DS 
 141 
 G688JE 
 
 GORTSCHAKOFF-OUVAROFFl 
 JEWS AND CHRISTIANS
 
 The Library 
 University of California, Los Angel 
 
 es 
 
 The gift of Mrs. Cummings, 1963
 
 JEWS AND CHRISTIANS, 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OP 
 
 PRINCESS NATHALIE GORTSCHAKOFF-OUVAROFF. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTES, 
 
 BY 
 
 H. GUEDALLA, ESQ. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 DARLING & SON. LIMITED. 
 
 PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. 
 31, EASTCHEAP. B.C. 
 
 1888. 
 (Price One Shilling).
 
 HI 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 THE admirable pamphlet of the Princess Natalie Gortschakoff-Ouvaroff 
 entitled " Juifs et Chretiens." which lately appeared at Paris in French, 
 has already been translated into German by Dr. Adolf Blumenthal, and 
 published at Mayence by Wirth. and also into Italian. 
 
 "The Russian Censorship has authorised the free circulation of the 
 book that is to say, free from the control of the censor throughout 
 Russia. An impartial perusal of the work cannot fail to alter the 
 opinions which the educated Russian entertains of the Jews ; and if a 
 translation into Russian could be published, so as to make the Princess 
 Gortschakoff's opinions more accessible to the general public, such a 
 publication might play an important part in educating the masses on the 
 Jewish question." 
 
 Such is the opinion of the Editor of the JeiL'ixh Chronicle, in which I 
 entirely coincide, and should like also to see it translated into Hebrew 
 and extensively circulated amongst my co-religionists in Russia and 
 Germany, on account of the brotherly feelings conveyed therein. The 
 club scene in " Daniel Deronda " was most ably translated for me into 
 Hebrew by the Editor of the Jfagid within a few days of its appearance 
 in English, to the great delight of George Eliot as conveyed to me. 
 Having done my part by its translation into English. I think others ought 
 to carry out these two additional translations. I must bear testimony to 
 the pioneer Dr. Adolf Blumenthal, whose able authorised translation into 
 German has so much pleased the noble authoress. 
 
 Several eminent Christians have conveyed to the Princess the most 
 flattering marks of sympathy and approbation for her pamphlet. They 
 well understood that her criticism related to a state of things tolerated, 
 although blameable. A French literary Academy has requested her 
 acceptance of the title of honorary member, and asked her to contribute 
 to their periodical, by which it will be clearly seen that far from having 
 any grudge against her for her bold outspoken, candid and truthful 
 words, they have by their line of conduct stamped her action by their 
 approbation. 
 
 2096623
 
 I am indebted to Dr. A. Blumenthal for the following interesting 
 biography : 
 
 " Princess Gortschakoff is the second daughter of the Governor-General 
 of Siberia, Prince Peter Gortschakoff, and of his wife nee Tscherevine. 
 Princess Natalie came early to the brilliant Court of St. Petersburg, where 
 she was universally admired for her beauty and wit. She was Maid of 
 Honour to the late Empress of Russia. After her marriage with Colonel 
 Alexander Ouvaroff she retired from the world, to devote herself to the 
 care of her property. She soon became a widow, but was consoled by two 
 daughters, Marie, Comtesse Cormani, wife of a nobleman belonging to one 
 of the oldest Venetian families, and Olga. Comtesse Piolo Casselli, both 
 residing at Florence. Colonel Ouvaroff's brother, Serges Fedorowitsch, a 
 man of great culture, at present lives in retirement but we have reason to 
 believe that the wise ruler, who directs the fate of Russia, is aware of his 
 merits and intends shortly to summon him to the Council of State. 
 
 In conclusion, I extract from the various journals some of the opinions 
 of the French press. 
 
 LONDON, April, 1888. H. GUEDALLA. 
 
 The " FIGAEO." A work from the > pen of Princess Natalie Gortschakoff- 
 Ouvaroff has this day been published at Ohio's, under the name of "Jews and 
 Christians." This book will, no doubt, have as great a success as " France Jnive," 
 to which it forms a reply. 
 
 The "LOT." "Jews and Christians," a most interesting work, full of life, which 
 will certainly have a great humanitarian and social influence. 
 
 "The "KEVUE PARISIENNE." The very interesting study of Madame 
 Gortschakoff-Ouvaroff, "Jews and Christians," will create a regular sensation. 
 
 The "MEMORIAL DIPLOMATIQUE." "War against the Jews is now the cry 
 of all Europe.' The work, " Jews and Christians," explains the causes of the troubles 
 of the Jews. The book will have an equally great success in the Protestant and in 
 the Catholic world. 
 
 The "JUSTICE." Princess Gortschakoff s work, "Jews and Christians," is a 
 very interesting study, for which a great success may be prophesied. 
 
 The "GAZETTE DBS ETRANGERS." Protestants, Catholics, and Free 
 Thinkers may, with advantage, read Princess Gortschakoff s pamphlet. 
 
 The " REVUE CHAMPENOISE." Although we as a rule exclude all religious 
 discussions from our columns, we must, however, mention Madame Gortschakoff s 
 powerfully conceived and cleverly written pamphlet, "Jews and Christians." 
 
 The " FORUM." The reasoning is deep and true ; the authoress only looks at 
 the question from the religious side, while we do so from the social side. 
 
 The "FIERAMOSCA" (Florence). We are happy to be able to inform our 
 readers that Princess Natalie Gortschakoff-Ouvaroff s pamphlet, "Jews and 
 Christians," which is so highly praised by the entire French Press, will short ly 
 appear in the Italian language,.
 
 JEWS AND CHRISTIANS. 
 
 AT a time when all the institutions of the past are 
 wavering, and the people are groping about amidst a 
 dissolving demagogy when human intelligence is 
 led astray by the sophistry of a senseless philosophy 
 and a humiliating philanthropy which has found no 
 other remedy for the cure of suffering humanity than 
 to discrown it, by depriving it of the responsibility 
 of its acts it may not, perhaps, be useless to cast an 
 attentive glance upon the only nation which keeps 
 itself intact amidst these inundations of thought : 
 I refer to the imperishable Jewish nation a nation 
 which appears inclined to amalgamate, but which 
 never will amalgamate with the surrounding nations ; 
 whose members, even where accepting baptism, still 
 remain Jews, like Esther, the beloved and vindictive 
 wife of Ahasuerus, and in modern times, Cremieux, 
 Beaconsfield, and so many others whose origin is less 
 known, who," when raised to power, so efficiently 
 protect their co-religionists, and whose influence is 
 felt in the acts of modern legislation. 
 
 Formerly, the thought of a Jew aw r akened in our 
 minds the image of an abject being, greedy for gain, 
 crouching over his gold, of which he made his God, 
 
 A 2
 
 and steeped to the full amid the cares of insatiable 
 avarice. But this is so no longer ; the descendants 
 of Israel have made their way into many modern 
 Societies, and France and Italy accept them on a 
 footing of equality. 
 
 The atheism of which the Christian boasts has 
 done away with many prejudices so far as the baptized 
 are concerned, but not as regards the Jews : they 
 feign, when talking to us, indifference and toleration, 
 and even occasionally affect to call Christianity 
 reformed Judaism. At the bottom of their hearts, 
 however, there is nothing of the kind : the Christian 
 is always the Guim, and they are the people of God. 
 Their religion is so indissolubly connected with their 
 nationality that whilst they proclaim through the 
 medium of the public papers at their disposal, the 
 lowering of those barriers which separate races and 
 peoples, whilst preaching a philanthropy of equality 
 and the alliance of the nations, they carefully guard 
 against any act which may definitively fuse them in 
 that general humanity of which they proclaim them- 
 selves the apostles. 
 
 No matter his place of birth, the Jew will remain 
 a Jew ; Jacob is his father, the Thora and the 
 Talmud are his masters, the cradle wherein his 
 children are rocked ; and with him, the question is 
 not one of religion only, but nationality. 
 
 From the study of those books, the Jews draw 
 their imperishable vitality, -their faith and their 
 trust in those future events which are to bring the
 
 realisation of the promises, the fulfilment of which 
 they have been awaiting for so many centuries. 
 
 In becoming a citizen of another nation, the Jew 
 accepts and receives the right, but not the obligation 
 to detach himself from his original nationality, he 
 cannot do so without abdicating, and abdicate he 
 never will. Can a man serve two masters ? The 
 Jew serves God, the Go'ims serve Mammon. 
 
 Their country is Jerusalem ; but as they are a 
 race eminently capable of patriotism, whilst consider- 
 ing Jerusalem as an ideal country, they are still 
 capable of serving with devotion a temporary 
 country and the Governments which employ them, 
 without ever losing sight of their origin and common 
 interests. 
 
 Among the Eastern nationalities of Europe the 
 Jew excites attention by his serious and even sad 
 physiogonomy : his look seems to reveal a world of 
 thoughts and indelible regrets ; it is that of the exile 
 deploring the loss of his country ; it is that of a 
 being in a mystic reverie ever awaiting that miracle, 
 the return to the country of his fathers, the coming 
 of the Messiah promised him by the writings of his 
 sacred book. His very speech retains the guttural 
 sounds of his Eastern origin. 
 
 In the West the Jews are still exiles, but exiles 
 who frequently no longer think of their country ; 
 who have become acclimatised among the go'ims, and 
 perhaps if the offer were made to them to return to 
 Jerusalem, many among them, like the ten tribes in
 
 the time of Cyrus, would prefer remaining in the 
 country whose manners and customs they have 
 adopted. 
 
 Have we not recently seen them in their exodus 
 from Russia turn their steps rather in the direction of 
 America than that of Palestine, to which place the 
 English, seconded by Montefiore, tried to attract 
 them ? 
 
 The Jewish nation has not yet uttered its last 
 word, for even when pretending to renounce all 
 religion, as we have occasionally seen, and throwing 
 themselves, as it were into materialism whilst 
 uttering the impious cry of " Where is our God," 
 we are sensible of another fibre than that of modem 
 paganism ; we are conscious of the anger of the 
 nation which knows itself to be the elect and deems 
 itself forgotten. 
 
 There is also the pious Jew who has not bent the 
 knee before the altar of the modern Baal, who 
 despising the goods of this earth, lives amid poverty 
 and study, passing his days bent over the Thora and 
 the Talmud, there seeking the clue to the enigma 
 which the strange destiny of his people exhibits to 
 his view ; if it be not vouchsafed to him to penetrate 
 any deeper into the hidden sense of the prophecies, 
 he is still there, at least, as the green banner of 
 Islamism protecting the sepulchre of Abraham. 
 
 It is towards such men that our interest and 
 our respect are due men who bestow upon lucrative 
 labour only just sufficient time to meet the strict
 
 necessities of existence, who, with souls raised to an 
 ideal and distant future, bear, without a murmur, 
 privations and contempt. 
 
 Are examples wanted of such men ? 
 
 Take R. vich Ech., the learned translator of the 
 Talmud, who, on reaching old age, asks no more of 
 life than the right to be permitted to shed tears 
 once more in a distant land upon his parents' tomb. 
 
 Take D., a Professor of Hebrew in a distant town 
 in the East, the father of a numerous family that he 
 maintains with his labour ; who, when his learning 
 fails to furnish him with sufficient resources, devotes 
 his intelligence to the art of photography, to a calling 
 for which more elevated occupation has rendered him 
 unfit, and in which his petty savings are soon sunk ; 
 yet still, with unfailing courage when this resource 
 proves futile, sets about to find another that may be 
 more successful. 
 
 At Florence, a poor little Jewish School, in a 
 locality that is poorer still, gives shelter to intelligence, 
 to firm faith, and the disinterested thirst for Truth. 
 
 How many others which I might quote deserve to 
 attract our attention and compel our esteem, if Ave had 
 only time to bestow upon them in this age of haste 
 and superficiality ? 
 
 Like every race and every individual who is richly 
 endowed, the Jew is extreme, now pursuing with 
 avidity the acquisition of wealth which alone has, 
 hitherto, gained for him the right of equality among 
 us, now plunging into the absorbing study of his holy
 
 8 
 
 books, scrupulously obeying all the precepts of the 
 Mosaic law, and neglecting every other interest in 
 order to live solely in a prophetic vision in the expec- 
 tation of the Messiah. 
 
 At the period of the troubles raised in Europe 
 through the Semitic question a pamphlet written on 
 the subject concluded with the opinion that it was 
 necessary to civilise the Jews in order to solve 
 existing difficulties. 
 
 My personal observation has led me to a different 
 conclusion ; the Jew, as a nation, has arrived at the 
 extreme limit comprehended under the Mosaic law 
 for the development of humanity. 
 
 It appears to me that what is wanted now, is to 
 civilise and christianise the nations among whom the 
 Jews are living. If we could lead them, if not to 
 love, at least to esteem those nations and make the 
 Jews witnesses of the fruits which such civilisation 
 can bear, the task contemplated would then be far 
 nearer its fulfilment ; hatred and contempt would 
 yield to kindly intercourse, and the Jew w^ould be 
 happy in recognising a brother in the Christian. 
 
 1 am aware that it is a reproach cast upon the Jew 
 that he abuses the advantages which his knowledge, 
 his eastern suppleness, and his complete absence of 
 vices give him over the Christian. He is charged 
 with usury, and reprobated for those Stock-exchange 
 speculations the secret of which is retained by him 
 and his fellows in an offensive and defensive alliance 
 against other nations.
 
 But is the Christian so scrupulous, even as regards 
 his own brothers, as to have acquired the right to 
 condemn the Jew ? The Christian is too often 
 wounded in his material interests through the address 
 and commercial genius of the Jew, to be just in 
 speaking of him. In his struggle for gold the 
 Christian is quite as much vanquished by his own 
 vices as by the qualities of the Jew. We must not, 
 therefore, lose sight of the causes which lead to his 
 superiority, and not attribute it solely to avidity and 
 to a want of exceptional scruples. 
 
 In the Eastern parts of Europe, where the popula- 
 tions are in a very backward state of civilisation, 
 whenever the governments fail to look into their 
 transactions, they inevitably fall into the hands of 
 usurers. 
 
 Do we not see the justest and most liberal measure 
 ever adopted by a Government, viz., the liberation of 
 the Serfs in Russia, fail to produce all the fruits one 
 had reason to expect from it ? After emancipation 
 from the guardianship and also the oppression of 
 serfdom, the people have re-fallen, at least many 
 among them, under the still more pitiless domination 
 of usurers and intelligent tricksters of the same 
 nationality, and generally of the same class. 
 
 Are we to argue from this that we ought to regret 
 the abolition of a degrading institution ? Certainly 
 not ; but the same laws which place the protection of 
 a guardianship over the years of minority and over 
 the acts of men of unsound mind, ought to limit the
 
 10 
 
 free-will of the undeveloped classes, more especially 
 in their connection with races infinitely their superiors 
 in knowledge and the conduct of affairs with the 
 Jewish race in short, which, to a perfect genius for 
 business unites a spirit of union and solidarity which 
 transforms it into a commercial phalanx. 
 
 The peasant would be the gainer as being preserved 
 from rum ; and the Jew would avoid those sanguinary 
 reprisals which the authorities have not always the 
 strength and capability of repressing in time. 
 
 Unjust in form these reprisals respond to a senti- 
 ment which is not so among the populations who see 
 themselves ruined without knowing how to strike a 
 blow in their defence, for it must not be forgotten 
 that the Jew who comes forward to conclude a bargain 
 is a member of an entire community ready to lend 
 him its aid and countenance : the struggle therefore 
 presents no equality as regards an isolated individual. 
 
 The Jew has no vices ; unfortunately, and, it is a 
 grave reproach, he, has no scruples as to turning to 
 account those of other nations, but the Christian 
 shows himself still less scrupulous for he turns to 
 account the vices of his co-religionists. 
 
 In the relations of Jews with each other you will 
 never find them guilty of fraud can we say as much 
 for Christians ? That which may serve as an excuse 
 for the Jews in many of their transactions with our- 
 selves is, that during several centuries, many of the 
 means of gaining a livelihood were shut against them ; 
 they were the victims also of cruel persecutions
 
 11 
 
 whence they freed themselves only at the price of 
 gold, and that gold alone secured them an honoured, 
 if not an honorable place, among the descendants of 
 Japhet. 
 
 If the Rothschilds, the Foulds, and the Ephrussi 
 are courted by the flower of Western aristocracy, 
 and the poor Polish Jew drags out his miserable 
 existence amidst contempt and scorn, what must 
 these same Rothschilds and the other Jews think of 
 our religion and the loftiness of our sentiments ? 
 
 Upon veritable Christians, or rather upon any 
 Christian Society, the Jewish community would have 
 no hold : our materialism, our impotent cupidity, our 
 vices, and our brutal selfishness constitute their 
 triumph on the one hand, and our weakness and 
 humiliation on the other. 
 
 We are, according to the evangelical parable, the 
 issue of a race of maimed and halt, the gates of 
 the banqueting house have been opened for us 
 on the refusal of the first invited guests and though 
 Christianity were entrusted to make us whole and 
 cure our infirmities, all the glories of the golden calf 
 would fail to attain the end, even should a new Moses 
 cause us to swallow the ashes thereof. Let us not 
 forget that Shem is our brother, not only when he 
 bears the name of Rothschild or Fould, but also 
 when he is poor and persecuted ; that he is liable to 
 the same weaknesses, and that the insults which we 
 have so long heaped upon him form an excuse for 
 his hatred and our vices for his contempt.
 
 12 
 
 Unhappily, the clergy of every country busies 
 itself almost exclusively with dogmatic discussions 
 and the material interests of that religion whose 
 essence is to despise them. It neglects all spiritual 
 interests and allows millions of souls to escape, 
 which the materialistic philosophy of the age hastens 
 to entice into its nets. Therefore, whilst admitting 
 that Christian morality is infinitely more lofty than 
 that of the Jews, we still have to deplore the fact 
 that Jewish morality is infinitely superior to that of 
 the Christians. 
 
 The immorality of the Christians is so notorious 
 that it is the chief reason why the Jews hold in such 
 slight esteem those among them who go over to 
 Christianity, assigning to such conversions no other 
 incentive than the desire to abandon themselves with- 
 out control to unlimited licence. Family ties among 
 the Jews are worthy of our admiration ; the children 
 always keep up, as regards their parents, a dependence 
 of love and respect. Those acts which are self-styled 
 " sommations respectueuses" or formal requests of 
 consent to marriage made to parents by a person 
 of legal age are totally unknown among them, and 
 the new families, formed by the marriage of the 
 children, are bound to the parents by the indissoluble 
 ties of filial sentiment. 
 
 In spite of the Mosaic laws and the regulations of 
 the Talmud, occasionally bearing but too strongly the 
 impress of Eastern trammels, the position of woman 
 among the Jews is full of dignity, whether as daughter,
 
 13 
 
 wife or mother. During a recent stay at Heidelberg, 
 I was witness of the veneration which Jewish families 
 display towards their aged and infirm parents. From 
 my balcony which overlooked the premises of an 
 Israelitish family, I could observe a woman of some 
 ninety years the object of special care and attention. 
 Everything connected with her personal service was 
 performed by a young girl of some eighteen summers 
 her granddaughter. In the morning, I could see the 
 snowy hair of the grandmother dressed by those 
 young, affectionate and tender hands. Later on, 
 leaning on the arm of her son-in-law, she walked 
 about the garden and took the post of honour at the 
 family meal. Every tender thought and respectful 
 care were reserved for the infirm and aged grand- 
 mother. M. C. had lost his wife, and this was the 
 mother of the deceased. How many Christian families 
 might have followed such an example ! I have 
 known many, and among the highest ranks too, where 
 the old age of a mother was the object of mere 
 contemptuous compassion and impatient toleration ! 
 
 The vice of drunkenness, that plague spot of the 
 northern nations, is completely unknown among the 
 Jews ; they are equally temperate as regards their 
 food, and the custom which leads them to very early 
 marriages, preserves them from unlawful connexions 
 and other irregularities. But we do not see that 
 these early marriages interfere with their material 
 prosperity. The education which is bestowed upon 
 Jewish children is founded upon stable principles,
 
 14 
 
 having for its basis the knowledge of God, whose will 
 is their law. At the present time, the West scarcely 
 admits the existence of a Creator, but certainly not of 
 a Deity ; the Jewish nation stands alone in that His 
 holy will is accepted by him as a law, violated often 
 it is true by human weakness and human passions, but 
 always adored and admitted, and it is only among 
 the Jews that the true connexion is revealed which 
 should exist between man and his God. The first 
 virtue taught to them in infancy is obedience, towards 
 which the weakness of the child instinctively leans. 
 
 Obedience towards their parents leads the children 
 to the obedience and adoration of God, the creator 
 and father of man, and not a creator, more or less 
 impersonal, according to the degree of philosophy of 
 so-called Christian parents. The first books placed 
 in the hands of children are the sacred ones, whose 
 contents, impressed upon the memory from the very 
 outset of life, leave an indelible mark throughout the 
 entire existence of the learners. Their law expressly 
 forbids them the use of derision, that malice which 
 makes of words so formidable a weapon, of a nature 
 to exasperate the weak and not unfrequently sting 
 them into crime. Modesty is obligatory ; jests and 
 allusions of an indecorous character are interdicted, 
 and thus it is that the Jew maintains during his 
 entire life a bearing full of wisdom and reserve which 
 is often in strong contrast to that of the Christian. 
 While quite young the Jews learn that they form a 
 community : while quite young, they know that they
 
 15 
 
 constitute a family among the other nations. They 
 are aware that wealth and poverty are mere accidents 
 which must never be allowed to dissolve their 
 fraternity. It is true that they do not understand 
 that broader and more generous application made by 
 Christianity of the principle of human fraternity, but 
 which the Christians themselves too rarely practise. 
 But at least among them the tie of a powerful and 
 aifectionate solidarity is never broken. Has it not 
 been said : " If a Jew falls, there are thirty ready to 
 pick him up " ? Might one not add : " If a Christian 
 falls, there are thirty ready to trample him under 
 foot"? 
 
 This trait does not escape the Jew and perhaps 
 more than anything else binds him to his faith, for it 
 must be admitted that many Jews have applied 
 themselves sufficiently closely to the study of the 
 Scriptures to recognise in our Saviour the great 
 prophet announced by Moses. Between that and the 
 Christian religion there is but one step. But those 
 whom we call Christians are frequently no other than 
 individuals who have been baptised, and are altogether 
 wanting in that impress of mutual love which should 
 make them recognisable. The unfortunate converted 
 Jew who abandons his community and his religion 
 falls into a chaos where the ties of blood are as little 
 respected as the community of religious beliefs. 
 Habituated, as the Jews all are, to that solidarity 
 which gives support to those venerated family ties 
 which are so great a consolation amid the tribulations
 
 16 
 
 of existence, and which during so many centuries 
 have constituted their strength and their life. What 
 is to become of them amid their new surroundings ? 
 Scandalised at every step, abandoned, just as every 
 Christian is abandoned during times of misfortune, 
 they require a faith and a strength superior to those 
 of the early martyrs in order to maintain unflinch- 
 ingly the struggle against the evil which has been let 
 loose upon the universe. After this, one ceases to 
 feel surprised if the English clergyman, if the Roman 
 Catholic missionaries, if the Orthodox Greek priests 
 fail in their w r ork of conversion, and we often witness 
 the spectacle of an unhappy wretch who has been 
 temporarily led away, abjuring his new faith and 
 re-entering the bosom of Israel ! 
 
 The care bestowed upon the education of Jewish 
 children is in strong contrast to the moral carelessness 
 which presides over that of Christian children. The 
 Hebrew child is invariably up to the age of seven 
 years - subject to the discipline of passive obedience, 
 and no toleration is extended to independence of 
 mind or insubordination. Later on, with the 
 development of reason, the sentiment of responsibility 
 and of duty is inculcated ; and this being freely 
 accepted, enchains the moral being and gradually 
 raises the child to the dignity of manhood. The 
 death of a father occasionally converts a youth of 
 fourteen into the head of a family. I have known 
 more than one who, starting at that age, have fought 
 their battle bravely, bearing the immense responsi-
 
 bility of the destiny of their mother, brothers and 
 sisters, whom they have had to maintain and establish 
 in life. And yet they have performed these tremendous 
 duties with no less energy than success. 
 
 The Jewish youth, even among the lowest classes, 
 never exhibit those phenomena of immorality which 
 tend to become more and more frequent among 
 Christians. For the education bestowed upon the 
 Jewish child has a solid and moral basis, in strong 
 contrast to that which is given to the Christian, and 
 that more frequently than not excites the passions, 
 leads to insubordination and encourages every species 
 of covetousness. So it happens that the Christian 
 youth too frequently exhibit the spectacle of un- 
 natural appetites which their physical weakness will 
 not permit them as yet to satisfy, but which must 
 alarm every human being who observes and who 
 reflects. 
 
 Modern education requires greater firmness, more 
 forethought, and above all more faith in fundamental 
 principles ; and at the same time, more veritable 
 affection. Instead of this, what do we behold ? 
 A vast amount of slothful indulgence and a no small 
 share of perfect indifference. The parent spoils his 
 child, and abdicates his rights w r hile he abandons his 
 duties ; authority becomes illusory and even con- 
 temptible, owing to the negligent hands which 
 wield it. We go further still ; we even find amuse- 
 ment in the evil and precocious tendencies that crop 
 
 out in these little creatures who are too young for the 
 
 B
 
 is 
 
 performance of certain acts ; until to our horror we 
 find the strength to carry them out united to the 
 desire which has for a time been powerless. Formerly 
 colleges for boys and convents for girls were asylums 
 where youth was respected. Nowadays, w r hen all the 
 passions have assumed such extraordinary license, 
 childhood itself is no longer sheltered and preserved, 
 and we observe youth coolly calculating upon the 
 immunity which the law accords him to escape from 
 chastisement. We see with terror the frequency of 
 the crimes with which youth is soiled and which cause 
 pain and trouble in the family circle before the 
 misery extends to society at large. And what is to 
 be done ? Governments have ceased to take much 
 interest in the matter, the heads of families have been 
 deprived of their power to apply a remedy, and the 
 future of modern society is fraught with peril ! 
 
 Generally speaking the Jews read but little, and 
 but rarely devoting themselves to literature, escape 
 the dangers which the perusal of immoral trash lends 
 to those subversive ideas which, at the present time 
 are a veritable workshop of corruption. It would be 
 desirable if upon this point, Governments should 
 establish a moral censorship. Wherein would such a 
 measure be more contrary to the spirit of liberty than 
 the interdiction of certain plays or the prohibitions 
 which extended to gambling houses ? It is said, I 
 am aware, that books are written with a view to the 
 public and according to public taste ; but is it not 
 the mission of literature to elevate and purify that
 
 19 
 
 taste ? Depraved tastes are a symptom of disease 
 and should be treated accordingly. A complete 
 want of moral sense, of religious aspirations and an 
 ardent thirst of material enjoyment are everywhere 
 perceptible in the education or rather the top-dressing, 
 so to speak, now bestowed upon youth. And thus it 
 is that the law, impotent in the repression of crime, 
 has called in to its aid medical science, which can only 
 inventory and classify the existing monstrosities 
 under the names of psycopthia, hysteria, neuropathia, 
 and derangements in general. 
 
 In the majority of instances, all these evils derive 
 their origin less from physical disorder than the 
 absence of equilibrium between the moral and 
 intellectual part of the individual. The moral being 
 is steeped in the slumber of death ; the intellectual 
 and physical being is immeasurably over excited. 
 Hence that pride which holds the first place among the 
 symptoms of insanity, and can we not see how every- 
 thing in modern education tends to develope this trait ? 
 That which the schools have begun, the daily papers 
 undertake to finish. No one can deny that there is 
 more true respect for childhood in shutting it away 
 from vice, than in granting it a senseless liberty which 
 must tend towards its ruin. Christianity which has 
 over all moral questions so vast a superiority ought 
 perhaps to have retained some few of the traditional 
 customs of the Hebrews, and more especially those 
 connected with education, whereon the Mosaic law has 
 so justly bestowed its care. That race, which the 
 
 B 2
 
 20 
 
 Deity himself had raised up through the voice of its 
 prophets, had attained a degree of moral civilisation 
 which ought to have rendered it more apt to 
 assimilate to itself the Christianity which it rejected, 
 but which the Gentiles were in no way prepared to 
 receive. 
 
 Thus it happens that our manners, notwithstanding 
 the waters of baptism, still retain many traces of 
 paganism, just as the physical body of modern man 
 still displays the traces of a degenerate leprosy which 
 medical men find, under other names, in our con- 
 stitutions. Paganism, which has been latent and 
 concealed during so many centuries, has again a 
 tendency to invade with impetuosity the entire 
 western hemisphere. Not, it is true, under the 
 material form of the divinities of the past, but under 
 that of a more and more exclusive worship of matter 
 and of the enjoyments of the flesh. The animal 
 gratifications of the savage are less degrading than 
 the refinements of voluptuousness placed at the 
 service of vice by modern society. It would seem 
 as if the baptised nations had hitherto made but a 
 trial of Christianity, and that true Christianity will 
 make its appearance upon the earth the day that 
 Israel places at its service her ardent faith and her 
 indomitable energy. The Jew has hitherto held 
 aloof from these allurements and regards the Goim 
 with pity, indeed, but not unmixed with contempt. 
 
 The moral superiority of the Jew being proved, 
 what are AVC to say of the mixed marriages, towards
 
 21 
 
 which the Jews are led by vanity and pride and the 
 Christians by the still less noble sentiment of avidity ? 
 One would say that good sense, as well as religion, 
 should prohibit them. The law of the Jews more- 
 over prohibits them not only from contracting 
 marriage, but all intimate social connection with 
 strangers ; our religion, with equal wisdom, does not 
 admit of such alliances. And, in fact, what moral 
 union can exist under conditions of permanent 
 hostility, where the most lofty sentiments of the soul 
 must be continually galled ? So much for the union 
 when considered from the religious point of view. 
 As regards those marriages where the two contracting 
 parties profess an equal indifference to their faith, the 
 Western laws have supplied a means of realisation 
 through the instrumentality of the Mayor a channel 
 which is found to satisfy a goodly number of 
 Christians among themselves. AmoDg Jews and 
 Christians it is the only admissible arrangement : it 
 is to be feared, however, that a tardy religious 
 awakening may bring trouble and disunion into the 
 household ; the birth of children may also sound 
 another note of discord. 
 
 Whilst admitting the rare qualities of the Jews, we 
 may observe that the Western nations are perhaps 
 wanting in the instinct of self-preservation by inviting 
 them, through the medium of election, to govern the 
 people. The direction which they will infallibly 
 impress upon our laws will be contrary to the spirit 
 of the people, and opposed to our fundamental ideas.
 
 22 
 
 The ties which should unite Christian nations, can 
 never be held fast by the Jews, and hence will arise 
 perpetual wars and endless revolutions. 
 
 The Jews nowhere take root in the soil. They are 
 strangers to the history of the nations among w r hom 
 they dwell look upon themselves as mere temporary 
 sojourners in their midst, and consequently cannot feel 
 bound to look upon their institutions as solid. Their 
 fortunes, which consist habitually of personalty, adapt 
 themselves admirably to all the migrations necessitated 
 by revolutions. Deeply attached to their own worship, 
 they entice the Christian on to the neutral ground of 
 equality and religious indifference, without however 
 themselves venturing upon it, for their own religion 
 and the law r of their fathers form, in their hearts, the 
 object of the profoundest love. All confessions are 
 equally good, says modern philosophy ; should we 
 believe him who said : All men are brothers therefore 
 let us abolish " the family " ! In this abdication of 
 faith and of family ties, towards which Socialistic ideas 
 are so insolently tending, we may foresee a future of 
 degradation for man and the certainty of the most 
 abominable selfishness. If humanity once accepts 
 these shameful bases as its moral future, it will sink 
 never to rise again. And who should bear the 
 responsibility of such a result, if not our own imbecility ? 
 Here is the rock of peril in order to avoid it, the 
 Christian has but to renew his strength through the 
 aid of his own laws and he will reconquer his failing 
 dignity and find the true road it is incumbent upon 
 him to follow.
 
 23 
 
 The existence of the Kahal, the secrets of which 
 have been revealed to us in a recent work, but which 
 every attentive observer might have already foreseen 
 for himself, is an indubitable sign of the state of mis- 
 trust, excusable enough besides, which the Jews 
 experience among us. It is less an aggressive code, 
 whatever people may say, than certain regulations, 
 having the force of law, in use among the tribes of 
 Israel, to assist one another and secure those ad- 
 vantages which the laws refuse them in other 
 countries ; it is a religious and social institution, 
 intended to protect its members and fortify the ties of 
 their solidarity. The means used, are far from being 
 always legal, occasionally, indeed, they fall short of 
 the strict prescriptions of morality, but every popu- 
 lation, subject to the arbitrary will of a foreign 
 Government, will exhibit the same features of an 
 offensive and defensive league. 
 
 If it be perhaps difficult to look upon the Jew 
 altogether as a compatriot, at least, it would be 
 desirable to cease to act with hostility towards him, 
 and to grant him the same rights and the same pro- 
 tection as are extended to other strangers. For the 
 rest, the institution of the Kahal deserves to be 
 studied apart, as it cannot lind a place in these pages. 
 
 I am not acquainted with the Rothschilds, the 
 Ephrussi, or any of the other Jewish potentates, nor 
 am I desirous of such acquaintance, for I presume, 
 that as regards eternal form, they do not sensibly 
 differ from the rest of humanity, and as to the
 
 24 
 
 millions or billions of francs they may possess, they 
 scarcely inspire in me more respect than would the 
 aspect of a single coin. The interest I feel, concerns 
 chiefly the learned Jew and the poor Jew, and not 
 such individuals as are placed by fortune in 
 exceptional positions. 
 
 But, by way of answer to the criticisms of which 
 they have recently been the object, I beg every 
 impartial person to give his attention to a beneficent 
 institution they have created and endowed, namely, 
 the Jewish Hospital, into which the poor are admitted 
 gratis, and which is provided with all the means and 
 comfort that money and science can procure. And, 
 what is more serious still, a fact worth pondering on 
 this Jewish Hospital, full of veritable compassion 
 for those on whom it bestows shelter, adds to the care 
 which disease requires, thought for the souls of its 
 inmates, sees that the rites commanded by the 
 Judaic law are performed, and watches over those 
 last moments wherein the soul may still prepare itself 
 to appear before its Creator. The confession of the 
 dying man is taken ; the minister prays with him ; 
 prays for him when all is over, and the expenses of 
 the whole are met out of the hospital funds. 
 
 What is being done in this particular among 
 civilised nations ! 
 
 Everything connected with religion is expelled ; 
 its representatives are replaced, to the great detriment 
 of the patient, by lay attendants, and not only is all 
 spiritual consolation ignored, but it is not sure that
 
 25 
 
 the patient would obtain it, even if he made the 
 request. A Jew, unfortunately but a poor believer, 
 once said to me : " Be under no alarm on my account : 
 at the time of my death the whole Jewish community 
 will hasten to obtain my confession and pray around 
 my bed." In the West, a watch is not unfrequently 
 set to bar the entry of the priest who comes to offer 
 spiritual consolation. 
 
 I had occasion, in a town beyond the. Rhine, to 
 visit a sick Frenchman whom certain charitable 
 persons had placed in a lay hospital. It was the 
 best in the place, and kept with remarkable order 
 and cleanliness. After a night, however, passed in 
 the establishment, the poor fellow begged me to take 
 him out and have him removed to a Catholic hospital. 
 And yet he was a freethinker. The laughter, how- 
 ever, and noisy jokes of the nurses, male and female, 
 excited his nerves and increased his pains. He died, 
 alas ! in revolt against God, whom he represented to 
 himself in the image of man, who had caused him so 
 much suffering. The place which religion should 
 have occupied in that establishment was vacant, and 
 the care of the body and the consolation of the moral 
 being suffered in consequence. In Italy, in the 
 hospitals I visited, the patients would often say to 
 me " Siamo custoditi da birbanti" 
 
 One may say and do what one will, but the care 
 of the sick is not a profession, it is a vocation. 
 Everything to its place : the domain of tender 
 compassion and of the cares which suffering demands
 
 26 
 
 belongs only to religion. It is the task of others to 
 perform the functions which require merely precision, 
 activity and experience. The excessive contempt of 
 which religion is unfortunately the object produces at 
 times most singular effects. 
 
 Domestic servants have been known, with a view 
 to enhance their value, to declare that they never go 
 to church. I once knew a Jew, to whom an Italian 
 servant woman made a similar profession of faith, 
 reject her on the ground that he required of his 
 servants the fulfilment of their religious duties 
 according to their mode of worship. 
 
 What are we to say, and what to think ? The Jew 
 certainlv is not and never will be indifferent to 
 
 * 
 
 religious matters, although he may occasionally assume 
 to do so to place himself on a level with miserable 
 modern ideas. And how, after this, can we feel 
 astonished at the depth of contempt which exists in 
 the soul of every Jew ; a contempt so profound that 
 he goes so far as to deny to the (H-oirn the possession 
 of a soul. And in fact does he who holds no store 
 by the possession of a soul deserve to have one ? 
 
 I have seen Jews shed tears at the remembrance of 
 a father who has been dead for thirty -five years, and 
 it is not they, most certainly who would make use of 
 the word governor as is done in England, in order to 
 lower the rank of paternity. When one has been in 
 a position to admire all those fundamental qualities 
 of the Jews, their respect for the law of God under 
 the numerous phases which ennoble the family ties,
 
 97 
 
 and which cause misfortunes and persecutions to be 
 accepted with resignation, when one has witnessed 
 the minute observance of the practices which form 
 the letter of the law, a tribute of homage and respect 
 towards their great legislator, one turns one's eyes 
 with sadness on the West, where the people are 
 voluntarily plunged in utter darkness, where man 
 accepts so willingly the decree of his decline in 
 renouncing his belief in immortality, and one feels 
 tempted to call aloud once more to Israel, while 
 repeating Christ's words : " Salvation cometh of the 
 Jews ! " and to await with anguish the moment when 
 the Jews will discover the truth amidst the confusion 
 and shaos presented by Christian Societies and turn 
 to Christianity which is the most ideal expression of 
 their law. 
 
 The dead levelling of all character, that moral 
 anemia which renders man indifferent alike to good 
 and evil which do not touch him personally, does not 
 exist among the Jews. They are susceptible of dis- 
 interested indignation and also of sincere admiration, 
 who then at the present day would understand those 
 words of Caesar on receiving his death blow: " Et tu 
 Brute" and that profound grief of the father which 
 renders him indifferent to the blade of the poignard 
 and after which he veils his face. 
 
 Modern legislation tends more and more to restrict 
 crime to its material side and to detach it from what 
 forms its essence, viz. : the share which morality has 
 had in it.
 
 28 
 
 We are left therefore with the desire that Christian 
 nations, instead of seeking out the faults of the Jews, 
 would endeavour to imitate them in their relations 
 with one another and in their fidelity to their faith. 
 Their most ancient canticle, the hymn of Moses, 
 declares that they have received their lot, in view of 
 the other sons of Adam. The commentaries of the 
 Talmud explain these somewhat vague words by 
 saying that their mission, bestowed by God himself, 
 was to spread monotheism among the nations. Now 
 that that first mission has been fulfilled is it not the 
 object of their presence among us to re-kindle the 
 sentiments of morality and family affection which are 
 becoming more and more feeble ? By studying what 
 it is which makes their strength, we can only be the 
 gainers ; by allowing ourselves to be led by them, we 
 shall be the losers, not because they are incapable, but 
 because their point of view is different from ours. 
 
 Their regards are retrospective and dwell on the 
 past of their national history ; we Christians are 
 compelled to look forward. They are still bound by 
 the narrow ties from which Christianity must free the 
 world in order to bring it within that course of broad 
 ideas which, sincerely applied, will give to humanity 
 a victorious flight. 
 
 As regards the conversion of the Jews, a question 
 which appears of such interest to the English, it 
 would easily be effected by itself, if we were only 
 united, for supposing we converted them, are we to 
 turn them into Roman Catholics at a time when a
 
 29 
 
 recent dogma has just created a fresh obstacle to 
 Christian unity, and are they to recognise the in- 
 fallibility of a Pope, so often in contradiction with his 
 predecessors ? Are they to become Protestants, with 
 all the latitude of faith and personal interpretation, 
 rejecting all authority, all tradition, and are they to 
 style their brother Catholics, idolaters ? Are they to 
 be Orthodox Greeks ? But Eastern orthodoxy does 
 not seek to make proselytes any more than ancient 
 Judaism. More tolerant, undoubtedly, and more 
 charitable perhaps, it fears that responsibility which 
 the other Christian confessions so willingly accept. 
 It is satisfied, like the Archbishop of Kieff in an anti- 
 Semitic tumult, to make the words of peace and 
 conciliation heard by the over-excited and troubled 
 peoples. 
 
 It is a reproach cast upon Jewish genius that it 
 has never otherwise than feebly contributed to the 
 discoveries of science, but man for the most part 
 labours with a view to solve any difficulty of his 
 existence that may arise, and the complete code which 
 embraces the entire fife of the Jew places him outside 
 such difficulties. 
 
 Labour and the obligation of repose wisely balanced, 
 preserve him from those heavy household cares which 
 drive men crazy or exhaust their strength in the 
 flower of their age. The relations between the rich 
 and the poor Jew are fixed in a way to stave off 
 extreme misery. Charity is a duty of the rich, 
 greater even than a right of the poor.
 
 30 
 
 The Jew has but to open his ancient books to find 
 therein an answer to all the problems of his life. It 
 would be the same with ourselves if we were to con- 
 sult the book of our new law, which should complete 
 that of the Jews. We should then find a pacific 
 solution of the social questions which at this very 
 moment are troubling the nations of Europe. 
 
 Unfortunately, the very saddest use has been made 
 of all the discoveries of modern science. The railways, 
 which might have contributed so largely to establish 
 fraternity among the peoples, serve to convey troops 
 and carry war into countries which their distance 
 from each other formerly protected. The telegraph 
 favours those stock-exchange operations which enrich 
 the speculator at the cost of a host of wretched 
 victims. Printing, which should spread abroad the 
 light and place truth within the grasp of all, has 
 become too frequently an instrument of vice. New 
 books are ever coming forward to teach every possible 
 turpitude to those whom chance has hitherto 
 preserved from corruption. Journalism, by whetting 
 the hatred of mankind, paves the way to wars abroad 
 and revolutions at home. Natural science incom- 
 pletely studied draws erroneous conclusions from its 
 discoveries, in order to cast back the entire man into 
 the dust whence his body alone arose. We are 
 preparing a generation of madmen and unhappy 
 wretches. We are urging man on to suicide, and already 
 advanced old age and early childhood pay it a frightful 
 tribute. And all humanity is drifting thither with a 
 rapid current.
 
 31 
 
 Man has sought to accumulate every enjoyment 
 and he has lost happiness in the effort. 
 
 In the foregoing lines whereby I am far from 
 having exhausted the sum of my personal observations 
 upon the Jews, I have merely sought to indicate the 
 salient traits which constitute their moral, rather than 
 their social difference with the Christians. 
 
 The evil which we attribute to them is our own 
 work. The good we have to admire in them is owing 
 solely to themselves. 
 
 The Christian sells his kind to the Jew ; if the 
 latter profit by the bargain is he more culpable in 
 consequence ? In Poland, a ukase of the Emperor 
 Nicolas was necessary to prevent landowners from 
 farming out their serfs to the Jews ! ! ! 
 
 Even in our own days, in the western provinces of 
 Russia, the rapid dilapidation of territorial fortunes 
 sprang from no other cause than the impossibility of 
 carrying out an honest administration ; the landowner 
 betrayed by his stewards is reduced to effect ruinous 
 sales. In order to save something from the wreck he 
 parts with the patrimony which remains at prices 
 that are simply ridiculous. The magnificent forests 
 of Lithuania are thus daily melting away piece by 
 piece, through the ill-advised fellings of their pro- 
 prietors. And it cannot be said that the Jews are 
 the primary cause of this stripping of the forest land 
 so fatal to Russia. 
 
 It is the dissolution of manners and morals which 
 leads to this recourse to the Jews' hordes of gold a
 
 32 
 
 proceeding which is ruining entire families. But it is 
 their activity which induces governments to apply to 
 them in moments of crisis and financial bankruptcy, 
 for the Christians would be less capable of giving aid 
 and would not be more honest in yielding it. 
 
 We complain of the Jew. But at the present time 
 are we not witness to the shameful financial war 
 which tw r o Christian nations have entered into in 
 order to ruin a third, with which they fear to measure 
 themselves in arms ? This monetary league will 
 naturally turn to the profit of the Jew, but at whose 
 door will the fault lie ? 
 
 Ah ! if the Jews had only one quarter of our vices 
 their very name would, long ere this, have been 
 erased from earthly records. 
 
 For the rest, I greatly doubt whether my candour 
 
 the only merit of these pages will have the 
 
 slightest success, for it will always be easier to 
 
 persecute thousands of Jews than to correct a 
 
 single Christian.
 
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