and rage, and
for the sake of obtaining credit among the other
Jews, drove him forward and told him to hasten on
his way. Jesus, obeying, looked at him and said:
" 1 shall stand and rest, but thou shalt go till the last
day." At these words the man left his house and
went forward to behold the crucifixion. As soon as
it had taken place, it came upon him that he could
no more return to Jerusalem, nor see again his wife
and child, but must go forth into foreign lands one
after another, a mournful pilgrim.
So the broken, impenitent figure has been seen —
sometimes in the throngs of cities, sometimes in
deserts, sometimes in mountain solitudes, the trage-
dy of Calvary ever haunting him in rock, in forest,
in the clouds of heaven, passing ever onward with no
rest for the sole of his foot, every corner of the
earth again and again visited. Whenever a hundred
years have passed, his manhood is renewed for him,
so that he stands again at thirty, the age at which he
committed the sin whose expiation is so terrible.
The accounts are so detailed and circumstantial, we
2IO THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
are forced to believe that many a half-crazed man
has actually made himself and others believe that he
was the Wandering Jew, and that many an impostor,
seeking to affect men with the deepest awe, has
assumed the character. How striking and pictu-
resque are some of the developments of the concep-
tion ; for instance, where it becomes combined with
the myth of the god Odin, and appears as the Wild
Huntsman !
One of the most philosophic students of modern
times, Jacob Grimm, has taught the world that many
a fairy tale and many a peasant superstition are
nothing more or less than the remains of the great
legends of the old heathen religious faiths, softened
down, but still living in the souls of the people.
Grimm and his school would have us believe that the
phantoms of the mighty Norse gods still haunt the
modern generations of the Teutonic stock, refusing
to be exorcised from the popular mind. " leakier
the beautiful is dead, is dead," sings the Swedish
poet Tegner, after the old saga ; and in like manner
with Balder, we have beh'eved that Odin and Thor
and Freya were utterly gone, with the men that
paid them worship. These students would have us
believe that the ghosts of the gods, at any rate, re-
fuse to be laid. Sometimes in blithe and merry
guise they continue to appear in the souls of men
belonging to the great races whose forefathers wor-
shipped them ; sometimes the grim circumstance
that attended them in their former pre-eminence
is not laid aside. What wonderful grandeur in the
thought that these rouuh hands of the old tjods
THE WAN'nr.KlNr, TKW
2 12 THE STORY OF ■JIIK JEWS.
refuse to become decrepit throu<;h time, or beaten
off by culture! How they reach round the new
altars that have crowded out their own simple fanes,
because the all-conquering Jew has willed it should
be so ! How they cross the widest oceans to the
homes of the farthest wanderers, still haunting,
phantom-like, the hearts of men whose barbarian
sires held them dear !
The superstition of the Wild Huntsman, still
cherished by many a simple peasant soul, can be
thus traced back through the centuries to an origin
in the stormy faitli professed by the vikings. The
fierce rider who presses unsatisfied, attended by his
troop of deathless hounds, 'mid the roar of the
winter's blast, through the heavens torn with the
tempest, in pursuit of the stag that forever flies
before him, was really the god Odin. As we think
how the Wandering Jew has become connected with
this stormy Northern myth, it might seem as if the
old dispossessed chief of the Norse deities, wrathful
at the usurpation that had reared the new temples
in place of his own ancient fanes, had caught the
Jew into the heavens in a spirit of weird revenge,
compelling him to a companionship with himself in
his desolate and fruitless quest.
In this elaboration of the legend of the Wandering
Jew, Christ asked permission to drink at a horse
trough in his agony, but was refused — the Jew
pointing at the same time to the track of a horse's
hoof, which was filled with water, as a place where his
thirst might be slaked. At this point the heathen and
Christian myth become confused. The ^^^'Uldering
SHYLOCK—THE WANDERING JEW. 21 3
Jew, as the Wild Huntsman, must drive forever with
his train through the fury of the tempest. The
moaning of the wind at night through the forest-
about the dweUings of men, — will cause the souls
of the most unsuperstitious to thrill, as if it were
filled in some way with the voices of spirits ! Imagine
the tumult in the breast of the peasant child of the
Harz, or the Black Forest, or the rude districts in
France, who, as the November blast at midnight
wails and hurtles through the hills, believes it the
dreary hunt of the everlasting Jew, and sees in the
torn clouds, by the fitful moonlight, the tails of his
phantom horses, the forms of his dogs, the stream-
ing of his own white beard, careering forward in this
eternal chase !
There is a tale current among the simple people of
Switzerland which, to my mind, is as weird and thrill-
ing as this. Whoever has climbed from Zermatt to
the Gorncr Grat, and stood with the snowy mass of
Monte Rosa on the left, the Weisshorn on the right,
and directly in front the bleakest and boldest of the
Alpine peaks, the Mattcrhorn — its sublimity deep-
ened and made dreadful by the story with which
it is associated, of the men who have fallen from its
precipices, four thousand feet to the ice below, — who-
ever has done this will well believe that there arc
few spots on earth more full of dreary grandeur.
There is a bald, lonely mountain-spur confronting
all the awful desolation, upon which the Wandering
Jew was once seen standing, solitary, his haggard
figure relieved against the heavens, before the
abashed eyes of the dwellers in the vale who
214
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
looked up. He had hetni there before far back in
the dim centuries; a<^rain in the fuhiess of time he
will be seen standiiiLj there, his tattered (garments
and dishevelled beard given to the winds, his bat-
tered staff in hands shrivelled and wrinkled till they
seem like talons, bent and furrowed by his thousand-
fold accumulated woes. It will be on the judgment-
tlay ; on that bleak sununit he is to receive release
from his exceptional doom.
Wc shall best interpret the myth if we understand
the Wantlering Jew to be the Hebrew race typified —
its deathless course, its transgression, its centuries of
expiating agony, in this wa)' made for us concrete
and \'i\-id.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET..
The writer who aims at a fair presentation of the
sorrowful subject that has occupied us, must take
pains to bring into a clear light the palliations which
most certainly can be urged in mitigation of this
horrible, widespread ruthlessness. The Christian
world was just emerging from the barbarism of
the dark ages : utter intolerance of all other creeds
than that which it professed itself appeared to be
a paramount duty. Without doubt, nothing could
be more exasperating than the attitude of the He-
brews toward the surrounding Gentiles, whenever,
for a moment the clutch was taken from his throat,
and he was in a measure free to follow his own
impulses. The heart of the Jew can be very un-
amiablc ; from tiic mountain of his scorn, the Gen-
tile has seemed to him worthy of contempt more
often than of any softer feeling. Toward the breth-
ren of his own household indeed, the Jew has not sel-
dom been unkind. Until the army of Titus could be
descried from the pinnacles of the Temple, the fac-
tions in Jerusalem wrangled and slew one another.
We arc about to see how the synagogue excluded
a most noblf spirit with blasting anatlu-mas. In all
2l6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ages, in fact, the grandest prophets of Israel have
been too often cast out and stoned, for of no other
race of men is the utterance of the disheartened
Faust any truer :
" The few by whom high truth was recognized,
Who foolishly their full hearts left unguarded,
Revealing to the crowd their noble vision.
Have always banished been, and crucified."*
One's wrath at the mediaeval Christian is some-
what lessened, on reading the story of the treatment
accorded by his own brethren to the illustrious
Spinoza.
But before we take up the tale of the great teacher
whom his people persisted in rejecting, let us glance
at a false prophet, whom in the same age they seemed
very willing to accept. Their blindness is as plainl}'
shown, perhaps, by exhibiting the leader they were
ready to follow, as the leader whom they reviled and
cast off. Throughout their history, the Jews have
constantly maintained the ancient Messianic hope —
a hope again and again disappointed. The twelfth,
the thirteenth, and the sixteenth centuries produced
impostors who claimed to be the Prince of the House
of David, destined to restore the glory of Zion ; such
too in the more ancient time was Bar Cocheba, the
champion of the reign of Hadrian. No false Messiah,
however, has been so successful as Sabbatiii Zevi,f a
* " Die wenigcn die was davon erkannt,
Die thoricht g'nug ihr voiles Hcrz nicht wahrten,
Deni Pobel ihr Gefiihl, ihr Schaucn offenbarten.
Hat man von je gckreuzigt und verbannt."
f Rcinach, j). 270, etc.
THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 217
Jew of Smyrna, born in 1626. He was the son of a
commercial agent employed by an English house ; his
person was attractive, his manner austere and reti-
cent ; by fasts, ablutions, and zealous attention to
the rites in general, he early made himself marked.
At the age of twenty-five he announced himself as
Messiah, and followed by a troop of disciples which
constantly grew larger, he travelled from city to city
through Greece, Syria, and Egypt. A mad fanatic,
Nathan of Gaza, went before him to announce his
coming. At Cairo, meeting a young Polish Jewess
of rare beauty, who had escaped by miracle from the
massacres of the Cossacks, and afterwards from a
Catholic cloister in which she had taken refuge,
Sabbatai married her, declaring that she had been
destined for him from all eternity. Returning to
Smyrna, he took openly, in full synagogue, the title
of Messiah, exciting transports of enthusiasm. The
feeble protestations of a few rabbis of good sense
were smothered in the popular clamor. The renown
of the new prophet spread everywhere ; he soon
counted ardent adherents at Amsterdam, at Ham-
burg, even at London, Zealots in many places de-
stroyed their dwellings, collected their wealth, and
prepared to set out for the East, where at length
Israel was to be restored to glory. In Persia, the
Jewish laborers refused to cultivate longer the earth.
A mad inspiration seemed to have seized upon the
whole Hebrew race.
The audacity of Sabbatai became stimulated by
his success. He made daring changes in the Jewish
ritual, abrogating and transferring fasts and feasts
2l8 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ancient as the race itself; he divided the crowns of
the earth among his brothers and friends, reserving
for himself the title of King of Kings. At length
he set out for Constantinople, where, he declared,
his mission was to be accomplished. The Turkish
Government, which left him unmolested while the
excitement which he created was distant, now seized
upon him, threw him into chains, and imprisoned
him at the Castle of the Dardanelles.
The fidelity of the proselytes was not at all dis-
turbed by this misfortune. The cunning Turks saw
their chance. The captivity of Sabbatai cameat last
to resemble a sumptuous hospitality. He lived in
state in the castle, whither Jews hastened by thou-
sands to contemplate his divine features, taxed
heavily meantime by the Mussulmans, who managed
shrewdly to reap advantages. A rabbi from Poland
finally denounced him as an impostor and disturber
of the peace. The Sultan, Mahomet IV., had Sab-
batai brought before him, caused him to be fastened
naked to a post, and commanded archers to shoot at
him. At the same time he promised to become a
Jew, if the "Son of God," b)- a miracle which ought
to be easy to him, should render his body invulner-
able to the arrows. Sabbatiii immediately quailed.
The alternative being offered him of becoming a Mus-
sulman or being instantly driven forth, he adopted
the turban without hesitation, adored the prophet of
Medina, and received the name of Mahomet Effendi.
The stupor of his followers may be imagined,
Thf rabbis, undeceived at last, hurried to excommu-
nicate his partisans. Faithful adherents even now
THE CASTING OUT OF A PKOPHET. 219
remained to him in Africa, Italy, Germany, and Po-
land. Some declared he had not turned Turk, that
his shadow only remained upon the earth, while his
body had ascended to heaven. Others maintained
that his passage through Islamism, as well as his pre-
ceding trials and experiences, were part of his mis-
sion. This view Sabbatai encouraged, conforming
externally to Mussulman rites, but secretly return-
ing to the synagogue and posing anew as a fervent
Israelite. The hypocrite was unmasked : the Sultan
contemptuously gave him his life, and he died at last
in obscurity.
At the very hour when infatuated Israel had
abused herself most deeply, pouring out her venera-
tion at the feet of the wretched charlatan of Smyrna,
she cast forth from herself one of the most illustrious
of her sons, a spirit capable of the highest leadership,
wise, and of the purest beauty.
It was Holland, just set free by the heroism of its
people from the bigot grip of Spain, which led the
way among the countries of Europe in the new path
of toleration. Hither flocked in the seventeenth
century the oppressed and the outcasts of all na-
tions, — the Puritan from England, sore from the
persecution of the Stuarts, — the free-thinker and
Huguenot from PVance, just escaped from the stake
in the Catholic reaction, — the bolder and finer spirits
of Italy, Germany, Poland, whom neither bribe nor
brow-beating could reduce to conformity. Hither,
too, came the foot-sore and down-hearted Jew, mak-
ing at length shrines for the sacred rolls of the Law
2. JO THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
which were not to be desecrated, and taking breath
from the scourge in the noble cities whose atmos-
phere was sweet and bracing with liberty. The
Israelitish aristocracy are the " Sephardim," the band
that in Spain and Portugal contributed so much to
the greatness of those countries in their golden
period. Of this Hebrew aristocracy among the Span-
ish Jews, in Amsterdam, early in the seventeenth
century, was born Baruch or Benedict Spinoza.
The name of Spinoza is one burdened long with
undeserved reproach. He was falsely accused of
atheism, whereas, as his vindicators justly claim, he
should rather be called a God-intoxicated man.
Lewes, a writer who has no sympathy with his
philosophical system, but a great admiration for his
vast intellectual power and noble character, gives in
a picture full of brilliant lights the story of his career.
He describes him as " a little Jewish boy playing
wath his sisters on the Burgwal of Amsterdam, close
to the Portuguese synagogue. His face is mild and
ingenuous ; his eyes small, but bright, quick, and
penetrative, his dark hair flowing in luxuriant curls
over his neck and shoulders. Amsterdam is noisy
with the creaking of cordage, the bawling of sailors,
and the busy trafificking of traders. The Zuyder
Zee is crowded with vessels laden with precious
stores from all quarters of the globe. The canals
which ramify that city, like a great arterial system,
are blocked up with boats and barges, the whole
scene vivid with the greatness and the littleness of
commerce. The parents of Spinoza were from mer-
cantile families, among the fugitives from Spain.
222 THE STORY OF THE JEIVS.
having their part in all this commercial bustle ; and
the lively boy would, it was supposed, like his ances-
tors, play a part upon the market and exchange."
His passion for stud}', however, and the brightness
of his mind induced his parents to educate him as a
rabbi. Upon the study of Talmud and Old Testa-
ment Spinoza entered with zeal, and at fourteen,
even, is said to have rivalled almost all the doctors
in the exactitude and extent of his knowledge.
Great hopes were entertained of the youth, hopes
which gave way to fears when the rabbis discovered
that the boy was developing a questioning spirit
whose pertinacity they were unable to satisfy. He
was summoned before the synagogue, and at length
threatened with excommunication." An offer of an
annual pension of a thousand florins was made to
him, if he would only consent to be silent and assist
from time to time in the services of the synagogue,
which, however, was refused with scorn.
In truth, the learning which the boy was set to
master was excessively intricate and fantastic. Vast
respect was paid at that time among the Hebrews to
the " Cabala," about which a wortl must be said. The
pious Jew of that day believed that, aside from its
obvious signification, every tittle of Scripture had its
symbolical meaning, and a strange collection of rhap-
sodies and wild imaginings had been growing up
from the thirteenth century, which were generally
received as an authentic interpretation of this sec-
ondary sense. From this source all Jewry was
overrun with demonology, thaumaturgy, and other
* " Life of Spinoza," by Colerus.
THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 223
strange fancies.'^ In Spinoza's generation this had
its most extravagant development. It was, indeed,
unmitigated nonsense, whose puerilities, if not dis-
gusting, were ludicrous. The clear-brained youth,
as he matured, rejected it all, withdrew from the
synagogue, and made ready to win his bread by
learning the trade of polishing lenses for optical in-
struments, a craft in which he became dexterous.
The discipline of the rabbis was severe. Shortly
•before, a Jew, who had incurred the displeasure of
the elders, had been forced to lie across the threshold
of the synagogue, presenting his body to the feet of
the congregation as it passed out. In some such
way they would have been glad to humiliate Spinoza.
No penance could, however, be imposed upon him,
for he had withdrawn himself. But fanaticism felt
justified in trying another means. One evening as
Spinoza was coming out of the theatre, he was
startled by the fierce expression of a dark face,
thrust eagerly before his. A knife gleamed in the
air, and he had barely time to parry the blow. It
fell upon his chest, but fortunately, deadened in its
force, only tore his coat. Thus he escaped assassi-
nation, but he could still be excommunicated and
cursed.
" The day of excommunication at length arrived,
and a vast concourse assembled to witness the awful
ceremony. It began by the solemn and silent
lighting of a quantity of black wax-candles, and by
(jpening the tabernacle wherein were deposited the
books of the law of Moses. Thus were the dim
* Pollock : " Life of Spinoza,"
224 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
imaginations of the faithful prepared for all the
horror of the scene. The chief-rabbi, the ancient
friend and master, now the fiercest enemy, of the
condemned, was to order the execution. He stood
there pained, but implacable; the people fixed their
eager eyes upon him. High above the chanter rose
and chanted forth in loud, lugubrious tones the
words of execration ; while from the opposite side
another mingled with these curses the thrilling
sounds of the trumpet. And now the black candles
were reversed, and were made to melt drop by drop
into a huge tub filled with blood." '•
Then came the final anathema. " With the judg-
ment of the angels and of the saints, we excommuni-
cate, cut off, curse, and anathematize Baruch de
Espinoza, with the consent of the elders and of all
this holy congregation, in the presence of the holy
books: by the 613 precepts which are written
therein, with the anathema wherewith Joshua
cursed Jericho, with the curse which Elisha laid
upon the children, and with all the curses which are
written in the law. Cursed be he by day, and cursed
be he by night. Cursed be he in sleeping, and cursed
be he in waking, cursed in going out, and cursed in
coming in. The Lord shall not pardon him, the
wrath and fury of the Lord shall henceforth be
kindled against this man, and shall lay upon him
all the curses which are written in the book of the
Law. The Lord shall destroy his name under the
sun, and cut him off for his undoing from all the
tribes of Israel, with all the curses of the firmament
* Lewes : " Biog. Hist, of Philosophy."
THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 225
which are written in the book of the Law. But yc
that cleave unto the Lord your God, Hve all of you
this day. And we warn you that none may speak
with him by word of mouth nor by writing, nor show
any favor to him, nor be under one roof with him,
nor come within four cubits of him, nor read any
paper composed or written by him." *
As the blasting words were uttered, the lights
were all suddenly immersed in the blood, a cry of
religious horror and execration burst from all ; and
in that solemn darkness, and to those solemn curses,
they shouted Amen, Amen ! Thus the blinded race
cast forth the noblest man of his generation, as it
had done in ages before — a man whom, as in the
preceding time, the Gentile world was to adopt and
love, to set upon a pinnacle indeed as a guide and
benefactor.
There is a singular elevation about the life of
Spinoza henceforth. His legal right to inherit a
portion of his father's estate was denied. He estab-
lished it, but handed the share over to his sisters,
who had disputed his claim, magnanimously over-
looking their enmity. The handsome fortune which
a friend desired to leave him he refused to receive ;
he declined an ample pension from Louis XIV. ; he
refused a position at the University of Heidelberg,
as compromising his independence. By polishing his
crystals he was able to keep soul and body together,
while he devoted his main strength to speculations
as profound as have ever occupied tiie brain of man.
He was serenely brave. The great Conde having
* Pollock : " Life of Spinoza."
226 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
invaded Holland with a French army, sent for
Spinoza, whose reputation had interested him, to
visit him in his camp. The mob, hearini^ of the in-
tercourse, suspected the philosopher of being a spy,
and were about to tear him in pieces. He showed
himself ready to face their rage with a heart un-
daunted. His character was made up of generous
simplicity and heroic forbearance. He taught the
learned world the doctrines he had elaborated with
endless toil ; but he taught children to be regular in
their attendance on divine service. He had no un-
wise proselytism which would destroy old convictions
in minds unfitted to receive others. One day his
hostess, a simple unlettered Christian, asked him if
he believed she could be saved by her religion. He
answered : " Your religion is a good one, you ought
not to seek another, nor doubt that yours will pro-
cure your salvation, ])rovidecl you add to )'Our piety
the tran([uil virtues of domestic life." *
He died when but forty-five, the peer of the sub-
Hmest leaders of the human race. It would be out
of place here to attempt to outline the vast system
which forms his title to immortal fame. He was
persecuted in life and in death. The charge of
atheism, with w hich his fame has long been burdened,
he regardetl as the grossest and most wicked of
calumnies, and great chami)ions at last arose to vin-
dicate his memory. It was, indeed, his teaching
that there was but one innnite substance, and that
is God. Whatever is, is in (iod ; and without Him
nothing can be conceived. He is the universal being,
* Colerus.
THE .CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 22y
of which all thhigs are the manifestations. He is
the sole substance ; every thing else is a mode ; yet
without substance, mode cannot exist. God, viewed
under the attributes of infinite substance, is the
natiira natjiraiis, that which forever creates ; God,
viewed as a manifestation, as the modes under which
his attributes appear, is the natura naiurata, that
which is created. He is the cause of all things, and
that immanently, not transiently. This, according to
G. H. Lewes, is the heart and pith of the system of
Spinoza, — certainly not atheism, — certainly not ma-
terialism, for though God is called substance {sjib-
stiVis), it is only in a high spiritual sense which the
thinker is careful to make clear. If the scheme
deserves to be called pantheism, the destroying of
the creation while God is made all in all, a few cita-
tions will show that the entertaining of these ideas
was not inconsistent in Spinoza, with an active and
beautiful spirit of humanity.
" He who lives according to reason endeavors
to the utmost of his power to outweigh another
man's hate, anger, or despite against him with love
or highmindedness. - * * He who chooses to
avenge wrong by requiting it with hatred is assur-
edly miserable. But he who strives to cast out
hatred by love, may fight his fight in joy and confi-
dence. As for those he doth conquer, tiicy yield to
him joyfully, and that not because their strength
faileth, but because it is increased.
"A man who desires to help others by counsel or
deeds, so that they may together enjoy the chief
good, will be very forward to win their love to him,
228 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
but not to draw thcni into admiration of him. In
connnon talk lie will eschew telling of men's faults,
and will speak but sparingly of human weakness.
But he will speak at large of man's virtue and power,
and the means of perfecting the same, that thus men
may endeavor, not from fear and disgust, but wholly
in joyfulness, to live, so far as in them lies, after the
commandment of reason. " "''
The biographer of Spinoza calls this " a lofty
refinement of the fundamental duty of good-will to
men, which is not to be found, so far as I know, in any
other moralist." The tone of the passage is declared
to be like that of Marcus Aurelius, but there is no
exact parallel.
Very lofty too is the teaching of this pure sage as
regards the motive which should influence man in the
pursuit of virtue. Good must be done not through
any hope of reward or fear of punishment, for the
reward of virtue is virtue itself. As we should
expect, Spinoza was a firm and consistent supporter
of political liberty, disposed to go much farther
in allowing individual thought, habits, and enter-
prise to have free scope, than the statesmen of his
time. Rising above the Jewish prejudices in which
he had been nurtured, he regarded Jesus as a man
indeed, but a man of unique and transcendent moral
genius, above Moses and the prophets. With broad-
minded tolerance he declares : " For Turks and
heathen, if they worship God by justice and charity
to their neighbors, I believe the}' have the spirit of
Christ and are saved."
* Pollock.
THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 229
If wc trace for a moment the history of Spinoza's
fame we find him at first hated and denounced, but
never forgotten. The unlearned held him in holy-
horror, and the learned refused to do him justice.
Leibnitz, his contemporary, and at one time his cor-
respondent, depreciated him ; Locke speaks of him
as " justly decried " ; and Bishop Berkeley refers to
his "wild imaginations." It was the great Lessing,
in the middle of the eighteenth century, who first
elevated Spinoza to a lofty position ; he declared
that there was no philosophy but his. Goethe
accepted with no less enthusiasm the outcast Jew,
being drawn especially by his boundless unselfish-
ness. He finds the saying marvellous : " Whoso
truly loves God must not expect that God will love
him in return." In our own century he has held the
hearts of the most gifted of the world. It was
Novalis who called him the God-intoxicated man.
Heine and Fichte were penetrated by his influence.
Hegel declared that " to be a philosopher one must
first be a Spinozist." Auerbach, who translated
him, believed that " Spinoza's mind had fed the
thought of two centuries." Coleridge brought it
to pass that he received at last a fair appreciation
from English thinkers, and in connection with this
introduction an amusing story is told by Coleridge
himself.
It was the troublous time of the I'^-cnch Revolu-
tion, and as the young Englishman returned from
the Continent, and with little reticence proceeded to
pour out wild ideas into the car of his friend Words-
worth, who was also known to entertain extravagant
230 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
opinions, a worthy magistrate of Somersetshire, felt
it to be his duty as an Englishman to cause these
niad-brainetl men to be watched. i\ spy was set
upon them, who, after a careful investigation, re-
ported Coleridge and Wordsworth as after all loyal
men. " He had repeatedly hid himself for hours
together behind a bank at the seaside (our favorite
seat), and overheard our conversation. At first he
fancied that we were aware of our danger, for he
often heard me talk of our ' Spy Nozy ' which he
was inclined to interpret of himself, and of a remark-
able feature belonging to him, but he was speedily
convinced it was the name of a man who had made
a book, and lived long ago."
The best England of Coleridge's day was as
densely ignorant of the high-souled philosopher, as
was the worthy spy. But appreciation came.
Shelley drew from him inspiration ; Maurice, Froude,
and Matthew Arnold, in our time, have done him
justice. Not less so Taine and Renan in France.
At the present time there is no more honored name
among all the heroes of abstract thought. Says the
pious Schleiermacher : " Sacrifice with me to the
manes of the holy but repudiated Spinoza. The
great spirit of the world penetrated him ; the Infi-
nite was his beginning and his end ; the universe his
only and eternal love. He was filled with religion
and religious feeling, antl therefore it is that he
stands alone, unapproachable — the master in his art,
but elevated above the profane world, w^ithout
adherents, and without even citizenship." Says G.
H. Lewes: " He was a brave and simple man, eafn-
THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET.
231
estly meditating on the deepest subjects that can
occupy the human race. He produced a system
which will ever remain as one of the most astounding
efforts of abstract speculation — a system that has
been decried for nearly two centuries as the most
iniquitous and blasphemous of human invention;
and which has now, within the last sixty years,
become the acknowledged parent of a whole nation's
philosophy, ranking among its admirers some of the
most pious and illustrious intellects of the age."
PART III.
THE BREAKINC; OF THE CHAIN.
CHAPTER XV.
ISRAELS NEW MOSES.
The total Jewish population of the world, at the
present time, according to the latest estimates,* is
6,300,000, distributed as follows : To Europe 5,400,-
000, to Asia 300,000, to Africa 350,000, to America
250,000, to Oceanica 12,000. Of the different coun-
tries of Europe, Russia has a Hebrew population of
2,552,000; Austria with Hungary, 1,644,000; Ger-
many, 562,000; France, 63,000; and Great Britain,
60,000. Of the portion assigned to America, the
United States contains 230,000.
It appears from these figures that there are no
lands in which the Jews form a large clement of the
population ; but for some reason an astonishing
chaiigc from their old abasement is to be noticed in the
position they have come to occupy. The mediaeval
outcast is everywhere climbing into places of power,
until it begins to seem possible that he may attain in
the future an ascendancy as remarkable as his past
abjcctness. Cries, sometimes of admiration, but
more often of dislike and alarm, are uttered over this
fact in all parts of the civilized world,— all, however,
whether laudatory or ill-natured, giving evidence of
* Rein.ich : " Ilisloire dcs Israelites," 1885.
236 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
a dccp-scatcd conviction, that this strange tribe, for-
ever with us but never of us, is at any rate of quality
most masterful.
Let us survey for a moment the various depart-
ments of human energy, and obtain some compre-
hensive idea of what the Hebrew is accomplishing.
In military life, we find that although in antiquity
Israel fought many a stern fight under valiant cham-
pions, it can claim since the dispersion no great note
in war. Jews have fought, however, in the ranks of
various armies, and have furnished good generals to
various standards and causes. The most distinguished
soldier of Hebrew descent that can be mentioned is
probably Marshal Massena, whose real name is said
to have been Manasseh, — the warrior whom Napoleon
called " the favorite child of victory," one of the most
scientific as well as one of the most brave and tena-
cious of the great chieftains whom the fateful Corsi-
can summoned to fight at his side.
Turning to the employments of peace, the record
of Hebrew achievements in agriculture and the handi-
crafts will also be a short one. We have seen that
there have been times when the Jew has figured as
farmer and mechanic ; it is not so at present, and the
fact that he so seldom works with his hands, really
earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, is often
made the basis of a harsh judgment against him.
But really do we not find here an evidence of Israel-
itish power? We should all prefer, if we could, to
get on by our wits, rather than by labor of the hands ;
hence the crowding up everywhere into trade and
the professions, away from the soil and the tool.
ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 237
We feel that the tendency ought to be discouraged ;
and in the case of the Jew, we should like him better,
if now and then he put to the wheel of life actual
muscle, instead of, forever, that subtle power of his
brain. But when a whole race undertakes to live
by its wits, and succeeds so remarkably, what ability
it must possess!
It is indeed a brilliant success. In the world of
trade, it has in some w^ay come about that a pre-
eminence is everywhere conceded to the Jew. He
is omnipresent and everywhere dreaded. It is of
competition with him that the pedlar who deals in
sixpence-worths stands most in fear ; the same
aggressive elbows are crowding cavalierly the mil-
lionaire in the transactions of la haute finance. Keen
indeed must the man be who can match him in the
high or low places ; and as for Gentile accusations of
meanness and knavery, shall the pot call the kettle
black ? There are exchanges in great cities of the
world practically abandoned to all but Jews. In our
new Western and Southern towns, there are some-
times scarce any but Hebrew signs on the business
streets. In trade, the Hebrew is ubiquitous and
always at the front.
Turning to the fine arts, the Hebrews have rarely
become famed as painters and sculptors, a result to
which perhaps the ancient Semitic repugnance to the
representation of the forms of living creatures has
helped. In music, however, their glory is of the
highest. Mendelssohn, Halevy, Moscheles, Meyer-
beer, Rubinstein, Joachim, as composers and per-
formers, are among the greatest. Wagner, indeed,
23^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
wrote ;i diatribe against Jewish influence in music,
ami there is a stor)' that he prepared a composition
especially to vindicate against the Hebrews the
superiority of a pure Teutonic taste ; but when it
came to the performance, lo, the patriotic master
beheld the first violins all in the hands of the aliens,
whose dark eyes were scanning serenely the tangled
score that was to bring them to confusion ! The fact
was that none but Jews could be found skilful enough
to take the burden of the performance. As actors,
the Israelites have also been very illustrious.
With Rachel and Bernhardt at the summit, it would
be easy to mention a long and most distinguished
list.
If we follow graver paths we encounter, among
philosophers, the great Spinoza, at whose work we
have just glanced, and we shall presently consider still
another most illustrious name. Franke is great in
medicine, Bernays, of Bonn, is noted for erudition in
Greek, Benfey the first of Sanscrit scholars, Auerbach
at the head of German novelists, Heine the chief of
German poets since the death of Goethe, — all men of
the ancient Israelitish strain, though in the case of
some of them the ancient faith was forsaken. When
we look at the field of statesmanship, as we shall
presently do, what men of Jewish blood have done
is as astonishing as their achievements elsewhere.
How is it that the wonderful transformation has
been brought about ? We have seen the poor
Hebrew under the heel — a hundred nations trying
to stamp the life out of him as if he were a venom-
ous reptile. lie makes the claim at the present
ISRAEL'S NFAV MOSES. 239
hour that he has conquered the world,* and many
are read}', with fear and dread, to concede it. Let
us study certain great figures in various departments
of effort, men whose genius and energy arc thoroughly
Jewish, so that they can well be regarded as types.
In reviewing these careers, the change will soon
become explicable.
As we enter the eighteenth century, though the
harshness of men has become somewhat modified,
the chain that binds the Jew, nevertheless, through-
out the civilized world is firmly fastened. The
massacres and fierce bodily tortures are indeed for
the most part things of the past, except perhaps in
Spain, or in outlying regions where barbarism yields
slowly. In many a city, however, the Jew's presence
in the streets is scarcely suffered, and with every
night he is barred pitilessly into the dirt and discom-
fort of Ghetto and Juden-gasse. Germany was
especially narrow and cruel toward the Israelites.
In many towns they could not live upon the street
corners; in others onl)' a certain small number could
be married in the course of a year. In Berlin, the
Hebrews, to whom, through their creed, swine's
flesh was accursed, were forced to buy the wild
boars slain in the king's hunts. Thus exposed to
insult and hardship, the Jews of Germany, the "As-
kenazim," as they were called, were sunk among their
co-religionists into an especial degradation ; progress
was stopped, and wide views became lost. They had
a language of their own, a jargon of I lebrew and Gcr-
* llcacdiisfu'lirs assertion : sec p. 2.
240 rUK STORY OF 'J7/JC JFAVS.
mail. Their religion became corrupted through super-
stitions ; their rabbis came largely from among the
l\)lish jews, who were usually ignorant and debased.
Under these teachers efforts to become enlightened
were repressed ; to speak German correctly, or to
read a German book, was heresy. The handicrafts
were forbidden them, — to a large extent even trade ;
the professions were of course closed avenues; to
sell old clothes, to wander about as pedlars, and
to lend money at interest were almost the only
occupations that remained.
From the midst of the German Jews, however,
sprang at this time a man, who, if of less wonderful
intellect than Spinoza, was yet of spirit most keen and
enlightened. In magnanimity and broad charity he
was not surpassed by the great outcast of Holland.
In the story which we are following his figure has
even a greater significance than that of Spinoza,
from the fact that though persecuted he remained
among his people, beneficently setting in motion
reforms which have been felt by Jews in every land,
and which in times following those in which we live,
\\\\\ bring about for Jews a happy future. As has
been urged, the intolerance with which the Hebrew
has been treated must not be ascribed solely to
Christian narrowness. The persecutor has been pro-
voked to clench his fist by the stern pride with
which the victim has asserted his superiority and
held himself aloof. Such modifications of prejudice
in the oppressor as can be now seen, would be much
less marked than they are had not a more concilia-
tory spirit begun to manifest itself in the oppressed.
242 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
In the year 1729, in the town of Dessau, was born
the benign and far-seeing genius, Moses the son of
Mendel, who, Hke Moses of old, the son of Aniram,
was to lead Israel to better things.
Moses Mendelssohn was a precocious child, de-
vouring with passionate appetite the rabbinical
husks upon which alone his mind was permitted to
feed, until at length his premature labor brought
upon him curvature of the si)ine, from which he
never recovered. As a bo)' of thirteen he followed
to Berlin the rabbi who had been his teacher, his
parents disapproving his course and withdrawing
their support. The little humpback faced starvation
with unshrinking persistence while he followed his
bent, until, after much suffering, he won over friends
who could help him. As the }-outh approachetl man-
hood he broadened his acquirements, adding almost
by stealth German, Latin, mathematics, French,
and English to his Talnuulic lore, soon beginning
also to seize upon the thoughts of the great philoso-
phers. As his culture widened his old friends
became cold ; as in Spinoza's case his former
teachers feared his heresies, and soon began to
frown and threaten.
When he had reached twenty-one, however, a rich
silk-manufacturer of Berlin became his patron, made
him the tutor of his children, also his business assist-
ant, and at last his partner; henceforth, then, Men-
delssohn was free to follow his own path, unannoyed
by the wolf of hunger, and, later, even in affluence.
The young man became a member of a circle of
brilliant minds, among whom ruKd as chief one of
ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 24^
the mightiest gods of the German Olympus, Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing, and henceforth, to the day of
Lcssing's death, Mendelssohn was held in the heart of
hearts of that courageous striver. The slender silk-
merchant, while with Hebrew thrift he managed to
seize upon gold in the ways of commerce, possessed
at the same time strength for the sublimest flights.
He early became known as an able writer for the
literary periodicals, and at length found himself
growing famous. One day the frank and hearty
Lessing came with a laugh to Mendelssohn's desk in
the counting-room, holding in his hand a volume
fresh from printer and binder. To the amazement
of Mendelssohn, it was a manuscript of his own,
which he had modestly withheld from the press;
his friend, however, had taken it without his knowl-
edge, and was spreading it far and wide in an ample
edition. Its success was so marked that he was
henceforth a maker of books. In literature he was
fruitful and always beneficent, doing much toward
the spread in Germany of an elegant culture and
taste, in the years immediately preceding the glori-
ous sun-burst, when with Goethe and Schiller the
great day of German letters begins.
At first known as a writer upon aesthetic subjects,
the excellence of his thoughts was scarcely more re-
markable than the beauty of his style ; but at length
in his forty-second year came the book which has
given him a note of a far grander kind, and placed
his name among the chief helpers of his age and
country. This was his " Ph;i:do," a work upon the
immortality of the soul. In this book Mendelssohn
244 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
translated the dialot^ue of IMato, of the same name,
but enlarged and developed the consideration in the
spirit of the later philosophy. As an introduction to
the work, a picture of the lifi' and character of
Socrates was given, full of the highest love and
veneration for the master-sage. The tone of the
" riuedo " of Mendelssohn is most exalted, and soon
excited in the w^orld general admiration. Edition
followed edition ; it was translated into most Euro-
pean languages. Inasmuch as so many German
thinkers have hidden their speculations within a
thorny and forbidding entanglement ^\■hlch renders
them cjuite inaccessible except to minds of excep-
tional power of penetration, it is worth while to
speak of the admirable clearness and beauty of
Mendelssohn's method of presentment. The work
is a series of the sublimest thoughts, fitly framed,
pervaded with the broadest and noblest spirit.*
Like Maimonides, the grand Hebrew of the thir-
teenth century, — like Spinoza, — in the spirit, too, of
that higher and holier soul that came forth from
Zion, the supernal Christ, — Mendelssohn, looked and
worked toward the broadest tolerance and human
brotherhood. In the truest spirit of charity he
labored with his people, trying to raise them from
their ignorance, and to smooth away from the Jewish
countenance the arrogant frown and lifting of the
eyelid with which through the ages they have stub-
bornly faced the Gentile. Of one of his books writ-
ten for his co-rcligionists, called " Jerusalem," Im-
manuel Kant wrote in such terms as these : " With
* Kurz . " Clescliictc diT ilculschcn Literatur."
ISRAEL'S NFAV MOSES. 245
what admiration I have read your ' Jerusalem ' ! I
regard this book as the announcement of a great
though slow-coming reform, which will affect not
only your nation, but also others. You have man-
aged to unite with your religion such a spirit of
freedom and tolerance as it has not had credit for,
and such as no other faith can boast. You have so
powerfully presented the necessity of an unlimited
freedom of conscience for every faith, that at length
on our side, too, the church must think about it.
The Christians must study whether in their creeds
there are not things which burden and oppress the
spirit, and look toward a union which, as regards
essential religious points, shall bring together all."
As Judaism spurned forth its nobler spirits in the
earlier time, so the effort was made to put under
ban this later liberalizing genius. He, however,
though looked at askance by all the stricter mem-
bers of the synagogue, who to this day have not
ceased to oppose the fruitful influence that proceeded
from him, clung tenaciously until his death to his
Jewish birthright. One finds something most pa.
thetic in the story of a certain grave embarrassment
into which .he was thrown by an over-zealous Chris-
tian friend. Lavatcr, the Sw^iss clergyman, well known
in the world for his writings upon physiognomy, was
a most earnest upholder of the faith. Having trans-
lated from the French a work upon the Christian
evidences which he felt to be unanswerable, he dedi-
cated it to Mendelssohn, summoning him, as he did
so, either to show that the positions of the work
were groundless, or to renounce the Jewish cre«;d.
246 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Circumstances forced Mendelssohn to take some
notice of the challenge. To renounce Judaism of
course he was not ready, believing, as he did, that it
was capable of expansion into a faith most benefi-
cent. On the other hand, he was scarcely more
ready to controvert Christianity ; for he hated
strife, felt no desire to proselyte, and hoped for
some reconciliation of the jarring creeds by other
than polemic means. In his trouble he wrote and
published a letter to Lavater, in which was unfolded
all the beauty of his soul, and which gained for him
the approval of all intelligent men. Without trans-
gressing moderation, he convinced all fair-minded
readers, overcoming even the proselyter himself.
A passage from this famous letter of Mendelssohn
will be interesting * :
" For all I cared Judaism might have been hurled
down in every polemical compendium, and triumph-
antly sneered at in every academic exercise, and I
would not have entered into a dispute about it.
Rabbinical scholars and rabbinical smatterers might
have grubbed in obsolete scribblings, which no sen-
sible Jew reads or knows of, and have amused the
public with the most fantastic ideas of Judaism, with-
out so much as a contradiction on my part. It is by
virtue that I wish to shame the opprobrious opinion
commonly entertained of a Jew, and not by contro-
versial writings.
" Pursuant to the principles of my religion, I am not
to seek to convert any one who is not born accord-
ing to our laws. This proneness to conversion, the
* From " Memoirs of M. .Mendelssolin," by M. Samuels, p. 54, etc.
ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 247
origin of which some would fain tack on the Jewish
religion, is, nevertheless, diametrically opposed to
it. Our rabbis unanimously teach that the written and
oral laws which form conjointly our revealed religion,,
are obligatory on our nation only. ' Moses com-
manded us a Law, even the inheritance of the congre-
gation of Jacob.' We believe that all other nations of
the earth have been directed by God to adhere to the
laws of nature. Those who regulate their conduct
according to this religion of nature and of reason,
are called virtuous j/ioi of other nations, and are the
children of eternal salvation.
" Our rabbis are so remote from desiring to make
proselytes, that they enjoin us to dissuade by forcible
remonstrances, every one who comes forward to be
converted. We are to lead him to reflect that by
such a step he is subjecting himself needlessly to a
most onerous burden ; that in his present condition
he has only to observe the precepts of nature and
reason, to be saved ; but the moment he embraces
the religion of the Israelites, he subscribes gratui-
tously to all the rigid rules of that faith, to which he
must then strictly conform, or await the punishment
which the legislator has denounced on their infrac-
tion. Finally, we are to hold up to him a faithful
picture of the misery, tribulation, and obloc|uy in
which our nati(jn is now living, in order to guard
hini from a rash act which he might ultimately re-
pent.
" Thus you see the religion of my fathers docs not
wish to be extended. We are not to send abroatl
missions. Whoever is not born conformable to our
248 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
laws has no occasion to live accord ini; to tlicni. \Vc
alone consider ourselves bound to acknowledije their
authority ; and this can give no offence to our neigh-
bors. Suppose there were amongst my neighbors a
Confucius or a Solon. I could, consistently with my
religious principles, love and admire the great man;
but I should never hit on the extravagant idea of
converting a Confucius or a Solon. What should I
convert him for ? As he does not belong to the Con-
gregation of Jacob, my religious laws were not legis-
lated for him ; and on doctrines w^^ should soon come
to an understanding. ' Do I think there is a chance
of his being saved ? ' I certainly believe that he who
leads mankind on to virtue in this world cannot be
damned in the next.
" I am so fortunate as to count among my friends
many a worthy man who is not of my faith. Wc
love each other sincerely, notwithstanding we pre-
sume, or take for granted, that in matters of belief
we differ widely in opinion. I enjoy the delight of
their society, which both imj^roves and solaces me.
Never has my heart whispered: 'Alas, for this ex-
cellent man's soul!' lie who believes that no sal-
vation is to be found out of the pale of his own
church must often feel such sighs rise in his bosom."
The candid Lavater wrote Mendelssohn a public
letter, acknowledging that he had been thoughtless
antl indelicate, and begging his pardon. This trial,
however, and another, in which he was obliged to
defend the fame of Lessing, as he thought, unjustly
aspersed, pro\ed, for his sensitive nature, too severe a
strain. He fell ill, and at length, in 1786, came death.
ISRAEL'S NF.IV MOSES. 249
Moses Mendelssohn was undersized and always
badly deformed. A liabit of stammerin|^% also, made
conversation difficult. He possessed, however, a
personal charm, which overcame all impediments.
Lavater, who so disquieted him, was an enthusiastic
friend, and has left a description of his face, which,
as coming' from the famous physiognomist, has great
interest. " I rejoice to see these outlines. My
glance descends from the noble curve of the fore-
head to the prominent bones of the eye. In the
deptli of this eye resides a Socratic soul. The de-
cided shape of the nose, the magnificent transition
from the nose to the upper lip, the prominence of
both lips, neither projecting beyond the other, — oh!
how all this harmonizes and makes sensible and
visible the divine truth of physiognomy ! "
A pleasant story is told by Auerbach of the woo-
ing of Moses Mendelssohn.
" He was at the baths of Pyrmont where he be-
came acquainted with Gugenheim, a merchant of
Hamburg. ' Rabbi Moses,' said Gugenheim one
day, ' we all admire you, but my daughter most of
all. It would be the greatest happiness to me to
have you for a son-in-law. Come and see us in
Hamburg.' "
Mendelssohn was very shy in consequence of his sad
deformity, but at last he resolved upon the journey.
He arrived in Hamburg and called upon Gugenheim
at his office. The latter said : " Go up-stairs and see
my daughter ; she will be pleased to see you, I have
told her so much about you."
He saw the daughter, and the next day came to
250 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
see GLiy;enheiin, and presently asked him what his
daughter, who was a ver)' charniin;.; i;irl, had said of
him.
" i\h, most honored rabbi," said Gugenheim,
" shall I candidly tell you ? "
" Of course."
" Well, as you are a philosopher, a wise and great
man, )'ou will not be angry with the girl. She said
she was frightened on seeing you, because you "
" Because I have a hump ? "
Gugenheim nodded.
" I thought so ; but I will still go and take leave
of )'our daughter."
He went up-stairs and sat down by the }'oung
lad\', who was sewing. They conversed in the mt)st
friendly manner, but the girl never raised her eyes
from her work, and avoided looking at him. At
last, when he had cleverly turned the conversation in
that direction, she asked him:
" Do you believe that marriages are made in
heaven ? "
"Yes, indeed," said he; "and something espe-
cial!}' wonderful happened to me. At the birth of a
child, proclamation is made in heaven : lie or- she
shall marr\' such or such a one. When I was born,
ni\' future wife was also named, but at the same time
it was said : ' iVlas ! she will have a (.Ireadful hump-
back.' ' O God,' I said then, ' a deformed girl will
become embittered and unhapp)% whereas she should
be beautiful. Dear Lord, give me the hump-back,
and let the maiden be w\ll formed and agreeable.' "
Scarcely had Moses Mendelssohn finished speak-
ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 2$ I
ing when the girl threw herself upon his neck : she
afterwards became his wife ; they lived happily to-
gether, and had good and handsonie children."
Pleasant pictures of the life of Mendelssohn with
his wife and children have been drawn. But the
shadow of their origin was always about them. " I
sometimes go out in the evening," he once wrote,
" with my wife and children. ' Papa,' inquires one
of them, in innocent simplicity, ' what is it that
those lads call out after us ? Why do they throw
stones at us ? What have we done to them ? '
' Yes, dear papa,' says another, ' they always run
after us in the streets and shout, "Jew-boy! Jew-
boy." Is it a disgrace in the eyes of the people to
be a Jew ? What is that to them ? ' I cast down
my eyes and sigh to myself: 'Poor humanity? To
what point have things come ! ' "
The data for this sketch have been derived from
Mendelssohn's great-grandson, Sebastian Hensel,
from the literary historian Kurz, and other biog-
raphers. We have also a beautiful and graphic
portrait, drawn by the man who perhaps possessed
as sharp powers of discrimination as any mind which
the world has known. Mendelssohn, as we have
seen, early became the friend of Lessing, and it was
under the influence of that benign atmosphere that
the latter created his " Nathan the Wise," in the con-
ception of the Syrian Jew, establishing a memorial
of the reforming genius which the world will never
forget.
When Lessing '^ selected a Jew to be the hero of
* See the writer's " Short Ili.-tory nf Cerinan Literature."
252 THE SrORY OF THE JEWS.
his grandest pla}', the innovation was so unheard of
as to mark his courage more strikingly perhaps than
any act he ever performed — and he was the most in-
trepid of men. " Nathan the Wise " was written
kite in Hfe, when Lcssing's philosophy had ripened,
and when his spirit, sorely tried in every way, had
gained from sad experience only sweeter humanity.
Judged by rules of art, it is easy to find fault with it,
but one is impatient at any attempt to measure it by
such a trivial standard. It is thrilled from first to
last by a glowing God-sent fire — such as has appeared
rarely in the literature of the world. It teaches love
to God and man, tolerance, the beauty of peace.
In Nathan, a Jew who has suffered at the hands
of the Crusaders the extremest afifliction — the loss
of his wife and seven children — is not embittered by
the experience. He, with the two other leading
figures, Saladin and the Templar, are bound together
in a close intimacy. They are all examples of no-
bleness, though individualized. In Nathan, severe
chastening has brought to pass the finest gentleness
and love. Saladin is the perfect type of chivalry,
though impetuous and over-lavish, through the pos-
session of great power. The Templar is full of the
vehemence of youth. So they stand, side by side,
patterns of admirable manhood, yet representatives
of creeds most deeply hostile. Thus, in concrete
presentment, Lessing teaches impressively, what he
had often elsewhere inculcated in a less varied way,
one of the grandest lessons, that nobleness is bound
to no confession of faith.
It was his thought — and here many will tliink he
ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 253
went too far — that every historic religion is in some
sense divine, a necessary evolution, from the condi-
tions under which it originates. What a man
believes is a matter of utter indifference if his life
is not good.
Goldwin Smith, in a paper in the Nineteenth Century,
in which some injustice is done to the Jewish charac-
ter and the facts of Jewish history, declares that
Nathan the Wise is an impossible personage, the
pure creation of the brain of the dramatist. Lessing,
however, as is well known, found the suggestion for
his superb figure in Moses Mendelssohn, and as I
have given with some detail the facts of the life of
the grand Israelite, it must have appeared that there
are abundant data for concluding that Lessing's Jew
was no mere fancy sketch. It may be said, in truth,
that the character is exceptional, and that Jews, as
the world knows them, are something quite different.
IJut among the votaries of what creed, pray, would
not such a character be exceptional ! If exceptional,
it is not unparalleled, as we shall hereafter see.
Judaism is capable of giving birth to humane and
tolerant spirits, even in our time, and such spirits are
not at all unknown in its past annals.
CHAPTER XVI.
TIIK MONEY KINCS.
In no department at the present day will the con-
spicuous abihty of the Jew be so readily conceded as
in that of business. Whether as great practical
operators, or as political economists, like Ricardo, no
class of men have so close a hold of both theory and
practice. It seems strange enough to us that trade,
in all its various forms, than which no human trans-
actions are now considercil more honorable and
legitimate, w-as once held to be disgraceful, to a large
extent imlawful. It was indispensable to the on-
going of society, and therefore, of necessity, toler-
ated. The agents of business, however, have, for the
most l)art, been held in ill-repute, or at least in low
regard, from antiquity almost to the present day.
Says Cicero : " Those sources of emolument are
condemneil that incur the public hatred ; such as
those of tax-gatherers and usurers. We are likewise
to account as ungenteel and mean the gains of all
hired workmen, whose source of profit is not their
art, but their labor ; for their very wages are the
consideration of their servitude. We are also to
despise all who retail fr(;m merchants goods for
prompt sale, for they never can succeed unless they
THE MONEY KINGS. 255
lie most abominably. All mechanical laborers are
by their profession mean, for a workshop can contain
nothing befitting a i^entleman." Toward commerce
on a large scale, indeed, Cicero is somewhat more
lenient : " As to merchandizing, if on a small scale it
is mean, but if it is extensive and rich, bringing nu-
merous commodities from all parts of the world, and
giving bread to numbers without fraud, it is not so
despicable." Still the moralist thinks it is in a meas-
ure despicable, for he straightway proceeds to com-
mend the course of the merchant who, in good time,
abandons his calling: " If, satiated with his profits,
he shall from the harbor step into an estate and
lands, such a man seems most justly deserving of
praise ; for of all gainful professions, nothing better
becomes a well-bred man than agriculture." *
This view of trade, held by one of the wisest of
the ancients, has prevailed almost to our own time.
The ill-repute accorded to the agents of commerce
has of course fallen abundantly upon the Jews. Ac-
cusations of exceptional sordidness and avarice
brought against them we may be sure are often un-
founded. How different from the view of our prede-
cessors has come to be modern judgment with respect
to taking interest for money? To take interest is
the unquestioned right of every lender, and whether
this interest be large or small, four per cent, or forty
per cent., is a matter, as most sensible men now be-
lieve, which should be left to take care of itself, un-
restricted by law. If the risk is great the borrower
expects to pay correspondingly ; if the risk is small,
* Offices, I, 42.
256 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the lender contents himself with a trifle. The pic-
ture which has been tlrawn of Jewish avarice is far
from beiiiLj an entire fiction, but let the circum-
stances be always remembered. If the Jew grew
greedy in his money-lending, the world often closed
to him every avenue of effort except the one narrow,
sordid channel. The Christian set himself against
him like flint. Can the Jew be blamed that he
skinned the flint ?
In some ways, men who in the past have been re-
garded with abhorrence, are seen by our fuller light
to have been benefactors. The cautious creditor
who looks narrowly at the borrower, who forecloses
the mortgage promptly and firmly when the due
payment fails, and who exacts to the last cent the
principal and interest, — has not the time gone by for
calling such men only hard-souled money-getters,
and for accusing them of grinding the faces of the
poor? Ought we not rather to look upon them as
agents of the greatest value in the discipline and
education of society? What lessons they enforce
upon the idle, the unpunctual, the improvident !
The thrifty and industrious have nothing to fear
from them ; the influence of such lenders in a com-
munity is to drive out shiftlessness — to make all
careful and diligent. It may be affirmed that the
Jews, through the long ages when they have been
vilified as so sordid and covetous, administered to the
world a most important sch(K:)ling. No doubt they
have been sometimes rapacious, but it could not
well have been otherwise. While all other avenues
were closed to the Jew, the jealousy of artisans on
THE MONE V KING. 257
the one hand excludini^ them from the handicrafts
much more strictly than American mechanics shut
out negroes and Chinese, — on the other hand the
higher professions and pubHc life being quite inac-
cessible, there was no path for them but in the one
despised direction. What wonder that there was
sometimes overreaching, and that a habit of taking
the largest advantage of the hard world which mal-
treated them so cruelly, should have sprung up and
become hereditary ? When his prejudices have not
acted, the Jew has been charitable and generous.
Among themselves there has not usually been mean
withholding of aid. Even where his prejudices have
stood in the way, the number of instances is not
small where the Jew has nobly surmounted them,
rising into a charity extended even towai'd his per-
secutors.
In trade and exchange, the Jew in the darkest
times has had sufficient vigor and shrewdness to
flourish ; as society has become humane and estab-
lished, — as the rights of property have been recog-
nized and made secure, straightway the children of
Jacob step to the front, become the kings of market
and bourse, and by the might of money make a way
for themselves. Men like Spinoza and Moses Men-
tlelssohn, with their great intellectual power and
beautiful spirit, have caused the world to respect
their race. Israel, however, has brought to bear
coarser instruments, which have been more effective,
perhaps, in breaking for her a path to a better place.
And now let us glance at the career of a remarkable
family.
258 TIIK STORY OF THE JEWS.
The streets in the Juden-gasse at Frankfort are
(lark even by day ; the worn thresholds are still in
place that have been stained \\ith blood in tiie old
massacres ; the houses are furrowed and decrepit as
if they had shared in the scourgings which their
owners have undergone. A picturesque, gabled
dwelling rises not far from the spot where once stood
the gate within wdiich the Jews were barred at night-
fall, and behind which they sometimes sought to
shelter themselves when the wolves of persecution
were upon their track. Here lived one hundred
years ago Meyer Anselm, whose surname, derived
fnjm the sign above his door, was Rothschikl. The
money-changer had raised himself from a low posi-
tion by unusual dexterity.* By a touch of the finger
he could tell the value of any strange ccjin ; at the
same time he had won a name as an honest man.
At length into the Rhine region, in the year 1793,
came pouring the legions of the red republicans from
France. The princes fled in terror from the inva-
sion, and the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, driving up
to the door of the Jew, in the confusion, surprised
him with this address: " I know of old )-<)ur trusti-
ness. I confide all I have in the worhl to you.
Here is my treasure; here are the jewels of my
famil)'. Save the jewels if auhi can, and do with the
money as you choose." The landgrave became a
fugitive, and within an hour or two the sans culottes,
taking possession of the cit)-, were j)lundering high
and low. Neither Jew nor Christian escaped, Meyer
Anselm suffering with the rest.
* Several interesting facts in this skelcli are derived from a letter of
" [unot's " in the Pliiladt'lphiu Press.
IN THE FRANKFURT JUUFN-UASSE.
26o THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Ten years later, with the coming of Napoleon into
power, stability was again restored. The landgrave,
returning, called at the Red Shield in the Juden-gasse
of I'Vankfort, with small hope of receiving a good re-
port. " Well, here I am, friend Meyer, escaped with
nothing but life." To his astonishment, the faithful
tiustee had been able through all the trouble of the
time to conduct affairs prosperously. While his own
means had been plundered, he had saved in some
hiding-place in the cellar-wall the treasure of the
prince. The heirloom jewels were untouched ; with
the money he had made a million ; and he now re-
stored all to the wondering landgrave, principal and
interest. This was the beginning of the marvellous
career of the great house of Rothschild. The prince
spread far and wide the story of his rescue from ruin.
One may well suspect that the shrewd old hawk
of the Juden-gasse had had all along a careful eye
toward the comfortable feathering of his own nest.
At any rate, no better policy for the advancement of
his interests could have been hit upon than this
honesty in the affairs of the distressed prince. In
ten years he was the money king of Europe, trans-
mitting to his able sons, when he himself died in
1812, a proud inheritance ^\■hich the}' well knew how
to improve.
Ileinrich Heine has left an interesting account of
being conducted by Ludwig licirne through the
Judcn-gassc of l^'rankfort, both of them at the time
poor Jewish boys, but destined in after years to
become the most famous writers of Germany. It
was the evening of the " 1 laiioukhah," the feast of
THE MONEY KINGS. 26 1
lamps. The story has been told how Judas Mac-
caba^us, after a victory over the oppressor of his race,
had caused the altar of the true God to be recon-
structed. It was necessary that the lamps in the
sacred porches should be rekindled, to the sound of
instruments and the chant of the Levites. Only one
vial of oil, however, could be found in the Temple,
but, miraculously, the one poor vial sufificed to feed
the golden candlestick for a week. This wonder it
is which the children of Jacob commemorate in the
feast of lamps. Meyer Anselm had gone to his
account, but his wife survived, a personality as
marked as the old money-changer himself. " Here,"
said Borne to Heine, pointing to the weather-beaten
house, " dwells the old woman, mother of the Roths-
childs, the Letitia who has borne so many financial
Bonapartes. In spite of the magnificence of her
kingly sons, rulers of the world, she will never leave
her little castle in the Juden-gasse. To-day she has
adorned her windows with white curtains in honor of
the great feast of joy. How pleasantly sparkle the
little lights which she has kindled, with her own
hands, to celebrate a day of victory ! While the old
lady looks at these lamps, the tears start in her eyes,
and she remembers with a sad delight that younger
time wlien her dear husband celebrated the Hanou-
khah with her. Her sons then were yet little chil-
dren, who planted their silver-branched lamps upon
the floor, and, as is the custom in Israel, jumped
over them in childish ecstasy."
On his death-bed Meyer Anselm made his five
sons bind tliemselves b)' an oath that the)' would
262
THE srOKY OF THE JEWS.
remain faithful Jews, that they would always cany
on business in company, that they would increase
money as much as possible, but never divide it, ami
that they would consult their mother on all affairs of
importance. The old mother long survived her hus-
band. She had a singular reason for never sleeping
away from her poor home in the Juden-gasse ; she
felt that her remaining there was in some way con-
nected with the fortune of her sons. H. C. Ander-
sen draws a picturesque scene, the open door of the
house of one of her sons at Frankfort, when he had
become a financial prince, rows of servants with
lighted candles on heavy silver candlesticks, between
them the old mother carried down stairs in an arm-
chair. The son kisses reverently the mother's hand
as she nods genial!}^ right and left, and they bear
her to the poor lodging in the despised quarter.
The luxury of sovereigns was prepared for her, but
that the good fortune of her sons depended u[)on
lier remaining where she had borne them was her
superstition.
The wish of the father was conscientiously ful-
filled. The house abounded in wealth, and in children
and grandchildren. The five sons, Anselm, Solomon,
Nathan, Charles, and James, divided among them-
selv(\s the principal exchanges of the world, were
diplomatically represented in foreign lands, regulating
all their affairs, their dowries, marriages, and inherit-
ances, by their own family laws. Nathan Meyer, the
third son of Anselm, who became head of the
London house early in the present century, was the
leader of the faniil)'. He went to England a }'outh
THE MONEY KINGS. 263
of twenty-one, with a portion of about $100,000.
Establishing himself in Manchester as manufacturer,
merchant, and banker, he became a millionaire in
six years. Removing then to London, his famous
career in connection with the government began.
In every move he was adroit as a fox, and yet full
of audacity. He managed in surprising w^ays to
obtain news, breeding carrier-pigeons, employing the
fastest vessels, discovering short routes for uniting
the great capitals, using his superior information
often with too little scruple, but in ways which few
business men would question. On the memorable
1 8th of June, 181 5, the sharp eyes of Nathan Meyer
watched the fortunes of Waterloo as eagerly as those
of Najooleon or Wellington. He found some shot-
proof nook near Hougomont, whence he peered over
the field, — saw the charge before which Picton fell,
the countercharge of the Enniskilleners and Scotch
Grays, the immolation of the French Cuirassiers,
the seizure of La Haye Sainte at the English centre,
the gradual gathering of the Prussians, and at last
the catastrophe, as the sunset light threw the
shadow of the poplars on the Nivclles road across
the awful wreck, and the ^^ sative qui pent" of the
panic-stricken wretches arose, who fled in the dusk
before the implacable sabres of Bliicher. When the
decision came, the alert observer cried, cxultingiy:
"The house of Rothschild has won this battle!"
Then, mounting a swift horse which all day had
stood saddled and bridled, he rode through the short
June night at a gallop, reaching, with daybreak, the
shore of the German ocean. The waters were toss-
264 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ing stormily, and no vessel would venture forth.
The eager Jew, hurrying restlessly along the shore,
found a bold fisherman at last, who, for a great
bribe, was induced to risk his craft and himself. In
the cockle-shell, drenched and in danger of founder-
ing, but driving forward, the English shore was at
length gained, and immediately after, through whip
and spur, London.
It was early morning of June 20th when he dropped
upon the capital, as if borne thither upon the en-
chanted mantle of the Arabian Nights. Only gloomy
rumors, so far, had reached the British world. The
hearts of men were depressed, and stocks had sunk
to the lowest. No hint of the truth fell from the
lips of the travel-worn but vigilant banker, so sud-
denly at his post in St. Swithin's Lane. Simply, he
was ready to buy consols as others were to sell.
With due calculation, all appearance of suspicious
eagerness was avoided. He moved among the
bankers and brokers, shaking his head lugubri-
ously. " It is a sad state of affairs," his forlorn face
seemed to say; "what hope is there for England?"
and so his head went on shaking solemn!}', and those
who met him felt confirmed in their impression that
England had gone b}' the board, and that it was
perhaps best to get away in time, before the French
advanced guard took possession of the city. But he
bought consols, for some unaccountable reason, and
his agents were in secret everywhere, read}' to buy,
though a panic seemed to be impending. So passed
June 20th — so passed June 21st. On the evening of
that dav' the exchange closed, and the chests of Nathan
THE MONEY KINGS.
265
Meyer were crammed with paper. An hour later,
came galloping into the city the government courier,
with the first clear news of victory. London flashed
into bonfires and illuminations. The exchange
opened next day with every thing advanced to fabu-
lous prices. In the south corner, under a pillar which
NATHAN MKYER KUIHSCHILD.
was known as his place, leaned the operator so match-
less in swiftness and audacity. His face was pale,
his eye somewhat jaded ; but his head, for some rea-
son, had lost its unsteadiness. His face, too, had
lost its lugubriousness, but had a dreamy, happy
expression, as if he beheld some beatific vision. The
little gentleman had made ten millions of dollars.
266 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Tlu' liousc of Rothschild, it has been said, was
rapacious, as well as bold and full of tact, often
showing toward the hard world the ancient Hebrew
implacabilit}', and stripping it witliout mercy. When
England in the struggle with Napoleon was sore
pressed to supply its fleets and armies, the Roths-
childs, bu}-ing up all the available food and clothing,
are accused of having caused prices to advance
largely; at the same time they possessed themselves
of all the gold. .Supplies must be purchased of the
house, and when the settlement came, gold must
also be purchased at a great premium. The treasury
bought gold of the Rothschilds to pay its obligations
to the Rothschilds, and so the child of Jacob flayed
the Gentile with a two-edged sword. Wellington, it
is said, could never afterward endure the family, and
put many a slight upon them, even while they held
between thumb and finger the princes of Europe.
The famous martinet was familiar with militar}', but
not with business, expedients. It is not probable that
the financiers of any bourse in the world, at the
present time, could condemn the methods of the
able Hebrews without condemning themselves.
So grew great the house of Rothschild. Its whole
course was a marvel of enterprise. Its boldness
brought it sometimes to the brink of ruin, but more
often the Jews' shekels were breeding like rabbits.
Now it acquired the monopoly of supplying the
world with quicksilver, now it saved a bankrupt
monarchy from destruction, now it turned aside the
march of armies. The five sons of the wrinkled old
money-changer of the red shield in the Frankfort
THE MONEY KINGS. 26y
Juden-gasse, who had played as little children on the
Maccaba^an festival with their seven-branched silver
candlesticks, held court as money kings in London,
Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Naples. They were finan-
cial agents of all the important governments, con-
ductors of every money transaction upon a large
scale. Meantime the oath sworn to the dying father
was respected. The brothers were bound by the
strongest ties, their children intermarried, they got
all they could, and kept all they got, until men
scarcely dared to name their wealth. It was a giddy
and harassing eminence. One day in 1836, Nathan
Meyer, a man scarcely past middle age, left London
to attend the marriage of his eldest son in a distant
city of the continent. Weeks passed ; at length a
little incident happened at Brighton, exciting at first
slight wonder, but afterward gaining more fully the
world's attention. An idle marksman, catching sight
of a bird which, after breasting the breeze of the
English channel, was flying somewhat heavily over
the town, its wings drooping as if from a long pass-
age, brought it down by a lucky shot. It proved to
be a carrier-pigeon, about whose neck was tied a slip
of paper, dated only the day before in a far-away
part of Europe. It contained only the three French
words : " II est mort." The marksman wondered
who the mysterious dead man could be, and specu-
lated with his neighbors over the slip. At length it
was made plain. The bird whose flight was inter-
rupted was carrying to St. Swithin's Lane news of
the great banker's death, a timely message, that
sail might be reefed and all be tight and trim for
268 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the shock, when perhaps after a fortnight's time, by
slow-moving coach and bark, the news should reach
the world that the nujncy king no longer lived.
Lionel Rothschild, eldest son of Nathan Meyer,
and his successor as head of the London house, was,
in a different wa}-, not less famous than his father.
He was of agreeable person and manners, the friend
of royalty and the nobilit)', himself at last ennobled,
and of great political influence, even before he sat in
Parliament. He became the central figure in the
struggle for the abrogation of Jewish disabilities.
He was elected to Parliament in 1847, the first son
of his race so honored ; but for ten years, as he stood
before the bar of the Plouse of Commons to take the
oath, he was each year rejected, because his uplifted
hand, upon the enunciation of the words " on the
faith of a Christian," fell promptly to his side. The
Israelite yielded by no jot, but the Christian at last
gave way. Baron Lionel's palace in London ad-
joined Apsley House, the mansion of Wellington,
and bore on its front the arms of the German empire,
the consul-generalship of which was handed down
through the generations of the family. Great states-
men were his guests, the princes of the royal family
made a point of being present at the weddings and
christenings of his children, ambassadors of the
highest powers came to sign as witnesses, and the
sovereign sent gifts.
The career of James, the son of Anselm Meyer
who became head of tlie Paris liouse, is no less ex-
tra<jrdinar\' than that of Nathan Alej'er in London.
THE MONEY KINGS. 269
After the overthrow of Napoleon, the allies required
from the restored Bourbon, Louis XVI 1 1., the im-
mense sum of 200,000,000 francs, as an indemnity
for their sacrifices in bringing about the consumma-
tion. James Rothschild first became a great power
in France, through his successful conduct of this
immense operation. With soul as haughty as the
royal line to whose relief he had come, he demanded
social recognition for himself and wife. " What ! "
cried the Duchesse d' Angouleme, daughter of the
king, " the chair of a Jew in the royal circle ! They
forget the ruler of France is the most Christian king."
The demand was refused ; but Baron James, for he
had acquired a title, established in the magnificent
palace presented by Napoleon I. to his step-daugh-
ter Queen Hortense de Beauharnais, waited for his
opportunity. When at length, at the revolution of
1830, the house of Orleans supplanted the Bourbons,
it was the Hebrew parvenu who made it possible for
Louis Philippe to mount the throne. The social
barrier was now surmounted. The monarchy itself
only existed at the Baron's pleasure. His family
were as splendidly lodged as royalty itself at the
Tuileries. Madame la Baronne gave the law to the
social world. Paris followed her beck, and at the
fashionable watering-places, in magnificence of rai-
ment, in ornaments and equipages, she outdazzled
the sovereigns. But the ambition of the Lsraelite was
insatiable. He used his high position for further
money-making, and was accused of showing little
loyalty except to his own faith and race. The sons
of the various houses of Rothschild in s/eneral, with
270 THE SrORY OF THE JEWS.
the exception of the branch in England, even while
deciding" the fate of nations hold themselves, as it
were, above politics. Parties and governments shift,
revolutions come and go, dynasty succeeding dy-
nasty ; but every turn of the political wheel drops
gokl into their ever-hungry coffers.
Often they have cared little to respect the feelings,
reasonable or otherwise, of the world which they have
substantially swayed. In the time of Baron James
at Paris, the journals were full of hits at the alleged
meanness and vulgarity which, it was insisted, the
house of Rothschild coupled with their magnificence.
Millions, it was charged, went in luxurious display,
but rarely a sou for art or public improvements. One
fmds such stories as follow : One day, at a festival,
Rothschild was approached by a lady who asked
from him a contribution for a charitable object. The
baron dropped a gold piece into her box, which the
lady, whose attention at the moment was attracted
elsewhere, did not perceive. She repeated her re-
(juest, whereupon the rich man curtly declared he
had ahx-ady given. " Pardon," said the Iatl\', " I
did not see you, but I believe you." " And I,"
said a witty princess who stood near, "saw it, but I
do not believe it." Some one once related before
Scribe, the dramatist, that Rothschild had the even-
ing before lost ten napoleons at play, without an
expression of regret. " Nothing surprising in that,"
was the quick remark ; " great griefs are always voice-
less." But Plutus elbowed his way cavalierly for-
ward, caring little for gibes or harsher criticism.
" H(nv is Madame l.i Baronnc?" politely int]uired a
THE MOiWEY KINGS. 2/1
man of high rank, who met the Jew at the opera.
" What 's that to )'ou," was the rejoinder, as he
turned his back. To Prince Paul of Wiirtemberg,
who was once his guest at dinner, the baron took
pleasure in being roughly familiar. " Paul, let me
help you to some of this Johannisberg," at length he
began. As the prince did not reply, the presuming
host repeated the remark ; upon which his highness,
with his feathers well ruffled, beckoning to the stew-
ard, said : " Do you not hear? the baron is addressing
you," and left the house.
Baron James could snub a duke, or even a sovereign,
with perfect self-possession, but there was one man
by whom he seemed to be cowed and mastered, the
brilliant Heinrich Heine, one of his own race, already
more than once mentioned in these pages, and whom
we shall hereafter attentively consider. Heine was
often at the banker's palace, maintaining his inti-
macy, not through any obsequiousness, but by a kind
of spell which his bitter tongue exercised over the
host. As Heine declared, he was received '' fajuil-
lioiiairemcnt,'' because the poor banker wished to be
the first to hear the evil which his reckless guest was
going to say about him. One day, as the baron was
drinking a glass of the Neapolitan wine called " La-
crim;e Christi," he remarked on the strangeness of
the name, and wondered how it could have origi-
nated. " That 's easy enough," said Heine ; " it
means, translated, that Ciirist shed tears to have such
good wine wasted on Jews like you.
As Baron Lionel, in London, was more courtly
and gracious than his pushing father, so Baron
2/2 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Alphonsc, the son of James, showed to the world a
less brusque exterior tlian might liave been expected
from the atmosphere in which lie had been educated.
Napoleon III. received him almost as a member of
the imperial family. A palace of the Orleans house,
in the Rue St. Honore, became his Paris home, while
for a country-seat he bought the magnificent ducal
estate of Ferrieres, thirty miles from the city. Here
the display was profuse and ostentatious beyond all
example. A great fete, given to the court in 1869,
cost a million francs, and the gold and silver plate
which the sovereign had used was melted down after
the dinner that it might serve no humbler guests.
It was a proper fate that the ruler who could counte-
nance such coarse wastefulness, should be driven
^\•ithin a twelvemonth from his power. The house
of Rothschild, however, floated buoyant on the
waves of the stormy upheaval, saw the Prussians
enter with little regret, and was even spared by the
Conmiunc, when all else was subjected to destruction
or pillage.
^^<^'^:'^^fs/j>Y^~^^^7'^'^^'-'^' (jj
'filial
CHAPTER XVII.
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE.
In a worldly sense, nothing can be more brilliant
than the career of the great family of Rothschild.
Before their time there have been rich Hebrews;
but, whether from the extraordinary ability of the
men, or whether because now circumstances have
made such a thing possible, as never before, such an
aggregation of wealth has never before been known
in the hands of a few individuals. The power they
have wielded in consequence of it has been enormous,
and has contributed essentially to lift their whole
race into a prominent position before the world.
Can the career of the family be called an honorable
one? Before many a transaction of theirs the
moralist will shake his head dubiously, as perplexed
as poor Nathan Meyer seemed to be on the London
Exchange on those June days in 1815. Let us refer
for a moment to an old-fashioned way of looking at
these things. To cite once more Cicero, we are
told in his " Ue Officiis," a story of certain ves.sels
which, in a time of great scarcity at Rhodes, set sail
thitlicr in company from Alexandria, in l'lgy[)t,
loaded with corn. One ship, swifter than the rest,
and with a more skilful captain, outsailed its com-
274 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
panions, and arrived at its anchorage near the
Colossus, wh'ilc the remainder of the fleet was several
hours distant. The neuh' arrived captain is straight-
way surrounded by a hungry crowd, who, quite
ignorant of the abundance close at hand, are willing
to give him an enormous price for his cargo. "What
now does right require ? " asks the old moralist. Is
the captain justified in keeping quiet, letting the
people find out for themselves, and taking the im-
mense price, — or is he in dut\' bound to tell the
Rhodians there is provision enough three hours away
to feed them all ? Put the case to a crowd on 'Change
in any modern city, what would the repl}' be likely
to be? Cicero was in no doubt. In his view, there
was no right course but for the captain to tell the
people frankl}' that the other ships were ccjming; to
conceal the fact was to take an unfair advantage.
Ought Nathan Meyer to have told the Londoners of
Wellington's victory, or did he do right to keep
quiet and pocket his ten millions? and in a thousand
other instances in the history of the great house, do
we find the dealing fair and above-board ; or is it
rather sharp practice that trenches all along upon
dishonesty?
That the old heathen would have condemned
much of the cunning scheming and adroit manipu-
lation, there can lie no manner of doubt. For our
modern day, let our preachers and moralists speak
for themselves. It would be hulicrous, however, to
hear criticisms upon such a course from the Ameri-
can business world, ^'ou inquire as )-ou ride with a
frientl through some great cit)': ''Who is l)uilding
SI/? MOSES MONTEFIORE. 275
this magnificent palace here on the bon-ton boule-
vard?" "That belongs to A, so famous for his
corner in butter last fall. To be sure a hundred
weaker operators came to the ground, and many
a poor family went with their bread dry, but it
was capitally managed, and perhaps he will be presi-
dent of the Board of Trade." " Who drives yonder
superb horses and equipage?" That is B, so lucky
the other day at the ' bucket-shop ' ; and he is about
to dine at the club with C, who makes the world pay
five prices for that indispensable commodity which
he is shrewd enough to control." Now who are A
and B and C ? " Hebrew sharpers " ? Far from. it.
The first is a Vermonter, whose ancestor held the
torch while Ethan Allen broke down the gate at
Ticonderoga. The line of the second goes back to
the "Mayflower"; and as to the third, his great-
grandfather, in the heart of old Virginia, sold George
Washington the very hatchet which Truth, as we all
know, bears for an emblem, as Hope carries the an-
chor, and I'aith the cross, and Justice the scales, —
Americans all, umnixed, and of the finest strains.
It may be suggested to Americans inclined to find
fault with "Jew sharpers," that their house is of
glass from which it is not wise to throw stones.
Over-harsh judgment of the ways of modern com-
merce are perhaps possible. The Israelite business-
man sometimes trades in old clothes, and sometimes
is finance minister of an empire ; his Yankee counter-
part sometimes peddles pop-corn on a railroad train,
or as a railroad king brings now prosperity, now ruin,
to whole States by a nod of his head. Much that
276 THE SrORY OF THE JEWS.
goes for rap;icit\\ over-reaching, criminal indifference
to human welfare, possibly deserves far milder char-
acterization. With what genius, at any rate, docs
the son of Jacob move in this tangled world of
affairs — so energetic, so persistent, so adroit, — spring-
ing to the leadership so dexterously, whoever may
be his competitors ! As he invented banking in the
middle ages, so now in our more complex modern
life, it is the Jew who leads the way in the devising
of expedients, in the planning of adjustments, by
which order can be brought out of the perplexity —
new methods of manipulation coming to pass under
his dexterous hand, the financial domain spun across
with bewildering devices, until the plain man finds
it all unintelligible, however necessary it may be in
the confusion of immense and intricate relations.
Good types of this strange Semitic ingenuity, often
blameless, often beneficent, but on the other hand
often unscrupulous, — in ways, however, which it is
not always easy to find fault with, — full of audacity,
full also of cunning, — which sees to it narrowly that
the bold bound shall not overleap or fall short of
the precise aim, one may find in the great French
operators Isaac and Emile Pereire. Natives of Bor-
deaux, they began their careers in Paris as brokers.
Growing in wealth, they were the first P^renchmen to
build railroads, managing to obtain for them money
and credit when they were looked upon askance as
disturbing, perhaps dangerous, innovations. Their
enterprises became colossal, until, from being the
railroad kings of P'rance, they grasped at power over
the whole continent of Europe, organizing and con-
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE. 277
trollint^ companies by the score, buying up, for in-
stance, at a stroke, all the government railroads of
Austria. It is said the Pereires are to be looked
upon as the originators of all those intricacies of
modern railroad-finance, whose nomenclature is so
constantly in the mouths of the men on 'Change,
but before which the plain citizen despairs as having
a meaning quite impenetrable, — common stock, pre-
ferred stock, first, second, third, perhaps thirteenth
mortgage-bonds, floating-debt, watering, credit mo-
bilier, and what not. The practice of founding joint-
stock corporations for the sole purpose of negoti-
ating the stock and realizing on it, is said to be
strictly their own invention, copied to a calamitous
extent throughout the entire civilized world. The
Pereires, the elder brother in particular, were zealous
philanthropists, combining in a most incongruous
way heartless selfishness in business matters with
universal charity. The account which is given of
them declares : " They illustrate the quaint mixture
of virtue and vice in human nature. They thought
themselves honestly virtuous, while stern moralists
may think them simply vicious. In reality they
were a novel mixture of good hearts and egre-
gious business habits which made them rich while
others were impoverished."*
It is pleasant to be able to show, after the consid-
eration of careers somewhat questionable, such as
have just been detailctl, that the Hebrew business-
man is by no means necessarily rapacious. One of
* Boston Advertiser.
278 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the noblest aiul most picturesque types of modern
philanthropy has come forth directly from the inner
circle of these great financial princes, a man whose
labors, journeys, and benefactions, promptetl by a
wise and generous spirit, are as unparalleled as the
shrewdness, audacity, and persistence through which
his kindred antl partners succeeded in winning the
world.
Sir Moses Montefiore,* whose death is announced
just as this book goes to press, as full of honors as of
years, received the homage of the whole civilized
world, October 24, 1884, upon his hundredth birth-
day. He united in himself all that is most charac-
teristic of his race in mental and physical respects.
A close observer of the old Mosaic law, he showed in
his body the astonishing vigor w hich a faithful fol-
lowing of the sanitary provisions of Pentateuch and
Talmud may bring to pass. In mind he had the
characteristic Jewish sharpness which won for him on
the exchange a colossal fortune ; in spirit he had the
Jewish intensity, manifested in his case not in any
narrow or selfish way, but in a humanity broad as
the world ; at the same time he cherished with per-
fect devotion the traditions and faith of his fore-
fathers, and anticipated with enthusiasm the day
when the throne of David should be again established
on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. Few biogra-
phies can be cited which offer so much that is
extraordinary as the varied story of this elder of the
Hebrews, from his youth to his retirement in his
quiet home by the sea, in Kent.
* *' Life of Sir Moses Montefiore," by Lucien Wolf.
28o THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
His blood was of tlic best Israelite strain. An
ancestor of his was the bold sailor, Lamego, that
captain of Vasco tie Gama, who brought back to
Europe the first intelligence that his admiral had
found the passage about the Cape of Good Hope.
Of his particular family, whose Italian origin is made
plain by the name, Montefiore, the earliest memorial
preserved is a silk ritual curtain in the synagogue at
Ancona, magnificently embroidered and fringed witli
gold ; this was the work of an ancestress as far back
as 1630, and is suspended before the ark on the
great festivals. Like the Disraelis, the Montefiores
came to England, when at length, through Cromwell,
the bars had been removed, and with the present
century reached fame and wealth. Moses Monte-
fiore's way to fortune was smoothed by his marriage
with the sister-in-law of Nathan Meyer Rothschild.
His brother, also, was married to a sister of Nathan
Meyer; still a third link bound the families together,
for the second son of Nathan Meyer married his first
cousin, the niece of Moses Montefiore. With the
strong Jewish feeling of clanship, one can understand
how close the connection must have become with
the great house which possessed such power. Moses
Montefiore was, in fact, the broker of the Rothschilds
during the most heroic period of the great operators.
No suspicion, however, has ever attached to him, of
the sharp practice w^hich has sometimes hurt the repute
of the famous bankers. I^^ree from all overweening
greed, he withdrew early from active business, with
a fine fortune indeed, but untainted by the spirit
of covetousness, and through constant beneficent
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE. 28 1
activity, has won for himself the best possible re-
nown.
He set on foot among his people the movement
which resulted in the doing away of Jewish disabili-
ties, and at length brought it about that his nephew,
Baron Lionel Rothschild, sat in the British Parlia-
ment. But most memorable have been his journeys,
— one should rather say his lordly progresses, — -again
and again undertaken, to Africa, to Asia, and through-
out the whole of Europe, in behalf of his suffering
co-religionists, whose bonds he has broken and whose
poverty he has relieved, rather as if he were a magnif-
icent potentate than a simple British citizen. Side
by side with his wife, of spirit and energy resembling
his own, in a kind of princely state, with a coach
and six, or a special train, upon land, and upon sea
in French or British frigates placed at his disposal,
he discharged his self-imposed missions with a curi-
ous pomp. Nothing can be more picturesque than
the scenes described as attending these expeditions.
Barbaric princes yield humbly to the demand that
humanity shall be respected. Sultan, Czar, and
Pope, no less than petty princeling and robber cap-
tain, give him honor and promise amendment. The
Jew's urging, it is felt, is backed by immense power,
and his hands scatter largesses such as the coffers of
few monarchs could afford.
It is scarcely credible that within fifty years civil-
ized men should have aided and abetted in such
enormities as occurrccf in Damascus and Rhodes in
1S40. A Jewish persecution sprang up in those
towns, scarcely less terrible than the dark deeds of
282 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
those mcdircval zealots to which certain of these
pages have referred. The inveterate blood-accusa-
tion, that Jews had committed murder to obtain
human blood for use in their sacrifices, was again
made, and fanaticism once more expressed itself in
torture and slaughter. Men were scourged to death,
as of old ; others were blinded and maimed for life ;
sixty little children, from three to ten years old,
were taken from their mothers and shut up without
food ; by their starvation, the parents were to be
forced, through anguish of soul, into confession.
Damascus and Rhodes are, to be sure, Turkish
cities, but the French Consul of the former town
was one of the most active persecutors, and in the
latter, the representatives of several civilized powers
connived at the cruelties.
Montefiorc, living retired in his beautiful Kentish
villa, felt his heart stirred at the sufferings of the
faithful. He roused civilized Europe to indignation,
proceeding himself to the spot where the persecutions
were taking place. The French statesman Cremieux,
himself of Hebrew race, was at the same time active
at the court of Louis Philippe, and elsewhere were
heard influential Hebrew voices. It was the British
Jew, however, whose hands and tongue were most
heljjful. He was presently on the spot, backed by
all the j:)ower of enormous wealth and the might of
England. The dead could not be brought back to
life, nor could the blinded and crippled regain their
lost members, but so far as human means could avail,
the wrongs were righted. Out ()f the agitation grew
the powerful " Alliance Israelite Universelle," an or-
SIR MOSES MOr^TEFlORE. 283
ganization through which the well-placed Hebrews
of civilized lands have sought to make impossible
hereafter the renewal of mediaeval barbarities.
Sir Moses Montefiore has felt keenly the taunt of
Cobbett, that the " Israelite is never seen to take a
spade in his hand, but waits, like the voracious slug,
to devour what has been produced by labor in which
he has no share." In Palestine and elsewhere, he
has sought to make the Jews agricultural and indus-
trial, and in his records seems never more pleased
than when he can describe Hebrew farmers and arti-
sans. Great though his might has everywhere been
through his personal: force and the power always be-
hind him, he has met with his rebuffs. Said Prince
Paskievitch, the Russian governor of Poland, to him,
when he was urging upon that official the propriety
of doing something for the education of his people:
" God forbid ! the Jews are already too clever for us.
How would it be if they got good schooling ! "
The pictures are touching and dramatic which arc
given in the accounts of Sir Moses Montefiore's
journeys, and none are finer than those drawn by
his wife, Judith, his frequent companion, a devoted
Hebrew like her husband. Both believed in the
restoration of Israel to the Holy Land, the soil of
which they loved as if they were native to it, with
all the wondrous Hebrew patriotism. On one occa-
sion, as they arrive, she breaks out : " Anchor was
cast in the Bay of Beyrout, and magnificent was the
scene presented to our view. Immediately before
us rose the lofty mountains of Lebanon, precipitous
and crowned with snow, in strange contrast with the
284 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
yellow, barren shore, and, stranger still, the glowing
sky, and the dazzling rays of the sun, wrapping the
town of Sidon itself in a blaze of morning splendor."
" At the ancient Gilead, how many solemn though
pleasurable thoughts floated through our minds !
Oh, how does the heart of the pilgrim cling to and
yearn over the words of the prophet ! ' I will bring
Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on
Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied
upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead. In those days
and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none ;
and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found,
for I will pardon them whom I reserve.' "
The strain of the writer rises into solemn rapture
as Jerusalem is approached : " What the feelings of
a traveller are, when among the mountains on which
the awful power of the Almighty once visibly rested,
and when approaching the city where he placed his
name, whence his Law was to go forth to all the
world, where the beauty of holiness shone in its
morning splendor, and to which, even in its sorrow
and captivity, even in its desolation, the very Gen-
tiles, the people of all nations of the earth, as well
as its own children, look with profound awe and ad-
miration, — oh, what the feelings of the traveller are
on such a spot, and when listening to the enraptured
tones of Israel's own inspired king, none can imagine
but those who have had the felicitv to experience
them ! "
They approach, probably, by the same place
"Scopus," whence Alexander saw in the distance
286 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the vision of the Temple, and whence Titus caught
sight of the mighty ramparts which his army must
force. "Solemn as were the feelings excited by the
melancholy desolateness of the rocky hills and val-
leys through which we were passing, they were sud-
denly lost in a sense of indescribable jo)' — for now
the Holy City itself rose full into view, with all its
cupolas and minarets reflecting the splendor of the
heavens. Dismounting from our horses, we sat down
and poured forth the sentiments which so strongly
animated our hearts in devout praises to Him whose
mercy and providence alone had thus brought us,
in health and safety, to the city of our fathers."
Passing on, the train encamps upon the Mount of
Olives, separated front the town b}' the narrow
ravine. " The pure air of the Mount breathed
around us with the most refreshing fragrance ; and
as we directed our attention to the surrounding
view, Jerusalem was seen in its entire extent at
our feet, the Valley of Jehoshaphat to our left, and,
in the distance, the dark, misty waves of the Dead
Sea. "
They drew near Jerusalem on the following day
in a magnificent cavalcade. The Turkish governor
led the way, attended by his officers, and an escort
in costly and brilliant dress mounted upon the finest
Arab steeds. It would have been impossible to pay
more honor to a king. Through the Gate of the
Tribes the city was entered, and, as the Jewish quar-
ter was reached, bands of music and choirs of singers
welcomed the arrival, while a \ast crowd clapped
their hands in joy. Montefiore i)aid his first visit
288 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
to the synagogue, where, being called to the Sepher,
or sacred book, he offered prayer in the Jewish man-
ner for those present and also for English friends.
Judith Montefiore was allowed the honor of light-
ing four lamps in front of the shrine, and putting
the bells on the Sepher. During this sojourn, and
also at other times, for Montefiore has repeatedly
visited the Holy Land, charity was bestowed as
wisely as profusely, oppression was made to relax
its hold, and provision made for the education of^
the Jews in intelligence and habits of thrift. " Fare-
well, Holy City!" exclaims Judith Montefiore, at
last. " Blessed be the Al might)' who has protected
us while contemplating the sacred scenes which
environ thee ! Thankful may we ever be for his
manifold mercies ! May the fountain of our feel-
ings evermore run in the current of praise and entire
devotion to his will and his truth, till the time shall
arrive when the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion wath songs and everlasting jo\'
upon their heads ! "
In reading the story of Montefiore's life, one feels
transported back to the days of the patriarchs, so
astonishing is his long-continued strength. After
reaching eighty, he undertook four of his great phil-
anthropic journeys — two to Jerusalem, one to Rou-
mania, and one to Russia. Of the feats of his age,
none is more interesting than his visit to the Sultan
of Morocco, whose half million Jewish subjects had
become exposed to persecution, largely, as in the
Damascus case, through the incitement of the repre-
sentatives of Christian powers resident among them.
SIR MOSES MONTEFIORE. 289
A French frigate conveyed him from Gibraltar to
Tangier, where his landing bad a touch of the comic.
" Our captain," writes one of his retinue, " had con-
trived a kind of car, in which, for want of a suitable
landing-place, Sir Moses might be borne over a con-
siderable extent of shallow water between the boat
and the shore. His porters, and a great many of the
laboring class of Israelites were wading, and his su-
perior size thus conspicuously moving over the water,
surrounded by a shabby amphibious group, appeared
to me like a travestied representation of Neptune
among the Tritons." When matters at Tangier
had been put to rights, Sir Moses set out once more
from Gibraltar, this time with an English frigate at
his disposal, to make his way to the city of Morocco.
Arriving with an imposing suite, he was received by
the Sultan with the utmost honor. The barbaric
prince, surrounded by the flower of his army, mounted
upon a charger whose white color indicated that the
highest deference was shown, met the strangers. An
important edict was issued, granting all for which
the guest had asked. Thus relief was afforded not
only to Jews, but to Christians also, for the catholic
intercessor had besought of the Mohammedan good
treatment for men of all confessions.
Sir Moses stood in Jerusalem for the last time in
his ninetieth year, on a mission for the improvement
of the Palestinian Jews. Something of the fervor of
the psalms pervades the pages of the old man's
diary. On the night before reaching the sacred
shore, " Myriads of celestial luminaries, each of them
as large and bright almost as any of the radiant
290 THE SrOKY OF THE JEWS.
planets in the Western horizon, were now emitting
their silver)- rays of light in the spangled canopy-
over us. Sure and steady our ship steered towards
the coast of the land so dearly beloved, summoning
all to sleep ; but few of the passengers retired that
night. Every one of them appeared to be in medi-
tation. It was silent all around us — silent, so that
the palpitation of the heart might almost be heard.
It was as if every one had the words on his lips : ' Ah,
wlicn \\\\\ our ex'cs be gladdened by the first glance
of the Holy Land ! When shall we be able to set
foot on the spot which was the long-wished for goal
of our meditations ! ' Such were that night the feel-
ings of every Gentile passenger on board. And what
other thoughts, I ask, could have engrossed the
mind of an Israelite ? The words of Rabbi Jehuda
Halevi, which he uttered when entering the gates of
Jerusalem, now came into my mind : 'The kingdoms
of idolatry ^\•ill all change and disappear; thy glory
alone, O Zion, will last forever ; for the Eternal has
chosen thee for his abode. Happy the man who is
now waiting in confiding hope to behold the rising
glory of thy light ! ' "
But while the heart of Sir Moses could thus rhap-
sodize, a cool and practical good sense was shown,
as al\\a}'s, in his conduct. On the way to Jerusalem
he inspected narrowly the farms which he had before
set in operation, counted the fruit-trees that had
been set out, saw to tin: efficiency of tlie machines
for irrigation, with prudent thrift refused the steam-
engines that were petitioned for, because he thought
fuel too scarce and skilled labor too scanty; and
I'
v"^'^fi
■^■
#
f^-^'^"' /nil N '' ^f^
/
HI M 14
I f 1 f
1 1
292 THE STOKY.OF THE JEWS.
when he readied at last Jerusalem, set all to work
to clean the city to prevent the spread of cholera.
Nothintj so pleased him as the evidence he found
that the Palestinian Jews could be made to work.
In his appeal in their behalf he declares: "The Jews
in Jerusalem, in every part of the Holy Land, I tell
you, do work; are more industrious even than many
men in Europe ; otherwise none of them would re-
main alive. But, when the work does not sufificiently
pay ; when there is no market for the produce of the
land; when famine, cholera, and other misfortunes
befall the inhabitants, we Israelites, unto whom God
revealed himself on Sinai more than any other na-
tion, must step forward and render them help."
Practical sugi^estions follow, which were at once
acted upon. In late years the " Montefiore Testi-
monial Committee" has helped agricultural colonies,
established and loaned money to building societies,
and in particular made a beginning at Jerusalem of
a new and beautiful city outside the Jaffa gate, in
which there are already six hundred houses, whole-
some and modern, accommodating a population of
four thousand.
The generous hand of Sir Moses was a thousand
times stretched out in aid of the Gentile as well as
the Jew. He helped to build Protestant churches, to
found hospitals for the Turk and the Catholic, to lift
up the poor of all races and colors. Naturally and
properly, however, it was upon his fellow-Jews that
his beneficence was for the most part poured out.
It is quite possible that at the time of his death, no
man upon the face of the earth was more widely
S/H MOSES MONTEFIORE. 293
known. The civilized world celebrated his hun-
dredth birthday, and many a barbarian city as
well ; for his influence has been powerfully felt in
Bokhara and Samarcand, as well as in St. Peters-
burg and Rome, — in Timbuctoo and Pekin, as in
New York and San Francisco ; the Bedouin free-
booter, the Turkoman sheik, the Dahoman savage,
not less than Czar and Pope, have found their
ruthless hands stayed by his powerful intervention.
In face and form the old Hebrew was not less strik-
ing than in his years and deeds. He was six feet
three inches in height, and stooped but little even at
the last. His attire was of the fashion of sixty years
ago, — the high-collared coat, the huge white neck-
cloth and ample frill of the days of George IV.
There exists a fine portrait of him, in which things
incongruous strangely come together, but for him it
is all happily conceived. On a hill overlooking Jeru-
salem, with its walls and the mosque of Omar in the
background, stands his towering form in the costume
of a deputy-lieutenant of an English county.
It helps to the picturesqueness of this curious and
interesting figure of our times, that he remained a
thoroughly orthodox Jew. No one was more con-
stant at the synagogue until within a few years, and
even at one hundred he read daily every word of the
prescribed prayers. He fasted on the anniversary of
the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, and on the
Day of Atonement. The dietary laws of the Penta-
teuch he obeyed rigorously, and never tasted the
flesh of animals that divide not the hoof nor chew
tlie cud. For each Jewish man-child he would have
294 THE STORY OF THE JEIVS.
had the ancient rite of circnnicision, — at the passover
time must be the feast of unleavened bread, — upon
occasion he wore the embroidered tcphillin, the phy-
lacteries upon his front ; — he discharged in the syna-
gogue the functions of Gabay, Parnass, and long
filled the office of Lavadore, washer of the dead, con-
ductor of the solemn rites by which the bodies of
the chosen people are carefully made ready for the
sepulchre. The supporters on his arms hold aloft
banners on which the word "Jerusalem " is inscribed
in Hebrew characters, and Jerusalem has been the
watchword of his life. When questioned as to his
hope of a restoration of Israel, as expressed by the
rabbis and prophets, his reply was : " I am quite cer-
tain of it ; it has been my constant dream ; Pal-
estine must belong to the Jews, and Jerusalem is
destined to become the seat of a Jewish empire."
Of this man it ma}-, indeed, be said, following the
words of George Eliot, " he had Oriental sunlight in
his blood."
CHAPTER XVIII.
HEBREW STATESMEN.
The astonishing deeds of men of Hebrew blood as
statesmen, partly because leadership here always im-
presses men powerfully, partly because it is not until
recently that we have seen Jews in this eminence,
affect the world more profoundly than the other dis-
tinctions. It is startling enough to see within one
decade this remnant of a race, a small fraction of the
population of Europe, so far forward that a few
years ago George Eliot could say : " At this mo-
ment the leader of the liberal party in Germany is
a Jew, the leader of the Republican party in Erance
is a Jew, and the head of the Conservatives of Eng-
land is a Jew " ; while, as others assert, the foremost
Spanish republican, Castelar, is of Jewish descent,
and the diplomacy of Russia is guided by minds of
the same race.
Upon the career of the eloquent and public-spirited
Castelar we will not here dwell. The name of Lasker,
though he died among us, is less well-known to Ameri-
can ears than that of Gambetta, and much less fa-
miliar than that of Disraeli. Lasker* was, in the Ger-
man Reichstag, or Parliament, the recognized leader
* " German Pulitical Leaders," Tuttle.
296 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
of the yi'cat national liberal party (the majority of
the bod)-), the ablest debater in Germany, a man
with a brave following. It was he who, in company
with his fellow-Hebrews, the Frankfort banker Bam-
berger, and Oppenhcim, dared to put a hook into
the jaws of leviathan himself, the haughty Prince Bis-
marck, in his too cavalier dealing with the liberties of
the people. One reads with great satisfaction of the
triumph of this able, high-minded champion, over
the sneering, supercilious Junker party, the German
Squirearchy, which makes it its special work to
throw obstacles in the path of freedom. They, natu-
rall}-, beyond the rest of the nation, have felt the
traditional dislike of the Jews, and have been accus-
tomed to ask, when an\' financial scandal came out,
with elevated eyebrow and curled lip : " Well, who
is it this time, Isaac, or Abraham, or Moses?" as
if a swindler must of necessity be a Jew. It was
a complete turning of the tables, when Lasker, with
adroitness and boldness equally remarkable, brought
home some most discreditable railroad delinquencies
directly to the doors of Count Itzenplitz and Prince
Puttbus, high-born functionaries in especial favor
with the great chancellor and the emperor. With
all their influence, .there was no escape for them from
the exposures of the fearless deputy ; they hung gib-
beted in their fraud, and the scoffers were silenced.
A peculiarity of Lasker's oratory was that in his
enunciation the syllables were curiously detached,
as his speech flowed on in its fluent course. When
he rose in his place, a small unimpressive figure,
with a high piercing voice pouring itself out in
HEKK LASKP,R.
298 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
this singular staccato, all heads bent forward in re-
spectful listening; there was not a man in the em-
pire that could cope with the Hebrew in the intellect-
ual wrestle.
If it excites alarm in Germany that the Jews, not
two per cent, in the population, are elbowing them-
selves into all the best places, France perhaps has
scarcely less reason for fear. Those spiders, the
brothers Pereire, entangling France, then all Europe,
in a web of railroads, then sucking out the life and
forces of the ensnared in a revenue of millions, are
representatives of a class of great bankers. Much of
whatever success and glory the Second Empire can
lay claim to is due to the work of Achille Fould,
four times Finance Minister ; and in the times since,
how frequent upon the lips of men have been the
names of the republican deputies Cremieux and
Gambetta.
Gambetta!^^ A year or two since, there was per-
haps in the world no more interesting name. In the
humiliations of his country, in 1870, his efforts to
save her were colossal. He was afterwards, as
premier, virtual ruler of France, and was almost as
certain to become the real ruler had he lived as if the
unswerving primogeniture of the old regime were
still in force. He was descended from Jews of the
Italian city of Genoa. A curious story is told of him
in boyhood, which is of interest as betraying in him
that strange characteristic intensity of the children
of Jacob, and which in Gambetta was manifested
constantly afterward in his career. His father sent
*" Certain Men of Mark : Gambetta," Towle.
GAMBETTA.
300 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
him to a school which for some reason was distasteful
to him. He wrote home that if he were not taken
away he wouiti put out one of his eyes. His father
lauLj^hed at the threat and disregarded the request,
and was presently shocked at hearing that the boy
had actually put out one of his eyes, at the same
time coally writing that if he were not removed from
the hated place he would put out the other. Only a
Jewish boy could have resorted to such a measure,
so outre, so grotesque in the midst of its horrors, for
bringing his parent to terms. In 1868, the day came at
last when Gambetta, then an active, ambitious young
lawyer, was to take the first step toward a wide fame.
In defence of newspapers arbitrarily handled by the
censors of Napoleon HI., he made a speech which,
for vivacity, strength of invective, and beauty, is said
to be almost without parallel in the French language.
It was delivered on a dull afternoon in December, in
a little police court of the city. Gambetta spoke for
several hours with an audacity and earnestness that
completely overawed the tribunal, and he was not
interrupted. What he uttered was the rankest
treason, a veritable thunderbolt upon the imperial
head. If it had been delivered by an ordinary man
in an ordinary way, imprisonment would have fol-
lowed at once. As it was, judge and people sat spell-
bound. Rumors ran through the city that a great
revolutionar)' address was in progress, till prudent
tradesmen got their shutters read)', and called their
children home from school, fearing there would be
riots in the streets. Police were on the alert ; the
cavalry were held ready as on da\'s of barricade. The
HEBREW STATESMEN. 30I
flaring advocate was, however, left untouched, and
next morning was famous.
News of his speech was breathed mysteriously from
town to town, though the government watched the
telegraph, and within a week printed copies were in
the hands of the electors of all France. He was then
just thirty years old, always carelessly dressed, ner-
vous, with olive complexion, and intense, brusque
ways. A speech soon followed at Toulouse, in which
hostility to the empire was more plainly shown, and
at once the republicans took him up as their cham-
pion. He soon appeared in the Corps Legislatif.
As the central figure of a group of men sworn to
oppose the empire, he pointed out unshrinkingly the
follies and knaveries of the imperialist policy, not
hesitating to declare his belief that a new order of
things was at hand. He once cried out to the min-
ister of Napoleon HL, Olivier: "We accept you and
your constitution as a bridge to the republic ; that 's
all." When at length those days of 1870 came, so dark
for France, like Frenchmen in general, he had no con-
ception of the abyss upon the brink of which they
stood. Not sympathizing with the cry for war A\ith
Germany, he yet made no vigorous opposition, and
awoke overwhelmed with surprise at the afflictions
which prostrated his country. As the forces of the em-
pire were so dismally parried and beaten down, the
olive-skinned, one-eyed young deputy sprang to the
front with an astonishing vigor. Then first the world at
large began to read in the crowding despatches that
odd ItaHan name which afterwards became so fa-
miliar. He attained at once to prominence in the
302 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Committee of National Defence, and presently was
Minister of the Interior. For some time after the
beginning of the I'russicUi siege, he was at his post
in Paris, acute and bold, always crying out against
inaction, lavishing upon his disheartened country-
men, as he lashetl now the poltroons, now uttered
words of hope, such an eloquence as the French
chamber has seldom heard. The great Bossuet, in
the seventeenth century, was called " the eagle of
Meaux." In our time the eagle of France for soaring
speech was this impetuous son of the Jew ; and
appropriately enough, when he had tried in vain by
miracles in the forum to make good disasters in the
field, there came that picturesque balloon flight of
his, in which he sailed through the clouds above the
hostile belt of fire about Paris, and from a new eyrie
at Tours, while P" ranee lay for the most part beneath
the foot of the German, faced the danger with voice
<uul talon undismayed!
In those days there was such unheard of impotency
in ruler, in generals, in troops, that we knew almost
nothing of the few real heroes who fought against
fate wMth gigantic vigor — an astonishing struggle,
worthy of the best hearts in any age of that chival-
rous nation, though they were borne down. The
wrestle of Gambetta was prodigious. Paris for the
time was blotted out of France by the Prussian cor-
don. Elsewhere Gambetta was dictator, minister of
war and of peace. Py wonderful speech and unfalter-
ing courage in the face of the desperate circum-
stances, he concluded loans, raised armies, appointed
generals, quelled dissensions and revolts, combining
HEBREW STATESMEN. 303
in himself, as has been said, the executive faculties
of half a hundred officers. If he had known how to
handle the sword, those who 'studied the struggle
believe that even then, after Metz and Sedan, he
might have saved France. Such armies and leaders
as were still left, he tried to make receptacles of his
own abounding enthusiasm. His voice was heard
everywhere in the southern provinces always coun-
selling advance. He hoped against hope that a little
experience would make solid troops out of raw peas-
ant levies, inspirited his colleagues with confident
despatches, fired the disheartened soldiers with pro-
clamations that were Napoleonic, to face again and
again the iron Prussians. He was undaunted even
to the end.
For a moment he retired, but was forced into pub-
lic life in 1871, being elected deputy by ten depart-
ments. After the return of quieter times, Gambctta
stood in the fore-front of the Republicans, with a
power of moving the masses beyond that of any
contemporary. He grew more moderate, passing
from a revolutionary leader into a prudent statesman.
In quiet times his eloquence is described"'^ as "rich,
sensuous, full of heats, showers, lightnings, perfumes
of the south." He spoke with an infinity of gesture,
a constant play of thought and fancy in his mobile
face, leaving upon all an impression of reserved
power. But when the occasion called, there was a wild
passion in Gambetta absolutely indescribable. " His
hollow and resounding voice was like that of some
furious prophet of doom. His intense face would
* Towle.
304 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
sometimes fly out of the mass of listeners, the
more timorous of his side would catch him by the
clothing, but he could not be restrained. His arm
would be outstretched, and he would cry defiant con-
tradiction or hurl the lie in the teeth of those who
ventured to oppose him."
In fact there is nothing reported of those great
and burning spirits of the old Revolution, of Camille
Desmoulins, of Vergniaud, the Girondin, of the
golden-mouthed Mirabeau, indeed, which surpasses
what we hear of this towering descendant of the
Hebrew. Says a writer describing a stormy scene in
the Assembly : " Gambetta was astonishing in the
midst of the tumult. He went on with his hollow,
resounding voice, with a retort for every aggression,
his grand, powerful gestures knowing so well how to
give such terrific explosion to anger, such comic force
to irony. He went on in disorder, his hair falling
over his brow, shaking his head, throwing taunts at
his interrupters, distributing sledge-hammer blows,
sowing apostrophes and sarcasms broadcast."
Americans in general know little of the politics of
France. We have been inclined to belittle the na-
tion, though less of late than in 1870, when the brave
people were so strangely panic-struck and delivered
over. But down the dark future the wise reader of
the signs of the times seems to hear even now a new
clash of arms, a sudden, overwhelming spring upon
Alsace and Lorraine, an outpouring of molten zeal,
as in the revolutionary days, consuming, as it con-
sumed before, Teutonic power and prestige. There
was the other day, in France, a man of burning soul
HEBREW STATESMEN. 305
and commanding intellect, fully determined, if occa-
sion served, to attempt this. The idol of masses of
his countrymen, with his hand already on the strings
of power, a soul perhaps scarcely less potent than
that of the other Italian, the earth-shaking man of
destiny. Had he lived, the Genoese might have re-
peated the career of the Corsican.
And now we- take up the most singular and fasci-
nating of characters, the adventurer born among out-
casts, who had the address to make himself the lead-
er of the haughtiest and most conservative of
aristocracies, the Tories of Great Britain.* Born a
Jew of the " Sephardim," the dite of the race, of a
family of Spanish derivation, which, after a sojourn
in Venice, came in the last century to England,
the Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, when
twelve years old, through the instrumentality of
Samuel Rogers, the poet, who felt that the bright
boy ought to have a career, was baptized a Chris-
tian. f We shall, however, find no better type of
the Jew than he. His descent was written in every
trait of his character, as in every feature of his
face. The persistency with which he fought his way
upward, handicapped by limitations of every kind,
by outward circumstances, by personal peculiarities
which brought ridicule, his origin in the eyes of the
world so contemptible — it is that extraordinary Jew-
ish force. Without dwelling upon his lighter title
to fame, his literary career, let us take up at once the
* Brandcs : " Life of Beaconsfield."
f His fatlier was Isaac Disraeli, an author of some reputation.
3o6 rrrE story of the jeivs.
stof}' of his first speech in Parhamcnt, into which he
at hist pushed himself after disappointments and
labors that can scarcely be measured. At lenyth he
stood there, the strange, fantastic figure, the olive skin,
the thick Jewish nose, the black curl on his forehead,
the Oriental passion for glitter and adornment in his
blood manifesting itself in excess of jewelry, finical
attire, curling and scented hair, — and presumed to
call to account Daniel O'Cormell, then in the very
height of his influence. The great agitator, with his
hat tipped on the back of his head, leaning back in
an attitude of easy insolence, stared at him in sur-
prise, presently shaking his burly figure as he laughed
in his face. The whole House of Commons at length
was roaring w^ith mockery at the dandy upstart, who
seemed to most of them like some intruding pawn-
broker. Showing no pity to the untried and friend-
less speaker, they laughed him into silence, but
before the silence came, there was a memorable
manifestation. Raising his voice to a scream which
pierced the uproar, and shaking his thin hand at the
hostile house, he cried, " The time will come when
you will be glad to hear me ! "
Thence onward he runs in his marvellous Parlia-
mentary career, speaking on every question, more
often the mark of obloquy than eulogy, advocating
often policies which few Americans can approve, but
always with pluck and fire perfectly indomitable,
rising slowly toward leadership, battered as his head
became prominent, by every Parliamentary missile,
mercilessly lampooned, written down by able editors,
ever pushing his way undismayed, until one day the
*J r*.
ISAAC DISRAELI.
■}jmimm^y/M.
308 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
world gave in to him and knelt to kiss his feet. It
is interesting to read how he was borne up by his
noble wife, whom he loved with all his soul. Here
is a slight incident, one of many similar ones. Dis-
raeli was to speak in Parliament at an important
crisis. He entered the carriage with his wife to
drive to Westminster. The coachman, slamming the
door violently, caught the lady's hand, injuring it
severely. Fearing to disturb her husband, on the
eve, as he was, of a great effort, she wrapped it in
her handkerchief hastily, without uttering a sound or
changing her face, drove, cheerfully chatting to the
House, and not until the arrow had been sent with
all his steady strength, did the great archer know the
circumstance which might have impaired his aim.
Disraeli's public course furnishes points enough to
which exception might be taken ; perhaps his per-
sonal character may have been in many ways open
to criticism, l^ut certainly, if a tonic influence goes
forth into the world from every man who boldly
wrestles with difficulty, no one has done more in this
way to brace his generation than this superbly
strong and courageous champion, rising from the
dust to guide the mightiest and haughtiest power
upon the face of the earth, so that it was obedient
not only to his deliberate will, but to his caprices.
A Christian and an orthodox Christian he was
throughout his career, but none the less the most
arrogant of Jews. He feared, says his able biographer,
Brandes, if he dropped the supernatural origin of
Jesus, he would be depriving his race of the nimbus
which encircles it, as the people among whom God
i^UKD BliACt>Nbl'lKLl).
3IO THE STORY OF THE JEIVS.
himself, as the Redeemer of the world, was born.
To him Christianity was only Judaism completed,
Judaism for the multitude. " He hate Christ ! He
is the fairest flower and eternal pride of the Jewish
race, a son of the chosen royal family of the chosen
people, — the people which in an intellectual sense
has conquered Europe, and the quarters of the
world peopled by Europeans. Northern Europe
worships the son of a Jewish mother, and gives him
a place at the right hand of the Creator; Southern
Europe worships besides, as queen of heaven, a
Jewish maiden." Commemorating the glories of
Jerusalem, Disraeli bursts out in his " Tancred " :
" There might be counted heroes and sages who
need shrink from no ri\-ah'\- witli the brightest and
wisest of other lands,— a lawgiver of the time of the
Pharaohs whose laws are still obeyed ; a monarch
whose reign has ceased three thousand )-ears, but
whose wisdom is still a proverb ia all the nations of
the earth ; a teacher whose doctrines have modelled
the whole civilized world. The greatest of legisla-
tors, the greatest of administrators, the greatest of
reformers — what race, extinct or living, can produce
such men as these?" "Suppose," exclaims tlie
Jewess Eva, with an earnestness which we may be
sure is the real feeling of the author, " Suppose the
Jews hatl not prevailed on the Romans to crucify
Christ, what would have become of the atonement ?
The holy race supplied the victim and the immola-
tors. What other race could have been entrusted
with such a consummation ? Persecute us ! if }'ou
believe what you profess you should kneel to us.
You raise statues to the hero that saves a country.
HEBKE W STA TESAIEN. 3 I I
VVc have saved the human race and you persecute us
for doing it ! "
Elsewhere DisraeH eloquently dwells upon the
magnificent influence of Hebrew literature. " The
most popular poet of England is and has been David,
the sweet singer of Israel. There never has been a
race that sang so often the odes of David, and its
best achievements have been performed under their
inspiration. It was the " sword of the Lord and of
Gideon " that won the boasted liberties of England
in Cromwell's days ; chanting the same canticles that
cheered the heart of Judah among the glens, the
Scotch upon their hill-sides achieved their religious
freedom." Staying their souls upon the same brace,
he might have continued, the Pilgrim Fathers lifted
into place the foundation pillars of America. There
are no bounds to the exultation of the patriotic en-
thusiast. Men of other lands have been deified, he
says, — Alexander the Greek, Caesar the Roman — but
only in the case of Jesus, the Hebrew, has the
apotheosis endured.
For pride of race what can surpass such utterances !
"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath
shined " ; " The seed of Jacob the chosen people ; "
God himself stooping from heaven to command the
Egyptian, " Let my people go ! " What an echo do
these soaring claims of the old biblical writers find
far down the ages from the nineteenth century ! one
and the same exultant utterance from ancient David,
who before the ark of the Lord wore the diadem of
Hebrew sovereignty, and from him who in the su-
preme places of the world just now wore the coronet
of an English earl !
CHAPTER XIX.
A SWEET SIN(iER IN ISRAEL.*
Has the spirit of this race, so intense, so persistent,
so tnimpled by persecution, ever found in modern
times an adequate voice in poetry? Yes; a voice
which is pervaded with all the melancholy that such
long-continued suffering would cause, in which we
seem to hear sometimes the saddest wailing ; then
again a terrible wit, sometimes indeed lightly play-
ful, but more often resembling the laughter of a man
mad through despair ; in which, too, there is at times
a gall and bitterness as of the waters of Marah,
poured out too indiscriminately upon the innocent, as
upon those worthy of scorn, — the voice of Heinrich
Heine.
He was born of Jewish parents at Dusseldorf on
tlie Rhine. " How old are you?" says a personage
to him in one of his works. " Signora, I was born
on New Year's Day, 1800." "' I have always told
you,' said the marquise, ' that he was one of the
first men of the century.'" Tiie Heine family came
from Biickeburg, a little princiixility whose insignifi-
cance Heine merrily hits off. Alluding to a saying
of Danton, in the h'rench Revolution, who, when he
* Ad.iptcd from the writer's " .Short Hist, of Germ. Lit."
A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 3 1 .5
was urged to leave his country to save his Hfe,
exclaimed : " What ! can a man carry his fatherland
on the soles of his feet ! " he says :
" O Danton, thou must for thine error atone ;
Thou art not one of the true souls ;
For a man can carry his fatherland
About with him on his shoe-soles.
Of Buckeburg's principality
Full half on my boots I carried.
Such muddy roads I 've never beheld ;
Since here in the world I 've tarried."
When Heine was nineteen he was sent to Frank-
fort to learn business. Waterloo had come four
years before, and in the restored order the Jews
were thrust back into their old condition from which
Napoleon had freed them. As one passes through
the Juden-gasse in Frankfort, it is perhaps the most
interesting reminiscence that can be recalled, that
there, in the noisome lanes, moved the figure of the
young poet, hearing with his fellows, at the stroke
of the hour, the bolting of the harsh gates. Soon
after we find him in Hamburg, where his uncle,
Solomon Heine, was the money-prince of North
Germany, and a man famous for his benefactions in
all directions. Convinced at length that a business
career would never be to his taste, he was for a time
at the University of Gottingen, then in Berlin,
where he became intimate with Varnliagen von
Ense and his Hebrew wife Rahel, people of elegant
culture and brilliant gifts ; whose salon fills almost
the place in the literar}' histor)' of the northern
capital that is filled by the Hotel Rambouillet in
314 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
France. His gifts grew ripe in this literary atmos-
phere, and lie prcsentl}' entered upon his poetic
career. lie hoped at this time for a government
position or a university professorship, for either of
which the abjuration of the faith of his ancestors
was necessary. This was resolved upon, and he was
baptized into the Lutheran Church. The change
was made purely from motives of expediency ; he
had no faith in the doctrines of the Church into
which he was received ; in his attachment to his race
he remained a genuine Jew. For years after, Heine's
mind was ill-at-case for this apostasy. " I will be a
Japanese," he writes. " They hate nothing so much
as the cross. I will be a Japanese." The advantage
he sought he did not secure ; his position, on the
other hand, becoming more uncomfortable than be-
fore. In this period of his life Heine strikes into
that mocking vein of writing which he preserved so
constantly afterward, both in his prose and his
poetry. Leaving Gottingen for a journey in the
Harz, after having contracted a spite against the
society of the town, he laughed mercilessly at his
old associates.
" I have especial fault to find that the conception
has not been sufificiently refuted that the ladies of
Gottingen have large feet. I have busied myself
from year's end to year's end with the earnest
confutation of this opinion, and in the profound
treatise which shall contain the results of these
studies, I speak, i, of feet generally; 2, of the feet
of the ancients ; 3, of the feet of elej)hants ; 4, of
the feet of the ladies of Gottingen ; then if I can get
UtlNKICU HICINE,
3l6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
paper big cnougli, 1 will add thereto some copper-
plate engravings, with portraits, life-size, of the
hulies' feet of Goltingen." iVgain, to hit off the
pedantry of the town, he says: "In front of the
Weender gate two little school-boys met me, one of
whom said to the other: 'I will not walk with
Theodor any more ; he is a low fellow^ for yesterday
he did not know^ the genitive of moisa. '
He soon arrived at fame. /\ multitude of readers
followed his pen with delight. His songs were
everywhere sung ; his witty and graphic prose com-
meiuled itself no less. His nonchalant irreverence,
which n<,)t infretiuently runs inti:) insolence and blas-
phemy, his disregard of proj)rieties, his outspoken
scorn of the powers that ruled, brought down upon
him, nt)t unnaturally, fierce persecution. He trav-
elled in various directions, not only in Germany, but
visiting Italy, France, and England, his sparkling
record keeping pace with his steps. At length, out-
lawed in Germany, he made his home in Paris. He
was constantly writing, did much as a critic of art
and literature, mucli in the field of politics. His
poems are numberless ; sometimes simple and sweet
tliroughout as an outgush from the heart of the most
innocent of children ; sometimes with an uncami)-
or diabolic suggestion thrown in at the end, as the
red mouse at length runs out of the mouth of the
beaut)' with whom h'aust dances on the Brt)cken in
the Walpurgis-nacht ; sometimes, again, full of a very
vitriol of acrid tlenunciation.
The story of Heine's last years is one of almost
unparalleled sadness. He was attacked with a soften-
A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 317
ing of the spinal marrow ; it stretched him upon his
bed where he lingered eight years, enduring great
agony. He wore out the weary time on his " mat-
tress-grave," as he called it, nursed by his wife, an
ignorant but good-hearted grisette. The terrible
chastening brought no change to his spirit. It is a
dark life almost everywhere ; but as he lay stretched
upon his mattress-grave, there was a bitterness in his
mocking, an audacity in his blasphemies, which the
wildest declarations of his preceding years had not
possessed. No meanings from an yEolian harp were
ever sweeter than the utterances which occasionally
came as the tempestuous agony swept down upon
him. We see, too, a better side in his will : " I die in
the belief of one only God, the eternal creator of the
world, whose pity I implore for my immortal soul.
I lament that I have sometimes spoken of sacred
things without due reverence, but I was carried
away more by the spirit of my time than by my own
inclinations. I pray both God and man for pardon."
^'\t length came F'eb. 16, 1856. A friend bending
over him asked him if he were on good terms with
God. " Let your mind rest," said Heine. " God
will pardon me ; that 's what he 's for." And so
with a devil-may-care mock upon his lips, the child of
the Jew, in whom the spirit (jf the race, cruelly be-
set through so many slow-moving centuries, at length
found utterance for its sorrow, its yearnings, its im-
placable spite, went forth to his account.
That Heine was the most unaccountable of men
will hardly need further ilhistration. In one breatii
he writes " The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," a i)oem
3l8 THE STOKY OF THE JEIVS.
which (jnc would say must ]ia\'c conic from the
licart of an artless, ignorant i)easant, full of uncjues-
tioning CathoHc piety ; in another, it is the {grotesque
satire Atta Troll, in which the Catholic conception
of heaven is burlesqued with unshrinking, Mephis-
tophelean audacity.
The difificulties of rendering in Heine's case are
perhaps quite insurmountable. Nothing was ever so
airy and volatile as liis wit, nothing ever so delicate
as his sentiment. In the process of translation the
aroma half exhales. What, as Heine has distilled it,
is most searchingly pungent, becomes insipid in a
foreign phrase ; what causes tears, as it flows on in
the German rhythm in pathetic, child-like artlessness,
in English words sinks to commonplace. Let us,
however, attempt it. There has not lived in our
time such a master of brilliant, graphic description.
Here are passages from his child-life at Diisseldorf,
quoted from the " Book Le Grand." The book is
named from an old drummer who fills the child with
Napoleonic inspirations.
" As I woke the sun appeared, as usual, through
the windows, and a drum was beating below ; and
as I stepped into our parlor and bade tiiy father, who
still sat in the A\'hite gown in which tlie barber had
been powdering him, good-morning, I heard the
light-footed hair-dresser tell, while he was plying the
curling-tongs, that that day, at the Town Hall, hom-
age was to be rendered to the new Grand Duke,
Joachim Murat. As he spoke, drums were beating
once more ; and I stepped to the house-door and
saw in full march the l^Vcnch troops, the light-
A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 319
hearted sons of glory, who went singing and clinking
through the world, the grave and gay grenadier
guards, the tall bear-skin caps, the tricolored cock-
ades, the glancing bayonets, the voltigeurs full of
jollity diwd point d' honnetir, and the great silv.er-sticked
drum-major, who could reach with his stick up to the
first story, and with his eyes up to the second, where
the pretty girls sat at the windows."
At length Napoleon appears. " The emperor wore
his unpretending green uniform, and the little world-
historic hat. He rode a white pony ; negligent, al-
most hanging, he sat, one hand holding high the
reins, the other patting good-naturedly the pony's
neck. His face had that color which we see in
marble heads of Greek and Roman sculpture ; its
features were nobly impressed, like those of antiques ;
and on this countenance it stood written : ' Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.' A smile —
which warmed and quieted every heart hovered about
the lips ; and yet we know that those lips had only
to whistle, and Prussia would no longer exist ; those
lips needed only to whistle, and all the clergy would
be rung out ; those lips needed only to whistle, and
the whole Holy Roman Empire would dance ; and
those lips smiled, and the eye, too, smiled. It was
an eye clear as the heavens ; it could read in the
heart of man ; it saw with sudden quickness all the
tilings of this world, while the rest of us only looked
at one another and over colored shadows. The brow
was not so clear ; the ghosts of future battles
haunted it ; sometimes it moved convulsively, and
those were the creating thoughts — the great seven-
320 THE STOKY OF THE JEWS.
mile-boots thouglits— with which the emperor's sjjirit
invisibly strode over the workl. The emperor rode
quietly throuijh the avenue ; behind him, proud on
snortint^ horses, and loaded with ijold and ornaments,
rode his suite ; the drums rolled, the trumpets
sounded and the people cried with a thousand voices:
' Vive I'empereur ! ' "
The Germans hiive been accused of wanting;
tjreatly in wit and humor, ''^ but certain it is that this
German Jew, more than any man probably of the
present century in the civilized world possessed these
gifts ; we must regard him as a genius coordinate
with Aristophanes, Cervantes, and Montaigne. His
conversation was full of wit, even when he lay in the
greatest misery on his " mattress-grave." He was
asked if he had read one of the shorter pieces of a
certain tlull writer. " No," said he, " I never read
any but the great works of our friend. I like best
his three-, four-, or five-volume books. Water on a
large scale — a lake, a sea, an ocean — is a fine thing ;
but I can't endure water in a spoon."
Once at a time of great distress, the physician who
was examining his chest, asked : " Pouvez-vous
siffler?" " Helas, non ! " was the reply. "Pas
meme les pieces de M. Scribe."
In many of his poems he rattles on in the merriest,
most nonchalant carelessness, shootinsj out, now
and then, the sharpest darts of .spite. Poor Ger-
many was forever his butt, as in the following :
From Cologne, at (luartt-r to ciglit in the niorii,
My journey's course I followed ;
* J. R. Lowell : Kisay on Lessing.
A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 321
Toward three of llie clock to Ilageji we came,
And there our dinner we swallowed.
The table was spread, ami here I found
The real old German cooking.
I greet thee, dear old " sauer-kraut,"
With thy delicate perfume smoking !
Mother's stuffed chestnuts in cabbage green !
They set my heart in a flutter.
Codfish of my country, I greet ye fine
As ye cunningly swim in your butter !
How the sausage revelled in sputtering fat !
And field-fares, small angels pious,
All roasted and swaddled in apple-sauce,
Twittered out to me, " Only try us ! "
Welcome, countryman," twittered they,
" To us at length reverting.
How long, alas ! in foreign parts.
With poultry strange you 've been flirting ! "
A goose, a quiet and genial soul.
Was on the table extended.
Perhaps she loved me once, in the days
Before our youth was ended.
She threw at me such a meaning look !
So trustful, tender, and pensive,
Her soul was beautiful — but her meat ! —
Was tough I 'm apprehensive.
On a pewter-])lale a pig's head they brouglit ;
And yuu know, in the German nation.
It 's llie snouts of the [ligs that they always ciown
Willi a laurel tlecoratioii.*
* Deui'^cliland, cin Winterinarchen.
322 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
What power of scornful utterance Heine possessed,
the potentates of Germany, who persecuted him,
felt to the uttermost — none more than Friedrich
Wilhelm IV., of Prussia, and Ludwig II., of Bavaria.
Both were monarchs possessed of intellectual gifts
and with some good purposes. Each, however,
was in his own way weak and sensual. Stupidly
brutal were the heels that sought to crush Heine;
but like a snake, writhing and rearing its crest, he
strikes with fangs so full of diabolical venom, that
we are almost forced to pity the oppressor.
The brilliant wit and poet must be judged with
severity, however beneficial the scourging which he
administered may sometimes have been. His wit
was often distorted to cynicism, his frivolity to inso-
lence and vulgarity. It is hard to believe he was in
earnest about anything. In multitudes of passages,
both [)rose and poetry, he suddenly interrupts the
expression of intense emotion by a grotesque sug-
gestion which makes the emotion or its object ridicu-
lous. For Napoleon one would imagine that he felt
the most genuine and earnest enthusiasm of his life.
There is a certain passage in the " Book Le Grand "
full of power, in which he denounces England for
her treatment of the emperor at St. Helena ; yet as
if an actor, after giving the curse in Lear, should
suddenly thrust his tongue into his cheek and draw
his face into a grimace, Heine ends his denuncia-
tion with a laughable turn, in which he gratifies his
petty spite at his okl university. " Strange ! a ter-
rible fate has already overtaken the tliree principal
opponents of the emperor : Lord Castlereagh has cut
A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 323
his throat, Louis XVIII. has rotted on his throne,
and Prof. Saalfeld is still always professor at Got-
tingen ! "
Among English writers, Heine has points of resem-
blance to Sterne, still more to Byron ; but to my
mind his closest English analogue in genius and
character is Dean Swift. In Swift's career, it is per-
haps the pleasantest incident that he could attract
the love of Stella and Vanessa, and feel for them a
friendship which perhaps amounted to love. In
Heine's honorable affection for two women, his wife
" Nonotte " and his mother, the " old lady of the
Damm Thor," we see him at his best. Heine and
Swift were place-hunters, who sought for advance-
ment in questionable ways, only to be disappointed ;
for both there was disease at the end that was
worse than death. Such gall and wormwood as
they could pour upon their adversaries, what sin-
ners elsewhere have tasted ! With what whips of
scorpions they smote folly and vice, but who will
dare to say it was through any love of virtue ? Both
libelled useful and honorable men with coarse lam-
poons ; in both there was too frequent sinking into
indecency.
But there was a field in which the bitter dean had
no part with the sufferer of the " mattress-grave."
Heine was not altogether a scoffer ; his power of
touching the tenderest sensibilities is simply wonder-
ful. In his plaintive songs the influence of Roman-
ticism can be clearlv seen, and also of the popular
ballad, whose character he caught most felicitously.
He assumed a certain negligence, which gave his
324 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
poems an air of pure naturalness and inimediateness,
whereas they were the [)roducts of consummate art.''"'
Hut no poet has ever been able to convey so thor-
oughly the impression of perfect artlessncss. The
" Princess Use," for instance, one would say could
have been written by no other than the most inno-
cent of children.
ILSE.
I am the Princess Use,
To my castle come with me, —
To the Ilsenstein, my dwellint;,
And we will liappy l)e.
Thy foreliead will I moisten
From my clear-llowing rill.
Thy griefs thou shalt leave beiiiiul thee,
Thou soul with sorrow so i!l !
Upon my bosom snowy,
Within my while arms fold,
There shalt thou lie and dream a dream
Of the fairy lore of old.
I '11 kiss thee, and softly cherish.
As once I cherished and kissed
The dear, dear Kaiser Heinrich,
So long ago at rest.
The dead are dead forever ;
The living alone live still ;
And I am blooming and beautiful ;
My heart doth laugh and tin ill.
O come down into my castle.
My castle crystal bright !
There dance the knights and tlic maidens ;
There revels each servant wight.
* Kurz : " Geschichte der deutschen I.iteraiii'
• .•/ SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 325
Tlictc rustle the garments silken, —
'I'liere rallies the spear below.
The dwarfs drum ami humpet and fiddle,
And the bugle merrily blow.
Yet my arm shall softly enclose thee,
As it Kaiser Heinrich enclosed ;
When the trumpets' music thundered.
His ears with my hands I closed.
It is very pleasant, too, to read these lines to his
wife, written on his death-bed :
I was, O lamb, as shepherd placed,
To guard thee in this earthly waste.
To thee I did refreshment bring ;
To thcc brought water from the sjjiing.
When cold the winter storm alarmed
I have thee in my bosom warmed.
I held thee folded, close embracing,
When torrent rains were rudely chasing,
And woodland brook and hungry wolf
Howled, rivals, in the darksome gulf.
Thou didst not fear — thou hast not quivered,
Even when the bolt of thunder shivered
The tallest pine ; upon my breast,
In peace and calm thou lay'st at rest.
My arm grows weak. Lo, creeping there
Comes pallid Death ! My shepherd care,
My herdsman's office, now I leave.
IJack to thy hands, O God, I give
My staff ; and now I pray thee guard
This Iamb of mine, when 'neath the sward
I lie ; and suffer not, I pray.
That thorns slmuld pierce her on the way.
From nettles harsh protect her fleece ;
From soiling maisiies give release ;
And ev. rywhere, her feet before.
^26 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Willi sweet grass spread tlie meadows o'er ;
And let her sleep from eare as blest
As once she slei)t upon my breast.
Once at a critical time in our country's history, it
happened to me to visit a negro school. We went
from room to room among the dusky faces, until at
last one said : " Let us have them sing." Presently
the voices rose and fell in a marvellous song. Out
of the windows the heavens hung sombre about us ;
the dark faces were before us, the children of the
race whose presence among us has brought to them,
in each generation, tragedy so pathetic, — the race
that has brought to us so innocently such subject
for controversy, such occasion for bloodshed, and on
account of which we still sometimes seem to hear
such fateful thunder-mutterings of approaching dis-
aster. The news of the morning had predisposed us
to gloom ; the associations now conspired to deepen
it ; the strange melody which came pouring forth
seemed, somehow, singularly in keeping. There was
in my spirit no defined feeling, but a vague unrest,
at once a foreboding of calamity and yearning after
peace. It was precisely the sentiment of the song.
The singers seemed to feel it ; we who listened felt
it, and there were eyes whose lids trembled with the
coming tears. It was the " Lorelei " of Heine :
" I cannot tell what it forebodeth,
That I am so sad to-day."
The words so simple — so infantile almost in sense,
and \-et witli whicli is marvcllousK' bound such ten-
der feeling ! y\s one repeats the lines, they are al-
A SWEET SINGER EV ISRAEL. 2)~7
most nothing; yet caught within them, hke some
sad sweet-throated nightingale within a net, there
pants such a pathos ! What could have been farther
away ! What cared we then for the Rhine, and the
sorceress who sings upon its banks, and the boatman
engulfed in the whirlpool ! What knew or cared
the singers ! But something indescribable came
pulsing forth to us from out of the words, and I
felt that somehow it was the appropriate utterance
for the mood in which we found ourselves — the
thing to hear from the dark-faced youths before us,
— an undefined sorrow, — a foreshadowing of danger
all unknown and vague ! Mighty the poet, I thought,
whose verse can come home with such power in lands
and among races so far away !
The child of the Jew he was — of the race among
the races of the earth possessed of the most intense
passionate force — and in him his people found a voice.
Now it is a sound of wailing, melancholy and sweet
as that heard by the rivers of Babylon, when the
harps were hung upon the willows ; now a Hebrew
aspiration, lofty as the peal of the silver trumpets be-
fore the Holy of Holies in the Temple service, when
the gems in the high-priest's breast-plate flashed with
the descending deity ; now a call to strive for free-
dom, bold and clear as the summons of the Maccabees.
But think of the cup that has been pressed to the
Jew's lips for almost two thousand years ! The
bitterness has passed into his soul, and utters it-
self in scorn and poisoned mocking. He cares not
what sanctities he insults, nor whether the scoff
touches the innocent as well as the guilty. Perse-
328 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
cution has brouglit to pass desperation, wliich utters
itself at length in infernal lauij^hter.
A touchint^ story is told of Heine's last walk in
the Boulevard, from which he went home to the
death in life he was doomed to underijo for many
years. It was in May, 1848, a day of revolution.
" Masses of people rolled along the streets of Paris,
driven about by their tribunes as by storms. The
poet, half-blind, half-lame, dragged himself on his
stick, tried to extricate himself from the deafening
uproar, and fled into the Louvre close by. He
stepped into the rooms of the palace, in that
troubled time nearly empty, and found himself
on the ground-floor, in the room in which the an-
cient gods and goddesses stand. Suddenly he
stood before the ideal of beauty, the smiling, en-
trancing goddess, the miracle of an unknown master
— the Venus of Milo. Overcome, agitated, stricken
through, almost terrified at her aspect, the sick man
staggered back till he sank on a seat, and tears, hot
and bitter, streamed down his cheeks. The beauti-
ful li])s of the goddess, which appear to breathe,
smiled witii her wonted smile at her unhapiJ)' vic-
tim."'^'' Heine says himself in a letter :
" Only with pain could I drag m\-self to the
Louvre, and I was nearly exhausted when I entered
the lofty hall where the blessed goddess of beaut}',
our dear lady of Milo, stands on her pedestal. At
her feet I lay a long time, and I wept so passion-
ately that a stone must have had compassion on me.
Therefore the goddess looked down pityingly upon
* Meissner.
A SWEET SFNGER I.V ISRAEL. 329
me, yet at the same time inconsolably, as thoucjh
she would say : ' See you not that I have no arms,
and that therefore I can give you no help ? ' "
Of the spots associated with Heine, there is none
so interesting as that room in the I.ouvre. I stood
there on a day Avhen disturbance again raged in the
streets of Paris. It was the end of August, 1870.
In Alsace and Lorraine the armies of France had
just been crushed ; in the next week was to come
Sedan. The streets were full of the tumult of war,
the foot-beat of passing regiments, the clatter of
drill, the Marseillaise. On the Seine, just before, a
band of ouvricrs had threatened to throw us into the
river as Prussian spies. In the confusion, the shrine
of the serene .goddess was left vacant, as at that
former time. I found it a hushed asylum, the fairest
of statues, rising from its pedestal, wearing upon its
lips its eternal smile. The rounded outlines swelled
into their curves of })erfect beauty; within the eyes
lay the divine calm ; on the neck a symmetry more
than mortal ; — all this, and, at the same time, the nm-
lilation, the broken fe)lds of the drapery, the dints
made in the marble l)y barbarian blows, the absent
arms. When one stands before the Venus of Milo,
it is not unworthy of even so high a moment to call
up the image of that suffering man of great genius,
shamed from his sneer, and restored to his best self
in the supernal presence. May we not see in the
statue a t\'pe of Heine's genius, so shorn of strength,
so stained and broken, )-et in the ruin of beauty and
power so unparalleled !
CHAPTER XX.
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy shall be our
type of the Hebrew artist ; but since he was scarcely
less interesting in his character than he was as a
musician, and since the household of which he was a
member were in great part as fair in their lives, and
almost as gifted in their genius as he, we must not
take him as an isolated figure, but look at him in his
relations. In this way we shall best understand the
beauty of his spirit, \\hile some idea is formed of the
kindred, some of whom scarcely less than lie, deserve
to be celebrated.
The family of Moses Mendelssohn, the little chil-
dren who walked with their father through the
streets of Berlin, and could not understand wh)' the
Christian boys hooted at them and called them
names, became men and women remarkable in them-
selves, and noteworthy also as the parents, in their
turn, of children who have letl, in times near oiu'
own, famous and charming lives. The noble thinker
was, with all his libend spirit, as we have seen, never-
theless, thoroughly a Jew, answering the over-zealous
Lavater, with true Hebrew haughtiness, when he
felt that the sanctities of his hereditary faith were
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 33 I
too rudely touched, In minor matters of discipline
he was faithful to the ancient standards, maintaining,
for instance, in his family the rigid patriarchal rule
which did not relax, even though the child grew
gray, until the father died.
Of the three sons and three daughters of Moses
Mendelssohn, Dorothea was probably in her time
the most distinguished, a woman of brilliant mind
and admirable qualities, whose career in spite of
great eccentricities, deserves a glance from us. She
was the least exemplary of the children ; her irregu-
larities, however, were clue to her strange surround-
ings, and do not cancel her substantial worth.
According to Hebrew fashion, the sons of a family
had small liberty in the choice of wives, and the
daughters none at all in the choice of husbands.
Moses Mendelssohn married Dorothea, with no con-
sultation of her wishes, to the Berlin trader, Veit, a
man worthy but thorougly uncongenial to the bright-
minded girl. After some years of union, during
which she bore to him children, she forsook her hus-
band to form an irregular connection, similar to that
between George Eliot and G. H. Lewes, with the
distinguished Friedrich Schlegel. Strangely enough
honest Veit remained thoroughly friendly, acquies-
cing in the separation, in fact, with an equanimity
which seems to imply that the discomfort had not
been entirely on the side of tlie wife. Schlegel soon
rose to brilliant fame, with which Dorothea, whose
literary gifts were remarkable, was closely connected.
Schlegcl's story " Lucinde " a memorable utterance
of "Romanticism," of whicli littrar\' tt'ncU-ncy he
332 TIIR STORY OF THE JEWS.
was the founder <incl best type, was an outujrowth of
this lc-ft-liandc(l relation, a book not edifying, but
curious as an expression from a strange world, now
passed away. Schlegel and Dorothea at last were
married. The latter became a Christian, and, with
her husband, a Catholic. Removing to Vienna they
were at last distinguished personages at the court
of Austria, where the political course of Schlegel
became as reactionary as his course in religion ; for
he used his fine powxTs to uphold against all revolu-
tionary tendencies the threatened House of Haps-
burg.
Another of the daughters of Moses Mendelssohn,
a bright and amiable woman, also became a devout
Catholic. The sons possessed characters of better
balance than the daughters. They advanced from
the position of their father as far as he himself had
gone beyond the ancient landmarks. Joseph, the
elder, became a prosperous banker, but maintained a
great interest in intellectual pursuits, having espe-
cial note as an important friend and helper of Alex-
ander \-on Humboldt. Abraham, however, the
second son, is, of all the children of Moses, the most
attractive, a sweet enlightened soul, as devoid of
extravagance as of narrowness, — a most engaging
figure in himself, and the parent of children whose
memory the world will not willingly let die. The
great composer, Felix MendeLssohn liartholdy, was
his second child. The modest father deemed him-
self inconspicuous and unimportant between the
illustrious names that preceded and followed him.
" Formerl}-, I was the son of my father," he used t(j
SOME IlARMOiVlOUS LIVES. y::^^
say, " but now I am the fatlier oi my son." But he
was really in himself a vigorous and independent
character. With his wife, Leah Salomon, a Berlin
Jewess, he was suitably mated. Her portrait, in the
book of her grandson, Sebastian Hensel,. which is
the authority upon which this sketch of the Men-
delssohn family is based, shows a face in which
power and amiability are blended, the eyes in partic-
ular looking forth with a light that suggests genius.
Of the four children, Fanny, the elder, as well as
Felix, early showed remarkable musical genius.
Rebecca, the third, perhaps surpassed the others in
intellectual power, though inferior to Fanny and.
Felix as regards their special gift. Though Abra-
ham and Leah themselves preferred, until late in
life, to remain Jews, they resolved that their chil-
dren should be brought up as Christians, and here we
reach a point which some will find it hard to approve.
How can parents, without insincerity or culpable
indifference, while retaining one faith, cause their
children to be educated in another ? What justifi-
cation is possible can best be given in the words of
Abraham Mendelssohn himself ; whether it is suf^-
cient the reader must judge. The perusal of the ex-
planation, however, will satisfy all that the father
was delicately conscientious, and that he himself had
no scruples. In reaching his conclusion, he was
much influenced by a brother of Leah, who had
himself become a Christian, whose expressions all
will admit to be wise and broad. Wrote the brother-
in-law, when Abraham at first felt that the children
must be brought up as Jews :
334 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
" You say you owe it to the nieinory of your
fatlier. ■-'' * * You may remain faithful to an
oppressed, persecuted religion — you may leave it to
your children as a prospect of life-long martyrdom,
as long as you believe it to be absolute truth ; but
when you have ceased to believe that, it is barbar-
ism." Abraham had ceased to believe that. He
wrote to Fann\', at the time of her confirmation, a
letter that might have been penned by Nathan the
Wise :
" Does God exist ? What is God ? Is He part of
ourselves, and does He continue to live after the
other part has ceased to be ? And where and how ?
All this I do not know, and, therefore, I have never
taught you any thing about it. But I know that
there exists in me and in you and in all human
beings an everlasting inclination towards all that is
good, true, and right, antl a conscience whicli \\'arns
and guides us when we go astray. I know it, I be-
lieve it ; I live in this faith, and this is my religion.
Everybody has it who does not intentionally and
knowingly cast it away. ''^ '''' "'^' When )'ou look
at your mother, and turn over in your thoughts
all the immeasurable good she has lavished upon
you by her constant, self-sacrificing devotion as long
as you live, and when that reflection makes your
heart and eyes overflow with gratitude, love, and
veneration, then you feel God and are godly. " * *
The outward form of religion your teacher has given
you is historical and changeable, like all human
ordinances. Some thousands of years ago, the
Jewish form was the reigning one, then tln^ heathen
SOME HAKMOAriOUS LIVES. 335
form, and now it is the Christian. Your mother and
I were brought up by our parents as Jews, and with-
out being obHged to change the form of our rehgion,
have been able to follow the divine instinct in us
and in our conscience. We have educated you and
your brothers and sisters in the Christian faith, be-
cause it is the creed of most civilized people, and
contains nothing that can lead you away from what
is good, and much that guides you to love, obedience,
tolerance, and resignation, even if it offered nothing
but the example of its founder, understood by so
few and followed by still fewer."
Felix could sing and compose almost before he
could talk ; he was a skilful pianist at six, and gave
a public concert at nine. Compositions published
when he was fifteen are regarded as classical. Be-
fore he had passed beyond boyhood he had become
famous through the beautiful overture to the " Mid-
summer Night's Dream." Fanny was equally pre-
cocious. At thirteen she gave a proof of an
uncommon musical memory, by playing without
notes twenty-four preludes of Bach, as a surprise for
her father, and had not passed beyond her girlhood
before she had produced lovely music of her own.
In her early womanhood she won the love of a young
artist destined to fame, Wilhelm Hensel, whom she
at length married after an interval of some years,
spent by the painter in Italy. The good sense and
brightness of the faithful mother, Leah, are well
shown in the following letter to the young lover, in
which, with the authority of a true Hebrew mother,
she shields her daus/hter :
33^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
"Seriously, my dear Mr. Henscl, you must not be
angry with me, because I cannot allow a correspond-
ence between you and Fanny. Put yourself, in fair-
ness for one moment in the place of a mother, and
exchange your interests for mine, and my refusal
will appear to you natural, just, and sensible ; whereas
you arc probably now violently denouncing my pro-
ceeding as most barbaric. For the same reason that
makes me forbid an engagement, I must declare my-
self averse to any correspondence. You know that
I truly esteem you, that I have, indeed, a real affec-
tion for you, and entertain no objection to you per-
sonally. The reasons why I have not yet decided in
your favor, are the difference of age and the uncer-
tainty of your position. A man may not think of
marr\-ing before his prospects in life are, to a certain
degree, assured. At any rate, he must not blame
the girl's parents, who, having experience, sense, and
cool blood, are destined by nature to judge for him
and for her. An artist, as long as he is single, is a
happy being; all circles open to him, court favor
animates him ; the small cares of life vanish before
him ; he steps lightly over the rocks which differ-
ence of rank has piled up in the world ; he works at
what he likes, the most delighted, happy being in
the whole creation. As soon as domestic cares take
hold of him, all this magic disappears, the lovely
coloring fades, he must work to sustain his family.
Indeed, I made it a point in my children's education
to give them simple and unpretending habits, so that
they might not be obliged to look out for rich mar-
riages ; but in the eyes of parents a comi)etcncy, a
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 337
moderate but fixed income, are necessary conditions
for a happy life ; and although my husband can
afford to give to each of his children a handsome
portion, he is not rich enough to secure the future
prosperity of them all. You are at the commence-
ment of your career, and under beautiful auspices ;
endeavor to realize them, and rest assured that we
will not be against you when, at the end of your
studies, you can satisfy us about your position.
Fanny is very young, and. Heaven be praised, has
hitherto had no concern and no passion. I will not
have }'ou, by love-letters, transport her for years into
a state of consuming passion and a yearning frame
of mind quite strange to her character, when I have
her before me now blooming, healthy, happy, and
free."
In the letters which have been quoted, father and
mother have been sufficiently reflected, and now we
must look at the home. " The rooms were stately,
large, and lofty, built with delightful spaciousness.
One room, especially, overlooking the court, and
opening by means of three arches into an adjoining
apartment, was beautiful and most suitable for theat-
rical representations. For many, many years, at
Christmas, and on birthdays and festive occasions,
this was the scene of interesting performances. Gen-
erally it was Leah's sitting-room. The windows
opened upon a spacious court, closed by a one-
storied garden-house, over which looked the tops of
ancient trees. In sunTmer the garden-house, in which
I^'anny and Hensel lived after their marriage, was
perfcctl)' charming. The windows were embowered
i^S THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
in vines, and all opened on to the garden, with its
blooming lilacs and avenues of stately old trees.
The large court and high front building kept off
every sound ; you lived as in the deepest loneliness
of a forest, — opposite, the magnificent trees, with
merrily twittering birds, no lodger above or below,
after the noise of the streets the quietest seclusion,
and at your windows green leaves. The centre part
of the house, and its most invaluable and beautiful
portion, consisted in a very spacious hall, too large
to be called a drawing-room. There was space in it
for several hundred people, and it had on the garden
side a movable glass wall, interrupted by pillars, so
that the hall could be changed into an open portico.
The hall commanded a view of a park, which, in
Frederick the Great's time, had been part of the
Thicr-gartai, and was therefore rich in most superb
old trees. In this house and garden arose a singularly
engaging, poetic life. * * * The Mendelssohn
children loved Shakespeare, especially the * Mid-
summer Night's Dream.' Ry a singular coincidence,
in that very year, 1826, in their lovely garden,
favored by most beautiful weather, they themselves
led a fantastic, dream-like life. For them and their
friends, the summer months were like one uninter-
rupted festival day, full of poetry, music, merry
games, ingenious practical jokes, disguises, and repre-
sentations. The whole life had a higher and loftier
tendency, a more idyllic coloring, more poetr)-, than
is often met with. Nature and art, wit, heart, and
mind, the high flow of Felix's genius,^ — all this gave
coloring to their doings, and on the other hand this
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 339
wonderful life gave a new impulse to his creative
spirit. The most brilliant result of that strangely
poetic frame of mind is the overture to the ' Mid-
summer Night's Dream.' "
Any thing more ideal than this charming life, it is
scarcely possible to conceive. The Mendelssohns,
one would say, had found for themselves a paradise
without the serpent. An abundant basis of wealth,
the father and mother so wise, and of spirit so pleas-
ant, the children maturing in beautiful promise, — no
shadow of disease, sorrow, or anxiety. Felix was
already famous, for the overture to the " Midsummer
Night's Dream " caused the world to think that a
successor to Beethoven was born ; Fanny, his equal
in gifts and talents, but remaining modestly within the
bounds which custom had set for women ; Rebecca, in
her way not less remarkable and attractive than the
elder brother and sister ; and Paul, the younger son, a
thoroughly good and clever youth, if less highly en-
dowed than the rest. The circle of friends about
them, whom they visited, or who came to their sun-
bright home, were present at the sports and repre-
sentations at Christmas, and who sat looking out upon
the beautiful garden while the wonderful children
from their instruments conquered the nightingales, as
they now rendered the works of the old composers,
now improvised, now gave their own compositions,
which have come to be esteemed as the most precious
things in music, — this circle of friends comprehended
the best and brightest men of the time in art,
philosophy, science, and literature, — Goethe, Hegel,
Humboldt, Heinrich Heine, Encke the astronomer,
J40 J m-^ STORY OF THE JEWS.
Paganini, Moschclcs, Spontini, Scliadow, and Dcv-
ricnt. No more serious ripple disturbed the even
flow of the Hfe than some such Httle incident as
follows, narrated by T^inny. Alexander von Ilum-
boldt had arranged an observatory in the garden, on
account of the silence and quiet of the place, where
he and Professor Encke often met by night, as well
as by day.
" I hear somebody entering our bedroom, and
passing out again at the other side. I call. No an-
swer. Wilhelm awakes, and cries out, ' Who iiii
Tcufclsnavicii \% there?' Enter, with majestic step,
Louise (Hcnsel's sister), s^iyingthat she heard thieves
rummaging about in the hall, and then going into the
garden with a lantern. She had thought it her duty
to wiike somebody, but had only wanted to call the
servant, and was very sorry for having disturbed us.
Wilhelm gets up, wraps himself in a red blanket, and
goes into the hall with a drawn sword, Louise in her
dressing-gown and night-cap showing him a light.
He opens the door just in time, for the thief with
his lantern is on the point of escaping toward the
garden. When he hears the noise he looks around,
and seeing a red spectre with a drawn sword, runs
away, Wilhelm after him. The thief makes straight
for the gardener's lodge. When they both are in
the gardener's room, pursuer and pursued burst into
a peal of laughter. ' Professor Hensel ! ' ' Professor
Encke ! I beg you a thousand pardons, but I took
you for a burglar ! ' "
From this home P\-lix went forth to become in his
sphere a conqueror, the favorite of princes, and at
FELIX MENUELSbUHN.
342 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the same time of peasants, the recipient of homage
the most enthusiastic and intoxicating, in all the
lands of I"Luroj)e, an outpouring which he seems to
have undergone without injury to his character, for
to the end of his too short life he remained simple,
.iffectionate, and dignified. The music that he wrote,
like the lyrical j^oetry of Goethe, reflected accurateh'
the mood for the time being of the spirit from which
it proceeded. The " Scottish Symphony " and the
" Isles of Fingal " suggest the wild beauty of the
Highlands and Hebrides, the far North, upon whose
soil they were elaborated. The reading of " Faust "
brought forth the " Walpurgis Nacht," the study of
Greek, the music for the "Antigone" and the "CEdi-
pus." He found the best appreciation in England,
chiefly for his sacred music, and this appreciation,
reacting upon him, perhaps brought it to pass that
his wcH'ks in this field are his masterpieces. His
great oratorios, " St. Paul " and " Elijah," must be re-
garded, it is said, as " the main pillars of his fame." "
It is indeed marvellous how complete a dominion
Mendelssohn exercised over those who came under
his spell. He was short and slight, and in his fea-
tures strongly Jewish. The countenance Avas very
mobile, the brow full, the eyes possessed of a })ower
of expression quite extraordinar\'. When he was
extemporizing they seemed to dilate to twice their
natural size, the brown pupil becoming a vivid black.
His slender hands upon the key-board of piano or
organ became like living and intelligent creatures.
His form bent over the instrument, heaving and
* Grove: Musical Dictionary.
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 343
swaying with the emotion which weis born amid the
tones. When with slender wand, at the performance
of the "St. Paul" or " Elijah," he stood among the
great multitude of singers and instruments, all turned
to the magician with one soul, and the listening thou-
sands beyond trembled to the music in sympathy not
less intense. To illustrate this magical power, the
account of a musical enthusiast, the authoress of
"Charles Auchester," may here be well transcribed.
Mendelssohn, described under the name of Seraphael,
conducts a performance of sacred music in Westmin-
ster Abbey.
" Entering the centre of the nave, we caught sight
of the transept, already crowded with hungering,
thirsting faces. The vision of the choir itself, as it is
still preserved to me, is as a picture of Heaven to
infancy. What more like one's idea of Heaven than
that height, the arches whose sun-kissed summits
glowed in the distance, whose vista stretched from the
light of rainbows at one end to the organ at the
other, music's archetype? Below the organ stood
Seraphael's desk, as yet unhaunted, — the orchestra,
the chorus beneath the lofty front. Seraphael en-
tered so quietly as to take us by surprise.
" Down the nave the welcome rolled, across the
transept it overflowed the echoes ; for a few moments
nothing else could be felt, but there was, as it were,
a tender shadcnv upon the very reverberating jubi-
lance, subdued for the sake of one whose beauty
lifted over us, api)eared hovering, descending from
some late-left heaven, ready to depart again, but not
without a sign for which we waited. Immediately,
344 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
and while lie yet stood with liis eyes of power upon
the whole front of faces, the solo singers entered also
and took their seats all calmly. We held our breath
for the coming of the ov'crture.
" It opened like the first dawn uf lightening, but
scarce yet lightened morning, — its vast subject intro-
duced with strings alone, in that joyous key which so
often served him. But soon the first trombone
bhized out, the second and third responding with
their stupendous tones, as the amplifications of fugue
involved and spread themselves more and more.
Then, like glory filling up and flooding the height of
Heaven, broke in the organ, and brimmed the brain
with the calm of an utter and forceful expression,
realized by tone. In sympathy with each instru-
ment, it was alike with none. The vibrating har-
monies, pulse-like, clung to our pulses, then drew out
each heart, deep-beating and undistracted, to adore
at the throne above, from which all beauty springs.
Holiness, precious as the old Hebrew psalm of all
that hath life and breath, exhaled from every modu-
lation ; each dropped the freshness of everlasting
spring.
" I cannot describe the hush that hung above and
seemed to spiritualize the listeners ; nor how, as
chorus after chorus rang, our spirits sank upon the
strains and songs. Faint supjjlications, deep ac-
claims of joy, all surcharged the spirit with the mys-
terious tenderness of the uncreate and unpronounce-
able Name. When at length those two hours, con-
centrating such an eternity in their perfection of all
sensation, had reached their climax, — or, rather, when.
SOME IIARJMOXIOUS LIVES. 345
in the final chorus, imprisoned harmonies burst down
from stormy-hearted organ, from strings all shiver-
ing alike, from blasting, rending tubes, — it was as if
the multitude had sunk upon their knees, so pro-
found was the passion-cradling calm. The blue-
golden lustre, dim and tremulous, still crowned the
unwavering arches. So many tears are not often
shed as fell in that time.
" During the last reverberations of that unimagin-
able Allcluiah, I had not looked up at all ; now I
forced myself to do so, lest I should lose my sight of
Jiiiii, his seal upon all that glory. As Seraphael had
risen to depart, the applause, stifled and trembling,
but not the less by heartfuls, rose for him. He
turned his face a moment ; the heavenly half-smile
was there ; then the summer sun, that falling down-
ward in its piercing glare, glowed gorgeous against
the stained windows, flung its burning bloom, its
flushing gold, upon that countenance. We all saw
it, we all felt it, — the seraph strength, the mortal
beauty, — and that it was pale as the cheek of the
cjuick and living changed to death. His mien was
of no earthly triumph ! "
While Felix grew great, the beautiful life in Berlin
proceeded. Paul matured into worthy manhood ;
Rebecca, fulfilling her promise, becoming a woman
of real intellectual power, was chosen as a wife by
one of the most distinguished mathematicians of his
time. The fame of Ilensel grew, and under tlie in-
fluence of I'anny the Berlin home bccanic the centre
of a culture more than e\er rich and brilliant. Hen-
sel had a liabit of sketching their guests, and in the
34^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
scries is contained almost every interesting man and
woman known to fame, who lived in or visited the
Prussian capital of that time — painters and singers,
actors and sculptors, i)oets, statesmen, scientists, and
philosophers. " The musical parties, from small
beginnings, became at last regular concerts, with
choral and solo-singing, trios and quartets of the
best Berlin musicians, and before an audience that
filled all the rooms. Fanny took the greatest pleas-
ure in rehearsing her splendidly schooled little choir,
which she generally did on the Friday afternoons.
On a beautiful summer morning, nothing prettier
could be seen than the Gartcn-saa/, opening on to
the trees, filled with a crowd of gay, elegantly-dressed
people, and Fanny at her piano, surrounded by her
choir, performing some ancient or modern master-
piece. When Hensel had a picture nearly finished,
the doors of the studio stood open, and a grave
Christ might look down upon the throng, or Miriam,
leading her own people, would symbolically express
upon the canvas what was in living truth passing
in the music-room." " Last month," wrote Fanny
June, 1834, " I gave a delightful fete — ' Iphigenia in
Tauris,' sung by Madame Decker, Madame Batler,
and Mantius. Any thing so perfect will not soon
be heard again, leader especially was exquisite, but
each rivalled the other, and the sound of these three
lovely voices together had such a powerful charm
that I shall never forget it. Every thing went off
beautifull)-."
In this lujme the i)arents accomplished their days,
— the mother so full of eood sense and watchful
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 347
affection, the father broad-minded and religious.
Always they bear in their hearts their ehildren and
grandchildren. " O Sebastian ! " breaks out Abra-
ham, during a visit to London, thinking of his little
grandchild ; " I thank God you are not the child
four and a half years old which a few days ago was
advertised in thousands of placards as missing. The
thought of it never leaves me, and is interwoven as
a black thread with my London life. The poor
child has surely not been brought back, but was
most probably stolen and thrown into the street,
starved and naked, to be brought up by a gang of
beggars and thieves. And all this because perhaps
the parents lost sight of it for half a minute ! "
And yet one does not have to go far back in the
generations to find the intense Jewish fierceness,
such as glared in John of Giscala, in Shylock, and
in the elders of the Amsterdam synagogue, who
poured out malediction upon Spinoza. The mother
of Leah was an unrelenting Israelite, who denounced
her own son, an apostate from the ancient faith to
Christianity, with blasting curses. In the grandchil-
dren, however, we find nothing but affections of the
gentlest and the sweetest. Paul, the youngest, of
whom little mention has been made, thoroughly un-
obtrusive, but a highly successful man of business, was
distinguished for his charity, and was in no way less
lovable than the more conspicuous Felix and Fanny.
It is of these two only that we have the full record,
and we must draw from it still more to make plain
their loveliness of soul, and the peace and hai)i)iness
of their lives. Upon the christcning-da\' of her boj^
34^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Fanny writes to her father: " I cannot allow such a
joyful and beautiful day to come to an end, dear
father, without writing to tell you how we have
missed you. An event like this will make one's
past life rise vividly before one, and my heart tells
me I must again thank }'ou, dear parents (for this
letter is meant for mother also), at this moment, and
I hope not for the last time, for guiding me to where
I now stand, for my life, my education, my husband !
And thank you for being so good--for the blessing
of good parents rests on their children, and I feel so
happy that I have nothing left to wish for but that
such liappiness might last. I truly know and feel
how blessed I am, and this consciousness is, I think,
the foundation-stone of happiness."
i\\. another time Fanny writes from Rome, at the
end of a long sojourn, during which she and her hus-
band had given and received much joy, in the midst
of a brilliant company, many of them great men, or
about to become so. Fanny's music had been a
constant source of delight : " The instrument had
been moved into the large hall, the twilight was
rapidly deepening, and a peculiar sensation stole
over the whole company. For a long time I pre-
luded as softly as p(xssible, for I could not have
played loud, and everybody talked in whispers, and
started at the slightest noise. I played the adagios
from the concerto in G major, and the sonata in C
sharp minor, and the beginning of the grand sonata
in F sharp minor — with Charlotte, Bousquet, and
Gounod sitting close beside me. It was an hour I
shall never forget. After dinner we went on to the
SOME IIARMOXIOUS LIVES. 349
balcony, where it was lovely. The stars above, and
the lights of the city below, the glowworms, and a
long-trailing meteor which shot across the sky, the
lighted windows of a church on a hill far away, and
the delicious atmosphere in which every thing was
bathed, — all combined to stir in us the deepest emo-
tion. Afterwards we went to the end of the hall
and sang the part-songs, which gave great satisfac-
tion. I repeated, by general request, the Mozart
fantasia to finish with, and the two capriccios, and
then the part songs were asked for once more, and
then midnight had arrived and our time was over.
' They weep they know not why ! ' was our last
music in Rome.
"A glorious time has passed away ! How can we
be thankful enough for these two months of uninter-
rupted happiness ! The purest joys the human
heart can know have succeeded each other, and dur-
ing all this time we have scarcely had one unpleas-
ant quarter of an hour. The only drawback has
been that the time would go so fast. Our last fare-
well from St. Pietro in Montorio was not easy work;
but I retain in my mind an eternal, imperishable
picture, which no lapse of time will affect. I thank
Thee, O God ! "
She describes her father as he lay in death : " So
beautiful, unchanged, and calm was his face that we
could remain near our loved one, not only without a
sensation of fear, but felt truly elevated in looking
at him. The whole expression was so calm, the
forehead so pure and beautiful, the position of the
hands so mild ! It was the end of the righteous, a
350 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
beautiful, enviable end, and I pray to God for a sim-
ilar death, and will strive through all my days to
deserve it as he deserved it. It was death in its
most peaceful, beautiful aspect."
That Felix could receive the homage of the
great without compromise of his independence of
character, appears in the following : " Prince Albert
had asked me to go to him at two o'clock, so
that I might try his organ before I left Eng-
land. I found him alone ; and as we were talking
away the Queen came in, also alone, in simple
morning dress. She said she was obliged to leave
for Claremont in an hour, and then, suddenly
interrupting herself, exclaimed : ' But, goodness !
what a confusion ! ' for the wind had littered the
whole room, and even the pedals of the organ, with
leiives of music from a large portfolio that lay open.
As she spoke she knelt down and began picking up
the music ; Prince Albert helped, and I, too, was
not idle. Then Prince Albert proceeded to explain
the stops to me, and she said that she would mean-
while put things straight.
" I begged that the Prince would first play me
something, so that, as I said, I might boast about it
in Germany ; and he played a choral by heart, with
the pedals, so charmingly and clearly and correctly,
that it would have done credit to any professional ;
and the Queen, having finished her work, came and
sat by him and listened, and looked pleased. Then
it was my turn, and I began my chorus from ' St.
Paul '— ' How Lovely are the Messengers ! ' Before
I had got to the end of the first verse they had both
SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 35 I
joined in the chorus, and all the time Prince Albert
managed the stops for me so cleverly ; first a flute,
at the forte the great organ, at the D major part
the whole register ; then he made a lovely diminu-
endo with the stops, and so on to the end of the
piece, and all by heart, that I was really quite en-
chanted. The Queen asked me if I had written any
new songs, and said she was very fond of singing my
published ones. ' You should sing one to him,' said
Prince Albert ; and after a little begging she said she
would try. * * * After some consultation with
her husband, he said : ' She will sing you something
of Gluck's.' While they were talking I had rum-
maged about amongst the music, and discovered my
first set of songs. So, of course, I begged her rather
to sing one of those than the Gluck, to which she
very kindly consented ; and which did she choose ?
' ScJiOHcr iind scJidncr schniiickt sick '—sang it quite
charmingly, in strict time and tune, and with very
good execution. * * * Xhe last long G I have
never heard better or purer or more natural from
any amateur. Then I was obliged to confess that
Fanny had written the song (which I found very
hard, but pride must have a fall), and to beg her to
sing one of my own also. If I would give her plenty
of help she would gladly try, she said, and then she
sang the Pilgerspruch, ^Lass dicJi niir,' really quite
faultlessly, and with charming feeling and expres-
sion. * * *
" After this Prince Albert sang the Aerndte-Lied,
^ Es ist ciii ScJuiittcr' and then he said I must play
him something before I went, and gave as themes
352 THE STORY OF THE JEWS
the choral which he had played on '-'\\^ organ
and the song he had just sung. - ■-' As if I
were to keep nothing but the pleasantest, most
charming recollection of it, I never improvised better.
I was in the best mood for it, and played a long
time, and enjoyed it myself so much that, besides
the two themes, I brought in the songs that the
Queen had sung, quite natural!)' ; and it all went off
so easily that I would gladly not have stopped. It
was a delightful morning ! If this long description
makes Dirichlet set me down as a tuft-hunter, tell
him that I vow and declare I am a greater radical
than ever."
The following letters show touchingly his manly
piety and the depth and purity of his love as a
son and a brother: "The wish which of all others
every night recurred to my mind was that I might
not survive this loss, because I so entirely clung, or
rather still cling, to my father, that I do not know
how I am to pass my life ; for not only have I to de-
plore the loss of a father, but also that of my best
and most perfect friend for the last few years, and
my instructor in art and life. When in later years
}'ou tell your child of those whom you invited to his
baptism,* do not omit my name, but say to him that
one of them, too, on that day began his life afresh,
though in another sense, with new purposes and
wishes, and with new prayers to God."
After the death of Fanny, in the spring of 1847,
which preceded his own by a few months only, Felix
* The letter was written in reply to one inviting him to a christen-
ing which was to take place on the day on which he heard of his
father's death.
SOAfE HARMONIOUS LIVES. 353
wrote thus to her husband and son : " If you ever want
a- faithful brother, who loves you with his whole
heart, think of me. I am sure I shall be a better man
than I have been, though not such a happy one.
But what shall I say to you, my dear Sebastian ?
There is nothing to say or do but this one thing :
pray to God that He may create in us a clean heart
and renew a right spirit within us, so that we may
even in this world become more and more worthy
of her who had the purest heart and spirit we ever
knew or loved. God bless her, and point us out the
way which none of us can see for ourselves ; and yet
there must be one, for God himself has inflicted this
blow upon us for the remainder of our lives, and may
He soften the pain. Alas, my dear brother and
friend ! God be with you and with Sebastian, and
with us three, her brothers and sister ! "
These children and grandchildren of Moses Men-
delssohn were as fortunate in their deaths as in their
lives. Abraham and Leah, before the weaknesses
of age had made themselves felt, sank painlessly
away in the arms of their children. Felix, Fanny,
and Rebecca, in like manner, without knowing long-
continued suffering or any benumbment of the powers
of spirit and body from advancing years, closed their
eyes quickly and quietly upon the world. As one
reads of their careers, it seems almost the ideal life.
Where can be found more charming pictures of re-
finement, happiness, brilliant powers, achieving at
once the best success ! Rare and beautiful as were
their gifts, these are less interesting than their
spiritual graces, — the unobtrusive piety, the sweet
354
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
domestic affections, the tender hinnanity, the hirgc-
minded superiority to prejudice, which constantly
appear. The trace of human infirmity is plain enough
in the household, as, for instance, in the irregularities
of Dorothea. According to the universal lot of mor.
tals, we may be sure that each man and woman of
them had his and her share of shortcomings. But
as one reads, the drawbacks make little show, and it
is a natural aspiration, would that men in general
were as fortunate and as crood !
CHAPTER XXI.
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES.
We have traced the Jew from his first appearance,
in the most remote antiquity, until the present time.
The pride and force with which he confronted the
most powerful nations of the ancient world have been
portrayed ; the unyielding spirit with which he defied
the Roman, even while he was driven from his land
to wander as an outcast ; the spiritual intensity
with which he subdued his very conquerors to his
ideas, even at the moment when he was himself
crushed ; the gulf of woe through which he has
passed ; the new glory which he is at length seizing
upon now that the chain is broken, and his imperish-
able energy has once more free course. It is a
people of astonishing vigor, the wonderful character
of whose achievements it is hardly possible to ex-
aggerate.
In some parts of the world the idea seems to be
gaining ground that we are all to be pushed to the
wall by the all-conquering Israelite ; that the money
power is falling into his hands, and political power is
following ; that he is, in fact, seizing upon the best
places in every direction ; that the time is at hand
when the Jew, with all his haughty pride of race, is
35^' THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
to grasp the headship of the world ; that, holding
himself apart more arrogantly than ever, he will suf-
fer no contact between himself and those whom he
has brought under, except where his scornful foot is
pressed upon the Gentile neck.
Said Dr. Stocker, not long since, a well-known
preacher of Berlin, who is a leader in the anti-Jewish
movement in Germany : " At the post-mortem ex-
amination of a bod)- lately, there were present the
district physician, the lawyer, the surgeon, and a
fourth ofificial, all of whom were Jews. None but
the corpse was a German. Behold a picture of the
present ! "
The best business men of Germany, it is declared,
are Hebrews; banking they almost monopolize ; the
journals are largely in their hands ; they have seventy
professors in the universities ; they have the most bril-
liant parliamentary leaders. Strong as the Germans
are, a great party among them appears actually to
feel that the one and one half per cent, of Hebrews
in their population is likely to crowd on until Teu-
tonic power and prestige, by their hands, arc deftly
and properly laid out and interred. The hate enter-
tained against the Israelites b}' the rabble, and even
by those higher in station, has uttered itself at the
present day in the old media,n'al cry, *' Hep! Hep!"
The days of proscription are scarcely passed, and
men have even been tortured and murdered in times
(juite recent, under the old accusatifin of [)oisoning
wells and crucifying children. i'his mingled fear
and repugnance finds a half-humorous but ft)rcible
expression in certain stanzas b\' h^ranz Hingelstedt, a
poet of Vienna, w hich ma}- be thus translated :
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 357
Gone are the days of bitter tiiljulation ;
Cliaiiged are the times which now we see emerge.
The cunning Jew, amid our lamentation,
From our unskilful hands dotli wrest the scourge.
He crowds the farmer hard with scheming knavisli,
The trader from the mart he elbows well ;
And half with gold and half with mocking slavish,
Buys from the spirit of the age his spell.
Where'er you turn, the thrusting Jew will meet you, —
The chosen of the Lord in every view.
Lock them in Juden-gassen I entreat you,
Lest in some Christen-gasse they lock you !
Whether the apprehensions of the Germans are
reasonable or not, we will not stop to inquire ; but
what testimony is this to the astonishing power of
the Jew, that one of the greatest of modern nations
seems to shudder with the fear that this fraction of
Jews in its population is abotit to reduce it to subjec-
tion !
While the heart of the Christian cannot be said to
have thoroughly relented, can the heart of the Jew
be said to have lost its scorn ? " Be on your guard
when you enter a synagogue," it was once said to
me. The Christian needs to take heed if he enters a
temple in some parts of Europe, whether it be some
ancient low-walled sanctuary, like those in little towns
on the Rhine, or the superb structures that may be
found in the great cities, where shrine and canopy
arc beautiful as frost-work, — with fringe of gold and
lamp of silver, — the Oriental arches throwing back
from their purple vaults the sotind of the silver
trumpets and the deep chant of the high-priest.
358 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
The Jew comes in his sanctuary to the most vivid
sense of his race and faith ; even while he reveres the
sacred tables of the Law, his eye can darken, and his
lip spit forth contumely upon the unwelcome Naza-
rene.
I well remember also going into the shop of a Jew,
in an ancient city, and during our bargaining, cross-
ing his purpose in a way that aroused his anger. The
flash in his dark eye was of the hereditary wrath be-
queathed to him from many generations of persecuted
fathers, called out by the son of the Christian who
stood before him ; in the hiss with which his words
came forth, I seemed to hear a serpent that had been
gathering its poison for a thousand years.
Even those among the Hebrews who are leaders
for intelligence, and whose minds have become
broadened by contact with the Gentiles, like Moses
Mendelssohn and Sir Moses Montefiore, cling tena-
ciously to the traditions and usages of their fore-
fathers. If one studies the race where it has been
shut off in a measure from contact with other men,
many heirloom customs and prejudices from the dark
old days come to light, sometimes picturesque,
sometimes startling, sometimes, indeed, terrible. A
strange interest attaches among them to the burial
of the dead, and there is a curiously affectionate care
of the sepulchres of their lost ones. As has been
mentioned, the office of lavadorc, the one who pre-
pares the body for the grave, is one of high honor
among them ; their cemeteries arc tended and made
beautiful, even when the descendants of the sleepers
have utterl)' disappeared, by fellow-Hebrews, who
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 359
will not suffer an Israelite grave to go uncared for,
even though it holds a stranger. Longfellow's
stanzas upon the Jewish cemetery at Newport con-
tain a sentiment most sweet and pensive :
How strange it seems ! these Hebrews in their graves,
Close by the street of this fair sea-port town,
Silent beside the never silent waves.
At rest in all this moving up and down !
The trees are while with dust, that o'er their sleep
Wave their broad curtains in the south wind's breath,
While underneath such leafy tents they keep
The long mysterious Exodus of Death.
And these sepulchral stones, so old and brov/n,
That pave with level flags their burial-place,
Seem like the tablets of the Law, thrown down
And broken by Moses at the mountain's base.
The very names recorded here are strange,
Of foreign accent and of different climes ;
Alvarez and Rivera interchange
Willi Abraham and Jacob of old times.
Closed are the portals of their synagogue ;
No psalms of David now the silence break ;
No rabbi reads the ancient Decalogue
In the grand dialect the Prophets spake.
Gone are the living, but the dead remain.
And not neglected ; for a hand unseen.
Scattering its bounty like a summer rain,
Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green.
How came they here ? What burst of Christian hate,
What persecution, merciless and blind.
Drove o'er the sea, that desert desolate,
These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind ?
360 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
They lived in narrow streets and lanes obscure,
Ghetto and Judenstrass in mirk and mire ;
Taught in the school of patience to endure
The life of anguish and llie death of fire.
All their lives long, with the unleavened bread
And bitter herbs of exile and its fears.
The wasting famine of the heart they fed.
And slaked its thirst with Marah of their tears.
Anathema Maranatha ! was the cry
That rang from town to town, from street to street ;
At every gate the accursed Mordecai
Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Christian feet.
Pride and humiliation, hand in hand.
Walked with them through the world where'er they wefit ;
' Trampled and beaten were they as the sand,
And yet unshaken as the continent.
For in tlie background figures vague and vast
Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime,
And all llie great traditions of the past,
They saw reflected in the coming time.
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read.
Spelling it backward like a Hebrew book.
Till life became a legend of the dead.
But ah ! wliat once has been shall be no more !
The groaning earth in travail and in pain,
Brings forth its nations, but does not restore.
And the dead nations never rise again.
In a book ■" which gives many a curious picture of
the Jews of Poland, an account is contained of a
burial-place, a story which may well follow the
plaintive lines just transcribed. Until within a few
* " Die Juden von Barnow," by Emil Franzos.
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 361
years, it was the only soil the Hebrews were allowed
to own, and it was cherished until the grass was
green upon every mound ; elders grew by every
head-stone, with purple berries among their leaves,
giving forth in spring a powerful perfume, while in
autumn the heather glowed with a deep red. About
stretched the level landscape, to where in the dis-
taoce could be seen the faint hue of the distant
Carpathian mountains. On four hundred head-
stones was chiselled the same date. These marked
the graves of the victims of a massacre. Two rival
nobles had claimed a town, from both of whom
the Jews had sought to buy protection. Both, how-
ever, turned upon them in wrath, slaying them for
three days and nights. Other graves again had
found their tenants, when a magnate of the land,
because there was no other game in the neighbor-
hood, hunted the Jews. The head-stones are all
shaped alike, differing only in size, with no cai-ved
figures, for the prohibition of Moses must be obeyed.
Stones which bear no name mark the graves of those
held to have committed some great sin, and there
are many nameless graves in this Podolian field.
They are left uninscribed rather in mercy than in
punishment; for at the last day, the angel of eternal
life will call the sleepers, reading the names upon the
stones, the good to inherit bliss, the wicked, to
suffer. If the stone is without a name, the sleeper
may be passed over.
As a visitor one day approached the burial-ground,
he saw two old Israelites engaged in the ancient
custom of " measuring the boundaries." Each car-
362 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
ried in his right hand a sliort, yellow stick; a con-
tinuous thread united the two, being wound upon
each stick into a close, thick ball. First, the men
stood still, holding the sticks near together, and
singing in unison a strange traditional chant. Then
one paused, standing fixed and holding his stick
vertical, while the other, Avalking on slowly and
gravely by the side of the inclosing hedge, singing
meantime in high nasal tones, unwound the thread
as he went, keeping it straight and tight. At about
thirty paces distance, he in turn stood fixed and
silent, while his companion, singing in his turn,
advanced, winding up the thread as he did so,
the ball on the one stick becoming larger, as that
upon the other grew less. As the measurers stood
together, the chant in unison once more took place,
followed, as before by the single voice, as another
thirty paces was accomplished. It is said the bounds
are measured by some such ceremony, wherever
Jews are to be found, but never in this peculiar way
except in the province of Podolia, upon the anniver-
saries of the deaths of near relatives. The thread is
used afterwards for some pious purpose, as to form
the wick of candles used in sacrifice, or to sew a
prayer mantle.
The visitor had observed a nameless head-stone in
a hollow alone. Its shape indicated that it marked
the resting-place of a woman ; to the right and left
were the unmarked graves of babes. What could
be the fearful crime which had condemned the
mother to a nameless grave in such isolation ? At
length, from one of the old measurers of the bounds,
OUIi HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 363
he obtained the story. Leah Rendar had been
marked, as a girl, among her companions for a wealth
of shining, golden hair. She had been very beautiful,
of a German rather than Jewish type, and her chief
charm had been her sunny locks, of which she was
very vain. They wrapped her like a veil, so that she
was called " Leah with the long hair." It is pre-
scribed among the Jews of Poland, that no married
woman shall wear her own hair, which must be cut
short, perhaps even shaved, before the wedding. A
high head-dress of wool or silk must crown the head
in its place. To neglect this rule is a terrible sin.
In due time came to Leah the day of betrothal,
then of marriage. At the latter she appeared with-
out the golden hair, and with the great head-dress.
All went merrily, and for a year to come happiness
attended bridegroom and bride. Leah's first child,
however, came dead into the world. When a year or
two more had rolled by, a second child came, but lived
only six days, and the rabbi of the synagogue sus-
pected that some law had been broken by the
mother. At length, on the Day of Atonement, hus-
band and wife spent the hours with the people in the
crowded synagogue. The odor of the candles, and
the close air, caused Leah to fall fainting from her
prayer-stool. In the effort of the women to restore
her, her head-dress became displaced, when lo ! the
iniquity was revealed : the golden locks fell as of
old about her form. Her vanity had induced her to
violate the law, and leave her hair uncut. Both
husband and wife were straightway excommuni-
cated. Neither they nor their belongings could be
touched except in enmity. They were outcasts.
364 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
In course of time another son was born to Leah.
Said the rabbi : " The parents are outcasts ; the
father is under the ban, the mother wears her own
hair. The child is innocent, but if it remains with
its parents, it must share their fate." When the
child was six days old, masked men broke into the
house, dragged the mother from her bed, and cut off
her hair. She died two days after, her child follow-
ing her, and the poor mother was placed apart from
her fellows in the lonely dell. So she lies under her
head-stone which is uninscribed, that the recording
angel may, perhaps, at the great day of judgment,
pass her by, and her soul, with its sin, not be cast
forth into the outer darkness.
An ancient custom, not yet forgotten in some
parts of Germany, is that daughters who apostatize,
are counted as dead, mourned as such by their par-
ents, and that graves even are prepared for them.
The poet Meissner has described this usage in verses
which have been translated as follows : *
The anthems for the dead are sung ;
The old Jew's garb in grief is rent ;
And yet no corpse is sunk to earth,
For she still lives whom they lament.
The grave awaits her.
rom oldest days and earliest times,
The Jews such saddening custom have.
That she who leaves their Father's God,
They count as dead and dig her grave.
The grave awaits her.
* Translated by Henry Phillips.
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 3^5
In Venice city, bright and gay,
Upoii the purple flood there flies.
In swift gondol, a soldier fair,
And on his breast a Jewess lies.
Ilcr grave av/ails her.
He kisses tresses, lips, and cheek ;
He calls her his own darling bride ;
She nestles in his golden hair ;
She gazes on her love with pride.
Her grave awaits her.
In noble halls, at banquets rare,
She strikes the zither's golden chords,
Till wearied deep by pleasure's sway,
Refreshing sleep its joy affords.
Her grave awaits her.
But once, as ?ped a dream of bliss.
When daydawu broke she was alone.
With traitorous flight beyond the seas.
Her faithless love for aye was gone !
Her grave awaits her.
She tears her silky curling locks ;
She wanders on the sea-beat shore ;
"When lo, her father's words return !
" Be thou accursed forevermore !
Thy grave awaits thee."
A beegar-wench on Alpine road
Wanders toward home through night-wind wild.
Unwept, within a deep ravine,
Unblest, lies tombed her ill-starred child.
Her grave awaits her.
The ancestral graves mourn sad and lune ;
Their silent, solemn rest, who breaks ?
366 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
A shadow fails on church-yard walls,
The moonbeam shows a form that seeks
The grave that waits her.
She rolls the slab from off the grave,
With wearied limbs and failing breath.
In silent prayer she lays her form
Wilhin the tomb, and welcomes death.
The grave had waited.
But dismissing these melancholy pictures, let us
inquire for a moment what we need to fear from the
Hebrews. Some one has defined the type of shrewd-
ness to be : "A Jewish Yorkshireman of Scottish
extraction with a Yankee education." Such a com-
bination would indeed be likely to bring to pass a
very sharp result. We are to notice that if the Jew
is to be taken as the Alpha of shrewdness, the Ameri-
can is at the same time the Omega. The two ends
balance each other, and I for one have too much
faith in my compatriots to expect ever to hear it
said that the American end of the tilting board has
gone up. In the competitions of American life it is
diamond cut diamond ; it is hard to say whether
Jew or Yankee will show most nicks as marks of the
grinding power of the other. Take your real down-
Easter that has been honed for a few generations on
the New England granite. Can Abraham or Jacob
or Moses show a finer edge? We may hope that in
any competition upon this lowest plane the American
will be able to hold his own. Would that we might
be as sure that we shall match them in those higher
spheres in which Hebrew genius, wherever the jesses
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 367
have been thrown off, has soared with such imperial
sweep !
Do we hke our Hebrew neighbors and rivals?* Says
Felix Adler, the scholar and teacher of ancient Jew-
ish blood, but who has cast off all narrow Judaism
to stand upon a platform of the broadest : " The
Jews have certain peculiarities of disposition ; they
have Asiatic blood in their veins. Among the high-
bred members of the race the traces of their Oriental
origin are revealed in noble qualities, in versatility of
thought, brilliancy of imagination, flashing humor,
in what the French call esprit ; these, too, in power-
ful lyrical outpourings, in impassioned eloquence, in
the power of experiencing and uttering profound
emotions. The same tendencies among the unedu-
cated and illiterate give rise to unlovely and unpleas-
ing idiosyncrasies, a certain restlessness, loudness of
manner, fondness of display, a lack of dignity, re-
serve, repose. And since one loud person attracts
greater attention than twenty who are modest and
refined, it has come about that the whole race is
often condemned because of the follies of some of
*In "Imperfect Sympathies," Charles Lamb frankly writes:
" I have, in the abstract, no disrespect for Jews. They are a piece
of stubborn antiquity compared with which Stonehenge is in its
nonage. They date beyond the pyramids. But I should not care to
be in habits of familiar intercourse with any of that nation. Centu-
ries of injury, contempt, and hale on the one side, — of cloaked
revenge, dissimulation, and hate on the other, between our and their
fathers, must and ought to effect the blood of the children. I cannot
believe it can run clear and kindly yet ; or that a few fine words,
such as candor, liberality, the light of the nineteenth century, can
close up the breaches of so deadly a disunion. A Hebrew is no
where congenial to me."
3^8 THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
the coarsest and least representative of its mem-
bers."
The characteristics which FeHx .Vdlcr thus de-
scribes as belonging to a portion of his countrymen,
have no doubt sometimes repelled. It is, however,
great narrowness to allow our estimation of the race
to be determined in this way. In the popular play,
" Sam'l of Posen," the hearty young Jew, of blood
quite unadulterated, just from the frontiers of Po-
land, where we are told the Jew is at his worst, is no
more remarkable for his love of money and hard
business push than he is for his good nature, his
gratitude, and kindness of heart. The voice of the
people declares it a portrait faithful to the life.
This Semitic flotsam and jetsam thrown upon the
Aryan current, after that current had wrecked so
cruelly ancient Israel — always upon it and in it, yet
never of it, — soluble by no saturation, not to be pul-
verized or ground away by the heaviest smitings,
unabsorbed, unoverwhclmed, though the current
has been rolling for so many ages ever westward,
until at length the West is becoming East, is it to
subsist forever apart, or will it some time melt into
the stream that bears it? Whatever Judaism may
have lost through abjurations of its creed, there has
so far always remained a compact nucleus firmly
clinging to the old Judaic standards. From the im-
memorial" rites and traditions, they say, there shall
be abatement of neither jot nor tittle. Circumcision
and Passover, Talmud and Torah, — be these to us
as they were to our fathers. They are no more a
proselyting body, it has been said, than the House
of Lords ; they are the aristocracy of the human
OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 369
race, though for the time they may be pawnbrokers,
or sell old clothes. " Intermarriage with the Gentile
is a thing abhorrent. Let the chosen people hold
itself aloof until a time shall come when Jehovah shall
give to it the headship of the nations." Such a
nucleus there is to-day. Meantime, however, there
are Hebrews of a spirit quite different. Moses Men-
delssohn looked not so much toward any headship
for his race, as toward a brotherly coming together
of men, a recognizing in the spirit of charity of the
necessity of differences between creeds, — an era of
tolerance and mutual forbearance.
When in the eye of the Hebrew there beams thus
a gentle and conciliatory light, what can the Gentile
better do than hail it with gladness and meet it with
cordiality ? The path into which Moses Mendelssohn
struck has been followed by his disciples farther,
sometimes, than he would have approved. His own
children and grandchildren proceeded to lengths
from which he, with all his noble breadth of soul,
would have recoiled, holding as he did to various Israel-
ite limitations. In laying his foundations he builded
more wisely than he knew, for the superstructure was
to be a beautiful and all-embracing charity. How
hopeful is the influence proceeding from this gentle
teacher ! The world in these latter days has seen
few men and women more richly adorned with gifts
and graces than his descendants. As from a bed of
repulsive refuse will sometimes spring blossoms of
perfect loveliness, so out from the askenazim, that
degraded German Judaism, with its foul Juden-stras-
sen, from among the people despised even by those
^yo THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
of their own faith, have come those who in beneficent
genius, in gentle virtues, in all forms of sweetness
and light, present a most delightful picture. It is a
very fair flowering of humanity. Our story has had
many a page of horror ; it has been pleasant at last
to turn to things so tranquil and lovely. One cannot
but wish that the lot of the Mcndclssohns were the
universal lot, and that the world in general deserved
as thoroughly as they, to have so much happiness
given them for a portion. Would that the children
of Israel, following their new Moses, the son of Men-
del, might all come out into such a Canaan of kindli-
ness, wisdom, and breadth of soul ; and would that the
Gentile world, leaving behind their thousand forms of
cruel narrowness, might meet them through gaining
a similar loveliness of spirit ! Through all the ages
no gulf has seemed so deep and wide as that which
severed the Jew from the world which he would not
have and which would not have him. Even to-day
it seems almost Utopian to imagine that the chasm
can be filled. As, however, in the slow evolution of
man his heart gradually refines and softens, it is not
a vain hope that there will some time be such a
coming together of those as yet unreconciled, each
advancing from his shadows into a space made beauti-
ful with the radiance of charity.
ALY JEWISH HISTORY
2
SO
o
INDEX.
Aaron and the oral law, 77
Abarbanel at the court of Spain,
158
Abraham, Rabbi, story of, 16S,
etc.
Abram goes southward from Ha-
ran, 12
Adler, Felix, on the Jews, 367
^lia Capitolina, Roman city on
site of Jerusalem, 133
Ahasuerus, see Wandering Jew
Alexander the Great at Jerusa-
lem, 60
Alexandria, its library destroyed,
55 ; its large Jewish popula-
tion, 64, 133
Alliance Israelite Universelle,
282
America, number of Jews in, 235
American rapacity, 274, 275
Ammonites subdued by the He-
brews, 12
Ananus, high-priest, slain, ill
Antiochus Epiphanes oppresses
the Jews, 64
Antiochus of Commagene at the
siege of Jerusalem, 120
Antonia, fortress of, described,
104 ; destroyed, 117
Apelles slain by Mattathias, 65
Apocrypha, how composed, 76
Ajiollonius defeated by Judas
Maccabaius, 66
Aramaic, spoken in Palestine, 75
Ark, of the Covenant, described,
16
Arnold, Matthew, on Spinoza,
230
Artorius, Roman soldier at Jeru-
salem, 120
Aryans, first contact with Jews,
6r ; origin and spread of, 62 ;
spiritually conquered by the
Jews, 126
Askenazim, name for the German
Jews, 239 ; give birth to Moses
Mendelssohn, 240 ; beautiful
outgrowth from, 369
Asmonaeus, ancestor of the Mac-
cabees, 64
Assyrians, threaten Palestine, 26 ;
their jirominence in Helirew
annals, 27 ; relics of, in British
Museum, 29, 30 ; sources of
information concerning, 32 ;
how they told their own story,
34 ; discoveries of Botta and
Layard, 35 ; the cuneiform,
36; nature of the dominion of,
37 ; conquests in Palestine,
38 ; splendor of, under Senna-
cherib, 39 ; progress in arts,
40 ; commerce of, 42 ; mag-
nificence of the kings, 43 ;
palaces of, 44 ; decadence of,
54 ; their imperishable records,
55 ; their cruelty, 56
Atonement, fast of, 56
"Atta Troll," satire of Heine, 318
Auerbach, and Spinoza, 229 ;
first German novelist, 238
Auto-da-fe in Spain, 161, etc.
Averroes and Avicenna, Moorish
philosophers, 138
371
372
THE STORY OF THE JEV/S.
B
Babylon, captivity at, 57
Bacchidcs defeats Judas Macca-
ba;us, 6q
Badges worn by mediseval Jews,
20 r
Bamberger, Jewish statesman in
Germany, 296
Barak defeats Sisera, 18
Bar Cocheba, rebels against
Rome, 133 ; a false Messiah,
216
Beaconsfield, see Disraeli
Beautiful, gate of the Temple, 104
Benfey, Sanscrit scholar, 238
Ben Hadad, of Syria, conquered
by the Assyrians, 38
Bernays, Jewish scholar, 238
Bernhardt, Sarah, Jewish artist,
238
Bismarck and Lasker, 296
Black Death in tlie 14th century,
167, 19S
" Book Le Grand," work of
Heine, quoted, 31 8, etc.
Borne, Ludwig, with Heine in
the Frankfort Juden-gasse,
230
Botta, Assyrian explorer, 36
British Museum, Assyrian collec-
tion at, 29
Buckle, harsh toward Jews, 202
Cabala described, 222
Caliorsin, money-lenders, 193
Caleb, ancient Hebrew champion,
l3
Canaanites, their civilization,
their conquest by the Israel-
ites, 18
Canon, of the Old Testament,
formation of, 76
Canute banishes the Jews from
England, 1S9
Cartajjhilus, sec Wandering Jew
Castelar, Spanish statesman of
Jewish origin, 295
Cerealis leads Romans to the
final attack on Jerusalem, 117
Chaldeans, their ancient empire,
37
Charlemagne and the Jews, 139
" Charles Auchester," description
of r'elix Mendelssohn from,
343, etc.
Chasidim, a division among the
Hebrews, 77
Christian idea of the Jews, 2
Cicero, depreciates trade, 254 ;
the corn-ships at Rhodes, 273
Cobbett taunts the Jews, 283
Coleridge introduces Spinoza to
i English thinkers, 229
Commerce, how the Jews came
to follow it, 136 ; skilful pur-
suit of, in modern times, 237
" Conqueror," battering-ram of
Titus, 114
Cremieux, French statesman of
Hebrew birth, 2S2, 298
Cromwell brings Jews back to
England, ig2, 201
Cuneiform inscriptions, 36
Curse pronounced upon Spinoza,
224
Cyrus, the Medc, conquers As-
syria, 54 ; restores Jews to Pal-
estine, 57
D
Damascus, scat of a Syrian king-
dom, 25 ; conquered by As-
syria, 38 ; Jews persecuted at,
in 1840, 281
David, conquests of, 20 ; the
most popular poet in England,
311
Deborah inspires the Hebrews,
18
Dingelsteclt, Franz, his anti-Se-
mitic jiotm, 357
Dispersion of the Jews, 133
Disraeli, I'enjamin, Eail of Bea-
consfield, his assertion of He-
brew superiority, 2 ; his ori-
gin, a typical Jew, 305 ; his
INDEX.
373
entrance into Parliament, 306 ;
his public career, devotion of
his wife, 308 ; enthusiasm of,
for his race, 310, 311
Disraeli, Isaac, father of Lord
Beaconsficld, 305
Dominicans prominent in perse-
cuting the Jews, 162
Domitius Sabinus, the centurion,
at the siege of Jotapata, 99
Edomites subdued by Hebrews,
12
Edward I. banishes Jews from
England, 192
Eleazar, brother of Judas Mac-
cabreus, death of, 69
Elijah and Elisha protest against
idolatries, 26
" Elijah," oratorio of Mendels-
sohn, 342
England, Jews in, 189, etc.
Essenes, a Jewish sect, 80
Ezra, restores the power of Is-
rael, 58 ; establishes the canon,
75
False Messiahs, 216
Fasts and feasts, 84
Ferdinand, King of Spain, perse-
cutes the Jews, 140 ; expatri-
ates them, 158
Fichte influenced by Spinoza, 229
Finance, skill of Jews in, 237 ;
not exceptionally sordid and
harsh, 255, etc.
Fine Arts, Jews as cultivators of,
237
Flagellants destroy the Jews, 167
Florence, Jews at, 193
Fould, Achille, French statesman
and financier of Hebrew birth,
298
France, Jews in, 197, etc.
Franke, famous in medicine, 238
Frankfort, Juden-gasse in, 166,
259
Friedrich Wilhelm IV. and
Heine, 322
Froude and Spinoza, 230
Galilee, Romans attempt to con-
quer, 95, etc.
Gambetta, descended from Geno-
ese Jews, 298 ; puts out an eye
in his boyhood, 300 ; steps into
fame in 1868, 300; in the Corps
Legislatif in 1870, 301 ; his
astonishing energy, 302 ; his
oratory, 303, 304
Gemara, combined with the
Mischna to form the Talmud,
143
Germany, Jews in, in mediaeval
times, 165, etc.; in modern
times, 239, 240 ; ridiculed by
Heine, 321.
Gessius Floras, Roman procura-
tor, attacks Jerusalem, 94 ; is
defeated, 95
Gibbon sneers at the Jews, 202
Gideon, ancient Hebrew cham-
pion, 18
Goethe, his " Faust " quoted, 216;
admirer of Spinoza, 229 ; friend
of the Mendelssohns, 339
Goldwin Smith unjust to the
Jews, 253
Gottingen, Heine's hatred for,
314
Grace Aguilar quoted, 154, 158
Graetz, Jewish historian, quoted,
161
Grimm, Jacob, studies of, in folk-
lore, 210
Gugenheim, father-in-law of
Moses Mendelssohn, 249
H
Halcvy, Jewish musician, 237
Handicrafts, Jews restrained
from, at the dispersion, 136 ;
followed in Sicily, 195 ; He-
brew dislike of, in modern
times, 236
374
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Hanoukhah, feast of, its origin,
68, 84 ; celebrated by the
Rothsciiilds, 260
Ilazael, of Syria, conquered by
Assyrians, 38
Hebrews, sec Jews.
Hegel, admirer of Spinoza, 229
Heine, Heinrich, his " Rabbi of
Bacharach," 167 ; admirer of
Spinoza, 22g ; called by Mat-
thew Arnold first German poet
since Goethe, 23S ; with Jjorne
in the Frankfort Judcn-gasse,
260 ; with James Rothschild at
Paris, 271; his origin and career,
312-317 ; his inconsistency, his
descriptive power, 318 ; his wit
and bitterness, 320; his frivol-
ity, 32 2 ;analogues in English
literature, 323; his poetic power
and sweetness, 324, etc.; as
voicing tlie Jewish heart, 327 ;
before the Venus of Milo, 328,
329
Heine, Solomon, uncle of the
poet, 313
Heliodorus tries to rob the Tem-
ple, 72
Hensel, Wilhelm, brother-in-law
of Felix Mendelssohn, 335,
340, 346
" Hep ! hep !" cry of the perse-
cutors, 200, 356
Heptarchy, Jews under the, 189
Herod, rules Judea, 73 ; slays the
children, 88
Herodians, Jewish sect, 79
Hesse Cassel, Landgrave of, and
Rothschild, 259
Hezekiah, King of Judah, 39 ;
his good reign, throws off ihe
yoke of Assyria, 48
Hillel, Jewish teacher, 81
Hiram of Tyre and Solomon, 23
Holland, the refuge of the op-
pressed, 219
I
Idumreans, subdued by Judas
Maccabaeus, 68 ; come to de-
fend Jerusalem against Titus,
no
" Use," poem of Heine, 324
Inquisition and the Jews, 155,
etc.
" Iron Maiden," apparatus for
torture, 156
Isaac the patriarch, 12
Isaac, ambassador of Charle-
magne, 139
Isaac Arama, Jewisli i)oet, quoted,
161
Isabella, queen of Spain, a perse-
cutor, 140 ; assents to exile of
the Jews, 158
Isaiah, the prophet, counsels
Hezekiah, 52
Israel, kingdom of, 25; conquered
by Assyria, 39
Israelites, see Jews.
Italy, Jews in, 193, etc.
J
Jacob the patriarch, 12
Jaddua, high-priesl, meets Alex-
ander the Great, 58
Jael slays Sisera, 18
Jehovah, Hebrew name for God,
16
Jephthah, ancient champion of
Israel, 18
Jerusalem, founded, 22 ; em-
bellished by Solomon, 23 ;
sacked in time of Jeroboam by
the Egyptians, 26 ; described,
102, etc.; besieged by Titus,
109, etc.; its capture and de-
struction, 119 ; visits of Sir
Moses Montefiore to, 284. 2S9;
the new town near the Jaffa-
gate, 292
" Jerusalem," work of Moses
Mendelssohn, 244
Jesus, of Nazareth, his birth, 86 ;
in the Temple, bajHism, 88 ;
his temptation, gospel, passion,
death, and resurrection, 89 ;
his character the beauty of hol-
iness, 92 ; in the legend of the
Wandering Jew, 209
INDEX.
375
Jews, their assertion of superior-
ity, I ; character of their liter-
ature, 3 ; tenacity as a race, 4,
5 ; their force and passion, 6 ;
religious nature, 7 ; at their
origin, 12 ; valor under David,
20 ; vigor declines, 22 ; the
kingdoms of Judah and Israel,
25 ; force of, as shown in the
struggle wiih Assyria, 32 ; at
Nineveh, 41 ; their defiance of
Sennacherib, 52 ; captives at
Babylon, 57 ; restoration to
Palestine, 58 ; contact with
Aryans, 61 ; dispersion, 64 ;
civilization in time of the Mac-
cabees, 74 ; parties and sects,
75, etc.; oppressed and at last
crushed by Rome, 94, etc. ;
their spiritual conquest of the
Aryans, 126, etc.; dispersion,
133 ; temper rarely concilia-
lory, 134 ; how they became
traders, 136 ; their services in
commerce, 137; contact with
the Moslems, 13S ; enter Spain,
138 ; at the Renaissance, 139 ;
favored by the Saracens, and by
Charlemagne, 139 ; persecuted
in later times, 140 ; in Spain,
152; insincere converts, 153;
a Hebrew shrine, 154 ; before
the Inquisition, 155, etc.;
driven out of Spain, 158, etc.;
in other lands, 160 ; lamenta-
tions over vSpain, 161 ; an
auto-da-fe, 162, etc. ; in Ger-
many, 165, etc.; lightly touched
by the Black Death, 167 ; pic-
ture of tlieir medireval life,
168, etc ; in England, pro-
tected by early Plantagenets,
l8g ; Richard Cceur de Lion
persecutes, massacre at York,
190, etc.; driven out by Ed-
ward I., 192 ; restored by
Cromwell, 192 ; drowning of,
near London Bridge, 192 ; in
Venice, Florence, Genoa, and
Papal states, 193 ; at Rome,
194 ; in Southern Italy and
Sicily, 195, 196 ; in France,
under Philip Augustus and St.
Louis, 197 ; sufferings from
the " Pastoureaux," in time of
the " Black Death," 198 ; be-
come chattels, 200 ; badges,
narrowness of Protestants, 201 ;
of unbelievers, 202 ; sometimes
retaliate, 203 ; as typified in
Shylock, 204, etc.; in the
Wandering Jew, 208, etc. ; in-
tolerance and unamiability of,
215 ; false Messiahs, 216 ; en-
thusiasm for SabbataiZevi, 217;
they seek refuge in Holland,
219; respect for the Cabala,
222 ; the persecution of Spin-
oza, 223, etc. ; total number
and distribution, of at present,
their eminence, 235 ; seldom
soldiers, farmers, or artisans,
236 ; as financiers, as artists,
237 ; as philosophers and
scholars, 238 ; their degrada-
tion in Germany, 239 ; influ-
ence of Moses Mendelssohn,
240, etc. ; their distrust of him,
245; as business men; 254;
their ill-repute undeserved,
255, etc.; their genius for af-
fairs, 276 ; persecuted in the
Levant in 1840, 281 ; helped in
Palestine and elsewhere by
Montefiore, 283 ; in Morocco,
288 ; incited to work in Pales-
tine by Montefiore, 290, 291 ;
as statesmen, 295 ; Disraeli's
enthusiasm for, 310, 311 ; find
a voice in Heine, 312, 327 ;
dreaded for their energy and
power, 355, etc.; their invet-
erate scorn, 357 ; curious cus-
toms of, 358, etc.; cemetery at
Newport, 359, 360 ; in Poland,
360, etc.; "measuring the
boundaries," 361 ; treatment of
apostates, 364 ; compared with
Yankees, 366 ; described by F.
Adler, 367 ; orthodo.x nucleus.
376
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
36S ; reformers, 368, 369 ;
promise of a better day, 369
Joachim, Jevvisli musician, 237
John the Baptist and Jesus of
Nazareth, 88
Jolin of Giscala defends Jerusa-
salem against Titus, no, etc.;
dies in prison, 119
John riyrcanus, descendant of
tlie Maccabees, 71
Jonathan, son of Saul, 20
Jonathan, brother of Judas Mac-
cabaeus, 70
Joseph, sou of Jacob, 12
Joseph, husband of Mary, 86
Josephus, commands in Gablee,
45 ; tlie prisoner of Vespasian,
100 ; counsels the defenders of
Jerusalem to yield, 115 ; value
of his history, he follows Titus
to Rome, 121
Joshua, an ancient champion, 18
Joshua, the priest, surrenders the
Temple treasures to Titus, 118
Jotapala, defended by Josephus
against Vespasian, 95, etc.
Judah, kingdom of, 25 ; invaded
by Sennacherib, 49
Judas Maccabaeus, defeats Apol-
lonius, Seron, and Lysias, 65,
66 ; his later career, 67, 68 ;
his death, 69 ; his burial at
Modin, 70
Juden-gasse, at Frankfort, 166 ;
birthplace of the Rothschilds,
258 ; Heine's account of, 260 ;
his association with, 313
K
Kant, Immanuel, his tribute to
the "Jerusalem" of Moses
Mendelssohn, 245
Karaites, Jewish sect rejecting
tlie Talmud, 148
Lanicgo, Portuguese ancestor of
Sir Moses Montefiorc, 280
Laskcr, German statesman of
Hebrew birth, 296
Lavater, his connection with
Moses Mendelssohn, 245 ; his
description of Mendelssohn,
249
Law given on Sinai, 14 ; written,
included in the canon, 76 ; ori-
gin of, 76 ; scrolls of, 155, 184,
194
Layard, his Assyrian discoveries,
36
Leah Rendar, story of, 363
Leibnitz, his treatment of Spi-
noza, 229
Lessing admires Spinoza and
spreads his fame, 229 ; friend
of Moses Mendelssolin, 243 ;
his " Nathan the Wise," 251,
etc.
Libraries, cities as, 33 ; destruc-
tion at Alexandria, 55
Literature, Jew^s in, 238
Lombard traders, 193
London Bridge, Jews drowned
near, 192
Longfellow, his " Sandalphon,"
146; "Jewish Cemetery at
Newport," 359, 360
" Lorelei," poem of Heine, 326
Lost tribes of Israel, 39, 133
Louis IX. (St. Louis) persecutes
the Hebrews, 140, 197
Louis XVIII. helped by Roths-
child, 269
Louis Philippe helped to the
throne by Rothschilds, 270
Lucius, Roman soldier at the
siege of Jerusalem, 120
Ludwig II., of Bavaria, and
Heine, 322
Luther intolerant toward Jews,
140, 201
Lysias defeated by Judas Macca-
beus, 67
M
Maccabees, their origin, 64 ; liieir
career, 65, etc.; the power of
the successors of Judas, 70
Macedonians, contact of, with the
Jews, 63
INDEX.
377
Maria Theresa, unfriendly to He-
brews, 140
Mary, the mother of Jesus, 86
Massena, Marshal, his Jewish ori-
gin, 256
Mattathias, founder of the line of
the Maccabees, 64 ; slays Ap-
peles, 65 ; death and burial at
Modin, 66
Matterhorn in the legend of the
Wandering Jew, 213
Maurice, F. D., admirer of Spi-
noza, 230
Maximilian, Emperor, at ,Nieg-
esehenburg, 180
" Measuring the bounds," pic-
turesque cuslom, 361, etc.
Meissner, German poet, friend of
Heine, quoted, 328, 364
Menasseh ben Israel obtains
from Cromwell the restoration
of Jews to England, 192
Mendelssohn, Abraham, son of
Moses and father of Felix,
332 ; his letter as to the reli-
gious education of his children,
334 ; his death, 349
Mendelssohn, Dorothea, daugh-
ter of Moses, marries Yeit,
her connection with Friedrich
SchlegeJ, 331, 332
Mendelssohn, Fanny, daughter of
Abraliam, 333 ; marries Wil-
helin Hensel, 335 ; her home
in BerHn, 337, 345 ; letters,
34S, 349 ; death, 352
Mendelssohn- Bartholdy, Felix,
his birth, 332 ; his precocity,
335 ; his boyhood in Berlin,
339 ; his early success, 340 ;
character of his music, his
fame in England, appearance,
342 ; described in " Charles
Auchester," 343 ; witli Victoria
and Prince Albert, 350, etc.;
letters on death of his father
and sister Fanny, 352, 353 ;
his death, 352
Mendelssohn, Joseph, son of
Moses, 332
Mendelssohn, Leah Salomon,
wife of Abraham, 333 ; her let-
ter to her daughter's lover,
336
Mendelssohn, Moses, his birth
and education, 242 ; his litera-
ry work, 243 ; his breadth of
spirit, 244 ; his attachment to
Judaism, 245 ; his letter to La-
vater, 246, etc. ; his death, 248;
his wooing, 249, 250 ; por-
trayed in " Nathan the Wise,"
251 ; his fine spirit and beauti-
ful influence, 36S, 369
Mendelssohn, Paul, 339, 347
Mendelssohn, Rebecca, 345
Mesopotamia under the Assyri-
ans, 40
Messiah expected, 85
Meyerbeer, Jewisli composer, 237
" Midsummer Night's Dream,"
overture to, by Mendelssohn,
33 S
Mischna, combined with the Ge-
mara to form the Talmud, 81,
142
Moabites subdued by Israel, 12
Modin, home of the Maccabees,
64
Montefiore, Judith, wife of Sir
Moses, her diary, 283, etc.
Montefiore, Sir Moses, a typical
Jew, 278 ; his ancestry and
early career, 280 ; his philan-
thropic journeys, 281 ; at Da-
mascus, 282 ; in Palestine and
Russia, 2S3 ; entersjerusalem,
286 ; his strength in age, 288 ;
at Morocco, 289 ; incites the
Jews to industry and thrift,
290 ; his breadth of mind, 292 ;
his widespread fame, personal
appearance, orthodoxy, 293 ;
belief in the restoration of the
Jews to (he Holy Land, 294
Moors, see Saracens
Moriah, Mount, site of the Tem-
]jle, 103
Morocco, Montefiore visits, 288
Moscheles, Jewish composer, 237
378
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
Moses, the ancient lawgiver and
leader, 14
Moslem contact with Hebrews,
138
N
Napoleon I. frees Jews tempo-
rarily, 313 ; admired and de-
scribed by Heine, 319
Napoleon III. and Gambetta,
300, 301
"Nathan the Wise," drama of
Lessing, 251, etc.
" New Christians," insincere con-
verts from Judaism, 153
Niegesehenburg, a mediaeval Ger-
man city, 179
Nineveh, see Assyria
Nonotte, wife of Heine, 323 ;
lines to, 325
Novalis on Spinoza, 229
Nuremberg, torture-chamber at,
155
O
O'Connell, Daniel, and Disraeli,
306
Odin, connection with the legend
of the Wild Huntsman, 2IO
" Old Lady of the Damm Thor,"
mother of Heine, 323
Old Testament, origin of, 76
Oppenheim, German statesman
of Jewish birth, 296
Oxford, insult to the cross at, 203
Palestine, physical description of,
9, 10, 12 ; conquered by As-
syria, 38 ; Montefiore's work
in, 290
Passover, the feast of, 84 ; its
celebration in mediaeval times,
169
Pastoureaux in France persecute
Jews, 198
Paul, conversion of, 90
Pedanius, Roman horseman at
Jerusalem, 120
Pentecost, feast of, 84
Pereire, Isaac and Emile, rail-
road kings of France, 276, etc.
" Phaedo," work of Moses Men-
delssohn, 243
Pharisees, 78 ; their tenets, 79
Philip Augustus, of France, per-
secutes the Jews, 197
Philip the Fair, of France, per-
secutes the Jews, 19S
Philistines as conquerors, iS ; as
conquered, 20
Philosophy, eminence of Jews in,
238
Phoenicians, contact willi Jews,
23 ; subjected by Assyria, 47
" Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," ]>oem
of Heine, 317
Poland, Jews in, 360
Ponipcy lakes Jerusalem, 73
Popes, their changing policy tow-
ard the Jews, 194
Portugal, cruelties in, 160
Prince Albert and Felix Mendels-
sohn, 350, etc.
Prophets, account of, 22
Protestants intolerant of Jews,
201
Punch on the conversion of the
Jews, 155
Puritans intolerant of Jews, 201
Rabbi Abraham, story of, 168,
etc.
Rachel, Jewish actress, 238
Rahel, wife of Varnhagen von
Ense, her salon at Berlin, 313
Rationalist idea of the Jews, 3,
etc.
Renan, admirer of Spinoza, 230
Rhodes, Jews persecuted at, in
1840, 281
Ricardo, political economist of
Hebrew birth, 254
Richard Coeurde Lion persecutes
tiie Jews, 140, 190
Romans, first contact of, with
the Jews in time of Judas
INDEX.
379
Maccabsens, 70 ; their coming
to Palestine, 73 ; llieir oppres-
sion of the Jews, 94 ; under
Vespasian and Titus, they
crush Palestine, 95, etc.
Rome, Jews in, 193
Rothschild, Baron Alphonse, and
Napoleon III., 272
Rothschild, Baron James, at
Paris, 268; helps Louis XVIII.,
269 ; helps Louis Philippe, his
brusqueness, 270 ; his fear of
Heine, 271
Rothschild, Baron Lionel, Lon-
don, 268
Rothschild, Meyer Anselm,
founder of the house, in Frank-
fort Juden-gasse, 258 ; the
Landgrave of Hesse Cassel,
260; wife of, 261 ; her attach-
ment to the Juden-gasse, 262 ;
their five sons, 262
Rolhschild, Nathan Meyer, goes
to London, 262 ; at Waterloo,
263 ; his great speculation, 264 ;
his death, 267
Rubenstein, Jewish musician, 237
Russia, large Jewish population
of, 235 ; testimony to their
ability, 2S3 ; diplomacy of,
guided by Jews, 295
Sabbatai Zevi, a false Messiah,
216, etc.
Sadducees, origin of, 77 ; their
tenets, 78
Samaria, capital of Israel, 26 ;
conquered by Assyria, 38 ;
people of, 82 ; cursed by the
Jews, 83
" Sam'l of Posen," popular play,
367
Samson, ancient champion, 18
Samuel, the prophet, 20
" Sandalphon," the legend ver-
sified from the Talmud by
Longfellow, 146
Saracens and Jews, 138, 203
Sarah, wife of Rabbi Abraham,
story of, 169, etc.
Saul, king of Israel, 20
Savonarola unfriendly to the
Jews, 140
Schlegel, Friedrich, and Doro-
thea Mendelssohn, 331
Schleiermacher, his tribute to
Spinoza, 230
Science, distinction of Jews in,
238
Seleucidae oppress the Jews, 64
Semiramis, legend of, 29
Semites, origin of, 12
Sennacherib, his accession, 39 ;
his palace at Nineveh, 46 ; at-
tacks Judah, 48 ; his magnifi-
cent array, 49, etc. ; destruction
of. 53.
Sephardim, a name for the Span-
ish Israelites, 152 ; give birth
to Spinoza, 220 ; to Disraeli,
305
Septuagint, how prepared, 76
Seraphael, a name for Felix
Mendelssohn, 343
Seron defeated by Judas Macca-
beeus, 66
Shelley inspired by Spinoza, 230
Shylock, what he might have
heard on the Rialto, 204, 205 ;
palliation for his cruelty, 206 ;
Heine's portrayal of, 206, etc.
Sicily, Jews in, 195
Simon, son of Gioras, defends
Jerusalem against Titus, iii,
etc ; slain at Rome, 123
Sisebut, Visigothic king of Spain,
152 ; Jews rise against, 203
Sisera slain by Jael, 18
Solomon, his splendor and wis-
dom, 22 ; his folly, 25
Spain, Jews in, 152, etc.
Spinoza, his high and pure spirit,
219; falsely accused of atheism,
220 ; his origin and childhood
at Amsterdam, 220 ; his pre-
cocity, revolts at the Cabala,
222 ; escapes assassination, but
is excommunicated, 223 ; the
38o
THE STORY OF THE JEWS.
curse pronounced upon him,
224, 225 ; liis magnanimity,
jiolishes crystals for a iiveli-
liood, 225 ; his catholicity, his
(leaili, 226 ; his philosophy
outlined, his humanity, 227,
22S ; history of his fame, 229 ;
his present supremacy, 230 ;
tribute to his worth, 231
Standing Men in the ancient
Temple service, 83
Stephen, Paul at the stoning of,
9°
Stockcr, German anti-Semitic
leader, 356
"St. Paul," oratorio of Mendels-
sohn, 342
T
Tabernacle, description of, iS
Tabernacles, feast of, 84
Taine, admirer of Spinoza, 230
Talmud, its origin, 141 ; the
Mischna and Gemara, 142,
143 ; subtleties of the rabbis,
value of, 143 ; its incoherency,
144 ; its wisdom and beauty,
14=;, 146 ; its hygienic value,
148
Targums, Aramaic paraphrases
of Scripture, "6
Temple of Solomon, building
and consecration of, 23, 24 ;
rebuilding of, after captivity at
Babylon, 57 ; in the time of
Titus, 103 ; destruction of, by
the Romans, ir8
Tenth legion at the siege of Jer-
usalem, 112
Titus storms .Jotapata, 99 ; ad-
vances upon Jerusalem, loS ;
his army, 109 ; his narrow es-
cape, in ; besieges the city,
112, etc.; his victory, 119 ; his
triumph, 121, etc.; the arch
of, 124
Torah, sec Law
Torquemada, as grand inquisi-
tor, persecutes the Jews, 159
Tribes of Israel, their position on
the march, 16
Turks, their comparative human-
ity to the Jews, 159 ; their
treatment of Sabbatai Zevi,
21S
Varnhagen von Ense and Heine,
313
Venus of Milo, Heine in pres-
ence of, 328, 329
Vespasian, besieges Jotapata, 95,
etc.; becomes emperor, 100;
at the triumph of Titus, 121
Victoria, Queen, and Felix Men-
delssohn, 350, eic
Visigoths and Jews, 152
Voltaire harsh toward Jews, 202
W
Wagner, his futile effort to bring
the Jews to confusion, 23S
Wandering Jew, different ver-
sions of the legend, Caria-
philus or Ahasuerus, 208 ; his
jiilgrimage, 209 : becomes
blended with the Wild Hunts-
man, 210, etc.; before the
Matterhorn, 213
Wellington, his dislike of the
Rothschilds, 266
Werner, Saint, his .shrine on the
Rhine, 16S
Wild Huntsman becomes blend-
ed with the Wandering Jew,
210, etc.
William the Conqueror protects
the Jews, i8g.
William Rufus befriends the
Jews, 189
Woistes, mediaeval Gemian town,
Jews at, 168, etc.
Yankee and Jew, 366
York, tragedy at, 190, etc.
INDEX.
381
among
the
Zadikim, division
Jews, 77
Zealots, a Jewish sect, 79 ; at th
siege of Jerusalem, no
Zion, symbol of Hebrew nation,
I ; the ark finds a sanctuary
there in the time of David ; at
the time of the siege by the
Romans, 102
rv
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