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 THE JEWS
 
 THE STORY OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 Large Crown Svo, Cloth, Illustrated, ^s. 
 Presentation Edition, Gilt Edges, ^s. 6d. 
 
 1. ROME. Arthur Oilman, M.A. 
 
 2. THE JEWS. Prof. J. K. HosMER. 
 
 3. GERMANY. Rev. S. Baring-Gould, 
 
 M.A. 
 
 4. CARTHAGE. Prof. A. J. Church. 
 
 5. ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. 
 
 J. P. Maiiaffy. 
 
 6. THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley 
 
 Lane-Poole. 
 
 7. ANCIENT EGYPT. Canon Raw- 
 
 linson. 
 
 8. HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery. 
 
 9. THE SARACENS. A. Oilman, M.A. 
 
 10. IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 
 
 11. CHALD^A. Z. A. Ragozin. 
 
 12. THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 
 
 13. ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 
 
 14. TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 
 
 15. MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof. 
 
 OUSTAVE MASSON. 
 
 16. HOLLAND. Prof. J. E. Thorold 
 
 Rogers. 
 
 17. PERSIA. S. W. O. Benjamin. 
 
 18. PHOENICIA. Canon Rawlinson. 
 
 London ! 
 T. FISHER UNWIN,26, Patfirnoster Square, E.G.
 
 ■&.
 
 
 THE JEWS 
 
 ANCIENT, MEDI/EVAL, AND MODERN 
 
 JAMES K. HOSMER 
 
 HROKKSSOR IN WASHINGTON UNIVERSMV, ST. LOUS, MO ; AUTHOR OF 
 
 "a '-HORT HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE," "THE 
 
 LIFE OF SAMUEL ADAMS," ETC. 
 
 XonDon 
 T. FISHER UN WIN 
 
 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 MDCCCXC
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall 
 By T. Fisher Unwin 
 
 Copyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons, i8go 
 (For the United States of America)
 
 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 
 malignant, 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 
 
 f^nc\ry*-f^ t^
 
 IV THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 spiritual forces so tremendous? 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 
 and 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 effort 
 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 
 myth, — 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, 
 interpreting 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 profundities are only touched upon ; 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- 
 fully, 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 are due 
 to the crime committed upon Calvary, — these are 
 questions to which an answer has not been attempted. 
 Among the ancient traditions — whether Heliodorus 
 was driven away from the Temple treasures by Heaven-
 
 VI THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 sent messengers ; whether David heard 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 will 
 probably find him too indifferent to the miraculous ; 
 the Rationalist, too lenient toward ancient supersti- 
 tions ; the Jew, not sufificiently 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 have worked this mine far 
 more thoroughly. 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 ereat value to him in his work. 
 
 J. K. H. 
 
 St. IvOUIS, November, iJ 
 
 ^ ^''c€x^(C) 
 
 to )c?(3j' 
 0X3
 
 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE ANCIENT PRIDE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Why the Story of the Jews is Picturesque . i-8 
 
 Hebrew 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 Hebrew piety, 7 — Position of the Jews unique among 
 races of men, 8. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Morning-Time in Palestine . . . 9-28 
 
 Physical characteristics of Palestine, 9 — 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 ark of the covenant, 16 — The Canaanites, 18 — Career 
 of the Judges, 18 — Saul and David, 20 — Solomon, 22 — 
 Building of the 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 the British 
 
 Museum, 30 — Authorities for Assyrian study, 32 — Cities as
 
 X THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 libraries, 33, 34 — Antiquities of Mesopotamia, 35 — Niebuhr, 
 Botta, Layard, 36 — The Cuneiform, 36 — Nature of Assyrian 
 dominion, 37 — -Palestine overcome, 38 — 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 Sennacherib . . 46-56 
 
 State of the Assyrian kings, 46 — The Medes and Phoenicians 
 subjected, 47 — Judah overwhelmed, 48 — The battle-order, 
 49, 50 — Hebrew defiance, 52 — Isaiah's prophecy, 53 — Its 
 fulfilment, 53 — Fall of Assyria, 54 — Permanence of its me- 
 morials, 55 — Its cruel sway, 56. 
 
 V. 
 
 Judas Maccabeus, 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 Seleucidas, 64 — The revolt of Mat- 
 tathias, 65 — First victories of Judas Maccabreus, 66, 67 — 
 The Temple purified and restored, 68 — Judas subdues the 
 Idumosans 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- 
 nseans, 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 — Hillel 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, 90 — Conversion of Saul, go — The beauty of Chris- 
 tian holiness, 92, 93.
 
 CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. XI 
 
 VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vespasian and Josephus .... 94-107 
 
 Gessius Floras marches against Jerusalem, 94 — His failure, 
 g5 — Josephus defends Galilee against Vespasian, 95— The 
 siege of Jotapata, 96, 97, 98 — Jotapata captured, 99 — 
 Josephus a captive, 100 — ^Vespasian emperor, 100 — 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, 108 — His formidable host, 
 109 — Factions among the Jews, 109 — John of Giscala and 
 the Zealots, no — Simon, sonof 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, 116 — 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 — yElia 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, 138 — Charlemagne, 139 — Famous persecutors, 140
 
 Xll THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Deserts of the Hebrews, 140 — Origin of the 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, 148 — 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, 158 — The departure of the 
 exiles, 159 — Dreadful hardships, 160 — Lamentations, 161 — 
 An attto-da-fe, 162, 163. 
 
 XI. 
 The Bloody Hand in Germany . . . 165-188 
 
 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, 
 169, etc. — A passover celebration, 170, 171 — The plot to 
 destroy, 172, 173 — Flight of Abraham and Sarah, 174 — 
 Down the Rhine, 176, 177— A medijeval city, 179, 180 — 
 The Jewish quarter, 181 — The synagogue, 182 — The service, 
 T83 — The roll of the Law, 184 — The massacre, 186 — The 
 flight to Turkey, 188. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The Frown and the Curse in England, 
 
 Italy, and France .... 189-202 
 
 Persecution in England, 189 — Protection extended Wy early 
 Plantagenets, 189 — Suffering in time of Richard Coeur de 
 Lion, 190 — Tragedy of York, 191 — Banishment 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 CONTENTS. XUl 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sicily, 195, 196 — Persecution in France, 197 — Philip Augus- 
 tus and Saint Louis, 197 — Philip the Fair and the Pastour- 
 eaux, 198 — 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 of 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 
 Matterhorn, 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, 22g — 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, farmers, and handicraftsmen, 236 — Prominence in 
 trade and in music, 237 — Wagner's hostility, 238 — Promi- 
 nence as scientists, philosophers, and writers, 238 — Especial
 
 XIV THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 narrowness of Germany toward the Jews, 239, 240 — Birth 
 and early career of Moses Mendelssohn, 242 — Introduced to 
 fame by Lessing, 243 — " PhDedo," 243 — "Jerusalem," 244 — 
 Tribute of Kant, 245 — Mendelssohn embarrassed by Lava- 
 ter, 245 — Letter to Lavater, 246, 247, 248 — Mendelssohn's 
 death, 248 — 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, 268 — 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, 281 — Persecutions at Damascus and Rhodes in 
 1840, 282 — Montefiore at Damascus, 282 — Judith Montefi- 
 ore, 283 — Her diary, 284 — Montefiore at Jerusalem, 286, 
 288 — At Morocco, 288 — 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 . ■ i • • • 295-311 
 Eminence of Jews as Statesmen, 295 — Castelar, Lasker, 295 
 — Leads the national-liberty party in the German Parliament, 
 296 — 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 — Hij 
 wife's devotion, 30S — 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, 314 — 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 Mendelssohn, 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," 3^3, 
 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 THE JEWS. 
 
 Our Hebrew Contemporaries 
 
 XXI. 
 
 PAGE 
 • 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," 350. 
 360 — Jews in Poland, 361 — " Measuring the bounds," 362 — 
 Story of Leah Rendar, 363 — The apostate Jewess, 364, 365 
 — J gws a nd Yankees, 366 — Felix Adler on his countrymen, 
 367 — The^DHKottoXTitrCteus of Judaism, 368— The Reformers, 
 369.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 JERUSALEM FROM THE HTLL OF EVIL COUNSEL, Frontispiece 
 
 MOUNT OF OLIVES FROM THE WALL ... XX 
 
 MAP, COUNTRIES CONNECTED WITH EARLY JEWISH 
 
 HISTORY ........ I 
 
 MAP, CANAAN, AS DIVIDED AMONG THE TWELVE 
 
 TRIBES 9 
 
 JACOB AND RACHEL . . . . , .II 
 
 JOSEPH INTERPRETING PHARAOH's DREAM . . I3 
 
 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 . . 31 
 
 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 BESIEGED BY TITUS . . . -113 
 
 ARCH OF TITUS ....... 125 
 
 ROMAN MASONRY, JERUSALEM . . . . -135 
 
 JEWS' PLACE OF WAILING, JERUSALEM . . . 187
 
 XVIU 
 
 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 
 
 PAGE 
 
 211 
 211 
 
 7\\ 
 
 ^57 
 265 
 279 
 285 
 287 
 291 
 297 
 299 
 307 
 
 315 
 341
 
 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 their 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 parly in 
 Germany is a Jew, the leader of the Republican party in France is a 
 Jew, and the head of the Conservative ministry in England is a Jew. 
 Tortured, flogged, spit upon, — their name flung at them as an oppro- 
 brium by superstition, haired, and contempt, — how proud they have 
 remained ! " — George Eliot (" Impressions of Theophrastus 
 Such").
 
 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WHY THE STORY OF THE JEWS IS PICTURESQUE. 
 
 In the fiftieth Psalm stands the passage : " Out of 
 Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." 
 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 
 nQt 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 the most powerful modern races, and alleged 
 that in an intellectual sense they had conquered 
 modern Europe. In the immense extent of time 
 'vhich 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 v/ay are we who are v/ithout 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 whom 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, and 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 been 
 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 seldom employ 
 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 STOR Y OF THE JE WS. 
 
 ploy an alphabet so consecrated upon any frivolous 
 theme. 
 
 Give a comprehensive glance 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 vener- 
 able cotemporary of Egypt, Chaldea, and Troy. The 
 Hebrew defied the Pharaohs ; with the sword of 
 Gideon he smote the Midianite ; in Jephthah, 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_clafts4fl- China, on the steppes of Ceiitral 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 of character, 
 — these, too, have all survived. Tlie_Jew_of_New 
 Ymd<j_Chicago, St. Louis, is, in body and soul, the 
 Jew-of London, of St. Petersburg, of Consfantmopl'e, 
 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.
 
 6 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 which fell especially 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. J 
 
 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 ear 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 
 behind him, his soul alight with such extraordinary 
 fire, 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 Freeman that the
 
 8 
 
 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 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 people 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- 
 umph, — this certainly is a theme of interest.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 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 limit^^ — 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 m^erged. 
 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 flanks are 
 covered with forests, the elevated valleys with 
 the vegetation of high latitudes. Passing south 
 from these, while the country remains hilly, fruitful
 
 10 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 plains frequently occur, extending to the margin of 
 the western sea. In the south the land wears a 
 look less hospitable ; the desert lies close at hand, 
 and already vast wastes of sand are seen, crossed by 
 lines of hills upon which grows no tree or blade of 
 grass. From the northern uplands a tumultuous 
 river, the Jordan, makes it way in cataracts and rapids 
 to the lower levels. Early in its course it rests in a 
 tranquil expanse 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 lose 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 dreary 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 to 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 said 
 to flow with milk and honey. In the harvest time 
 great tracts, no doubt, waved with corn. Up the 
 sunny slopes, in terrace over terrace, smiled the vine- 
 yards. Olive forests everywhere bore rich burdens 
 of 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
 
 JACOli AND RACUKL.
 
 15 THE 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 grapes of Eshcol 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 Haran, 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 group 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 Egypt, where they ac- 
 knowledge the dominion of the Pharaohs, but retain 
 their own manners and institutions. The patriarchs 
 Isaac and Jacob have played their 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
 
 
 /:o. 
 
 JOSEfH INTEKPRETIiNG FHARAOH'S DREAM.
 
 1 4 The story of The jeWs. 
 
 them pleasant seats in the plain watered by the beau- 
 tiful river, where instead of the famine which has 
 constantly threatened them, they enjoy a perpetual 
 abundance among 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 
 they 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- 
 render their hearts. The Red Sea is passed and 
 Pharaoh 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 pass into Canaan, finding homes in 
 the south, not far from those of their ancestors, in 
 the days before the sojourn on the Nile. 
 
 Up to this time we see in Israel no settled nation. 
 In the day of Moses the old patriarchal system of 
 families and clans prevailed ; the people was an un- 
 organized collection of tribes of the same stock, but 
 not at all closely combined. The authority of 
 Moses came from 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
 
 ^:'.2>»^ 
 
 MOSES IN THE liULRUSHES.
 
 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. It was covered with 
 gold, both within and without, so that the wooden 
 part was not seen. A lid united to the side by 
 golden 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- 
 
 * Wellhausen.
 
 
 \ .J> 
 
 III 
 
 i@™^s 
 
 < LJ
 
 l8 THE STORY OF THE yEWS 
 
 sign. When in camp, the ark rested in the Holy of 
 HoHes 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 they 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-
 
 THE SETTING UP OF THE TABERNACLE
 
 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, Eleazar, and Shammah, 
 brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew 
 water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by 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 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Jerusalem, the most famous city of the world. Moab, 
 Ammon, and Edom, to the south and east, 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 heard 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 the 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 candlesticks, 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 shew-bread, lawful to 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, and 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 
 tliat it touched the senses even of those who were 
 far off. Neither king nor people grew weary of sing-
 
 THE MORNING-TIME IN PALESTINE. 2$ 
 
 ing hymns or aancing ; 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 upon 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 Damascus 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 capital, and Israel at
 
 26 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the north with the new city of Samaria as the seat of 
 its kings. The two kingdoms were sometimes in har- 
 mony, but often at feud. The purity 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 away, 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 days of the patriarchs 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. 
 Within 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 are
 
 THE MORN'IXG-TIME IN 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 B.C., first hints at 
 danger from Assyria. Hosea, soon afterward, is 
 much 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 B.C., the capital of Judah, Jerusalem 
 itself, is destroyed, and the poor remmant of the 
 Hebrews carried captive to Babylon, which, until 
 shortly before, had been a dependency of Nineveh.
 
 28 
 
 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 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 employ 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 none 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 discolorations of 2,500 years. Upon these 
 tower the figures, 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 preternaturally large, so that to the 
 figures is imparted an air of weird enchantment.
 
 JONAH CALLING NINEVEH TO REPENTANCE.
 
 32 THE STORY 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 earhest history to the latest, and which are 
 among the most important causes of the vitality and 
 soHdarity 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 
 the Jew in his ancient day was compelled to 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 them 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 gratify 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 mighty race live and die and leave no 
 records of its own ? By no means. It has left be- 
 hind whole 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 buildings, 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 century, instead of obHterating, had been an 
 Old MortaHty, to deepen the chiselHng, or had come 
 with a brush 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 Assyrians left be- 
 hind. They cut and stamped 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 immense 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 Turkish 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 ases of our own era. Of the modern
 
 36 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 explorers, Niebuhr may be regarded as the pioneer, 
 who visited the locahties a century ago. In the 
 decade from 1840 to 1850, the famous archaeologists, 
 Botta 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 scenes 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 
 point 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 are numerous, being 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 decipher 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. 3/ 
 
 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 
 Chaldasans. 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- 
 pation 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
 
 3 8 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 tributaries of Assyria. But the dominion of the 
 Great King, though splendid, was precarious. Any 
 untoward circumstance was sure to bring about re- 
 volts, involving often the repeated subjugation of 
 the same state. At a later period, expedients were 
 adopted to repress the tendency to rebellion. Sa- 
 traps were appointed over conquered nations in 
 place of the kings who were dethroned ; and some- 
 times, where the vanquished were especially 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 world 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. We may read 
 on the rock how one, the fierce Ben Hadad, was 
 smitten with a loss of twenty thousand men ; and of 
 the fall of Hazael, the other, with his eleven hundred 
 chariots dashed to pieces. The kingdoms of Judah 
 and Israel 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 
 Hosea 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 NINEVEH. 39 
 
 years the city struggles, mindful of her glory under 
 Jeroboam, when the state of Solomon himself was 
 paralleled. 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 go marching to their earHest 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 dependen- 
 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- 
 borhood, 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 lapidary 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 captive 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 JEWS. 
 
 of their toil. Our story only follows them into 
 thraldom, as we dwell thuc upon the details of 
 Assyrian civilization. 
 
 The commerce of Assyria was immense. Meso- 
 potamia was a great mart between the East and the 
 West from immemorial antiquity down to the dis- 
 covery of the passage around the Cape of Good 
 Hope. Up the Tigris from the 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 the state of the Great King one hardly 
 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 only 
 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-day, any 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. Fortifications like cliffs rose near
 
 44 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 it an hundred feet high, 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 lines 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 
 feasting. More numerous, however, were the pic- 
 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 tributary 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 dizzy 
 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. 

 
 
 
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 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. 
 
 Let us imagine ourselves, for the moment, vice- 
 roys or princes, personages of sufficient dignity to be 
 guests of the mighty Sennacherib, 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»dnding everywhere 
 through the land. From an unfinished temple close 
 at hand comes the hum of uncounted captives, the 
 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 prince bearing offerings. Meso- 
 potamia, as it were in bondage too, bound under the 
 silvery watercourses beneath the eye, as if by 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 thoughtfull}^ 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 Phoenician 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 they 
 swept the deep, seated upon benches of ivory carved
 
 48 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 in his own Nineveh? How, as the pageant 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 tributary. 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 their 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 are 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 their 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, with ivory and enamel, roll the for- 
 midable vehicles. The warriors 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 stuffs, 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 
 Philistia, 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-
 
 y|i7"'" ' ::j^^^-^ ,^*:i"4f!!'! 
 
 ,m.f 

 
 52 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 lent Rabshakeh, 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 
 upon the scene. Into his mind came crowding the 
 grand traditions of Judaea — 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 
 died, half 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 liad bidden him go 
 forth and speak his will until the land was utterly
 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB. 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 Hebrew 
 story this was its fulfilment : " And it came to pass 
 that night that 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. 
 
 " And there lay the rider, distorted and pale. 
 
 With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail ;
 
 54 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
 The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown. 
 For the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
 Had melted like snow in the glance of the Lord." 
 
 And Sennacherib returned and dwelt in Nineveh, 
 and it came to pass as he was worshipping in the 
 house of Nisroch, his god, that Adrammelech 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 Christ, Cyrus the Mede smote her with the 
 sword and lighted her funeral pyre. Until the late 
 discoveries, the tale 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, not 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 inclined 
 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 quite 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- 
 archs of 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
 
 $6 THE 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 captives. 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 shall 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 B.C., 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, and it largely in-
 
 58 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 creased during the succeeding reigns. Multitudes, 
 however, had 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 conviction 
 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 year 332 B.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.
 
 THE REBUILDING 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 ofifice. 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. But 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
 
 yUDAS MACCAB.^US 6 1 
 
 torment the high-priest to death, the very reverse 
 happened, for the young 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 them v,?ould 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 
 accompany him in his wars. 
 
 When the high-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 contracted, a band departed 
 southward, whom we find, when history 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 whole 
 of India. 
 
 But this Aryan troop that went southwara is less 
 interesting to us than companies that departed west- 
 ward, for in these westward marching bands went 
 the primeval forefathers, from whose venerable loins 
 wc 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. At the head of 
 the Adriatic Sea an Aryan troop had divided, send- 
 ing down into the eastern peninsula the ancestors of 
 the Greeks, and into the western peninsula the train 
 destined to establish upon the seven hills the power 
 of Rome. Already the Aryan pioneers, the Celts, 
 on the outmost rocks of the western coast of Europe, 
 were fretting against the barrier of storm and sea, 
 across which they were not to find their way for 
 many ages. Already Phoenician merchants, trading 
 for amber in the far-off Baltic, had become aware of 
 wild Aryan tribes pressing to the northwest — the
 
 yUDAS MACCABEUS. 63 
 
 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 novv^ 
 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 wiiich their forefathers long before had fol- 
 lowed westward, and now it is that 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 would 
 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- 
 tions, as Alexander rode from the place of prospect 
 up the heights of Zion, into the solemn 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 East by
 
 64 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the Macedonian conquests, and the great barbarian 
 races among whom the 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 vigorously. Throughout Western Asia 
 they were found everywhere, but it was in Egypt 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 Seleucidae, 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 Asmonaeus, to whom had 
 been born five sons, John, Simon, Judas Maccabaeus, 
 or the hammer, Eleazar, and Jonathan. Mattathias 
 lamented the ravaging of the land and the plunder 
 of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, and when, 
 
 * Josephus and the Books of the Maccabees.
 
 yUDAS MACCABEUS. 65 
 
 in the year 167 B.C., the Macedonian king sent to 
 Modin to have sacrifices offered, the Asmonaean 
 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 of 
 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. 
 
 thias, rallying those that remained, taught them to 
 fight on the Sabbath, and at all times. The heathen 
 altars were overthrown, the breakers of the law were 
 slain, the vmcircumcised boys were everywhere cir- 
 cumcised. But the fulness of time approached for 
 Mattathias ; after a year his day of death had come, 
 and these were his parting words to his sons: "I 
 know that your brother Simon is a man of counsel ; 
 give ear unto him always ; he shall be a father unto 
 you. As for Judas Maccabaeus, he hath been mighty 
 and strong even from his youth up. Let him be 
 your 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 Apollonius, 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 Maccabaeus were few in number, 
 without food, and faint-hearted, but he inspired them 
 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 viceroy, 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 land ; of 
 foot-soldiers there were 40,000, of horsemen 7,000, and
 
 yUDAS MACCABEUS. 67 
 
 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 opportunity 
 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 hymns to God as was done in the days of 
 Miriam long before, because they had triumphed 
 gloriously. 
 
 The next year Lysias advanced from Antioch, the 
 Syrian capital, with a force of 65,000. Judas Macca- 
 baeus, with 10,000, overthrew his vanguard, upon 
 which the viceroy, terrified at the desperat^e 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 sufficed for the supply of the 
 seven-branched golden candlestick for a week. This 
 ancient Maccabaean 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 1,000 foot and 500 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 follows fortune does not altogether favor
 
 JUDAS MACCAB.^US. 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 ; 
 the 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 been 
 high-priest, and as such had resolved to form an alii-
 
 70 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 ance 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 Maccabaeus 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 Babylonish captivity. Simon and Jonathan sur- 
 vive, however, and possess the Asmonaean 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 
 Judaea and four prefectures, and Simon is made gen- 
 eral over the country stretching from Tyre to Egypt. 
 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
 
 JUDAS MACCABMUS. 7 1 
 
 with Rome, for the masterful quality of the Italian 
 power in those years unfolds itself more and more. 
 Though 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 Johr\, 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-
 
 72 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 ing themselves before the altar, besought that things 
 given them to be kept might be safely preserved. 
 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 young men appeared before 
 Heliodorus, notable in strength, excellent in beauty, 
 and comely in apparel, who stood on either side and 
 scourged him continually. 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 Asmonaeans, with its 
 sufferings, its heroism, its solemn portents. In each 
 generation the league was knit with Rome, and after
 
 JUDAS MACCABEUS. 
 
 71 
 
 a hundred years, in 63 B.C., the Roman came. Pom- 
 pe}', 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 
 tributary to the new conquerors, and Herod ruled, a 
 vassal kine.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 The short-lived independence of the 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 
 builder3 ; 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 ally. It is not probable that 
 other arts flourished. The prohibition of Moses 
 against the making of graven images, or likenesses of
 
 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 75 
 
 any thing 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 ;
 
 7^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 but it was, 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 equal footing, or regarded universally 
 with equal 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 with the Bible under the name of 
 the Apocrypha, 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 
 B.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 the Bible."
 
 THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 77 
 
 moned Aaron, to whom he gave first the tablets, and 
 then recited the later, 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 Ezra, 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 requirements 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 Sadducees, taking their 
 name from Sadoc, one of their teachers. From the
 
 78 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 " Chasidim," who united with the observance of the 
 traditional Law a disposition to hold themselves 
 aloof from all Gentile contact, arose in time the 
 Pharisees. 
 
 The Sadducees denied not only 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 
 Herodians, 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 will, 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 indifTerent. 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 from 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 have 
 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. 
 
 in white and belted about by a peculiar distinctive 
 girdle. These were Essenes, a body everywhere 
 held in honor, but about whose real origin 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 chastity, 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 Essenes 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 Essenes, the Practici, in such terms that 
 one would say they must have formed an almost 
 ideal community. The whole duty of man was 
 comprised within the three definitions — love of God, 
 love of virtue, love of man. All men were held to 
 be equal before God, and 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. Conder: "Judas Maccabeus."
 
 82 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Among those whom the unmixed Israehtes, the 
 holy seed, regarded as of corrupt derivation, the 
 Samaritans received 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 Lord, to 
 give thanks unto the name of the Lord. The posi- 
 tion of the "standing men," the representatives of 
 the congregation, was 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. 
 Below them in a great square enclosure gathered the
 
 84 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 main congregation, the women occupying galleries 
 above. On steps leading to 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 Temple 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 day, 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 Judaea, and whoso 
 saw it first hastened to inform the Sanhedrim at 
 Jerusalem, to whom was committed the principal 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 Purim, commemorating the national deliverance 
 through Esther, and the Hanoukhah, Feast of Lights, 
 in remembrance of the renewal of the Temple wor- 
 ship by Judas Maccabaeus, 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 OF 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- 
 lieved to have a Messianic character. In the time 
 of Judas Maccabaeus, 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 STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 as arbitrators in their quarrels, 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 Judsa of the house of 
 David. 
 
 The Hebrew strength had long 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 Israel- 
 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 Judaea, 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 JEWS. 
 
 and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. Wise 
 men from the East, moreover, came, saying: " Where 
 is he that is born king 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 
 young 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 Father'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 Gethsemane 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 THE STORY OF THE 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 threat'enings and slaughter, 
 went upon 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 work 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 JEWS. 
 
 What preachers of a great cause have ever suffered 
 more ! What preachers of a great cause have 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, are 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 does 
 not belong to him who writes this story of the Jews 
 to say whether or not the narrative shall be accepted 
 without reservation ; or, if it be granted that some 
 things are to be questioned, to try to ascertain the 
 line beyond which a just faith becomes credulity. To 
 some this child of the Jew is the incarnate Deity; 
 to others, while not divine, he is nevertheless super- 
 human ; to others still he is a man with no other 
 inspiration than " the light which lighteth every man 
 that Cometh into the world." But 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 have, at any rate, this stand-
 
 THE BEAUTY OF 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 
 martyrs in the long ages that have passed.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VESl'ASIAN AND JOSEPIIUS. 
 
 More than a century had passed since the Jews 
 had paid tribute to 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 that 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 
 Florus marched against Jerusalem with the 12th 
 legion. At a battle in the suburbs of the city, the 
 masters of the world were roughly handled ; never- 
 theless, made bold by dissensions which broke out 
 among 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. Florus, however, who as a
 
 VESPASIAN AND JOSEPIIUS. 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. He 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 
 ficihtine on both sides. Then the Romans drew off,
 
 96 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 and determining to use slower means, reared oppo- 
 site the defences a high bank, upon which were set 
 one hundred and fifty 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 dry. 
 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 company of men, protected by hurdles and 
 hides, dashed the mighty beam against the works,
 
 r 
 
 
 ■/ftli ■ 
 
 ft? S 
 
 Plf'^'*'
 
 98 THE STORY 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. Fight 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 slippery paste,
 
 VESPASIAN AND JO SEP II 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
 
 lOO THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 to him who 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 whether 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 of an entire race from its 
 home. The Roman valor, skill, and persistence were

 
 I02 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 never more conspicuously displayed. No more 
 desperate resistance was ever opposed to the eagle- 
 emblemed 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 the Tyropoeon, 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 JOSEPH 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 vdiich 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-
 
 104 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 ful for no man 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 were 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 either 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,
 
 Io6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 one rising to a height of more than a hundred 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 JOSEPHUS. lO/ 
 
 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 Cassarea. 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 balistae, 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 01V THE 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
 
 no THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 stood the Zeaiots, who would 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 neverMieless 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 Idumaeans from the south, a popu- 
 lation brave and intensely patriotic. The Idumaeans, 
 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, while the 
 city beyond still remained in the hands of the friends
 
 TITUS ON THE RUINS OF ZION. Ill 
 
 of Ananus. The high-priest, however, had fallen in 
 the battle with the Idumaeans, 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 reason 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 THE 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- 
 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. Josephus, 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 
 ihese 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 the 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. 11/ 
 
 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 w^as 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. 
 
 proached. But 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 yield, 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 was at length over. John of
 
 TITUS OiV THE I^UIA'S 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 Europe, had 
 been gathered the soldiery which the genius of Rome 
 had been able to turn into such an instrument of iron.
 
 I20 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 Commagene, 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 thcselves to be so 
 foiled. Titus gives the prince an oi)portunity 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 frorri 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 Caesar. 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 
 character 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 Avith 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 antiquity, 
 and we 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 temple 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, Babylonian 
 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 follo^^"ed 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 of 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 table, 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
 
 AKCH OF TITUS.
 
 126 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Northeastern steppes. Meanwhile the Atlantic 
 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 Amorite, 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. 12/ 
 
 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 me a faith which
 
 128 THE STORY OF THE 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 subduer 
 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 ON THE RUINS OF ZION. 1 29 
 
 beings in human guise to be made gods. Hercules, 
 Odin, Alexander, Csesar, 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 MEDIEVAL 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 beHeved 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 STORY 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 
 left 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 equanimity. 
 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 traffic 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 frequently 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 : " Handelsgeschichte der Juden des Alterthums," 271, 
 etc.
 
 HOW THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 3/ 
 
 spirit, until, through the interaction, the Jews were 
 everywhere scattered and everywhere merchants. 
 
 That the Jews have been in the latter ages pre- 
 vaiHngly 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 Phce- 
 nician or Babylonian, not Greek or Roman, equalled 
 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.* 
 
 * Herzfeld.
 
 138 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 After its wonderful seizure of the Aryan 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 
 Mahometans, the Jew would receive somewhat 
 better treatment than from races unallied. The 
 Arabs, a stock which like the Israelites 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 which 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
 
 HO IV 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 difificulty 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, fixed in
 
 I40 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, "why not fight them at home 
 as well as in Syria?" Men and women chivalrous 
 and saintly have denounced and wrung the Jew 
 almost in proportion 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 the tongues 
 of Europe and made accessible to the young 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- 
 pellicr 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 they were, " the fair, white-winged
 
 I/O IV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. I4I 
 
 peacemaker" fl\'ing 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 un-doubting 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 imparted, 
 which was for many ages handed down orally. This 
 was called the Mischna, and not until t'he time of the 
 teacher Hillel, a generation or two before Christ, was 
 any beginning made of reducing these traditions to 
 writing. In the sad days which resulted in the
 
 142 TriE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 destruction of Jerusalem, no one was found to carry 
 out the work of Hillel, but a time came when it 
 was brought to fulfihnent, 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 " IMischna." 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 generally. This labor, pursued with dili- 
 gence in the schools both of Palestine and Babylonia, 
 
 * Reinach : " Histoire des Israelites depuis leur Dispersion jiisqu' a 
 nos Jours," Paris, 1885.
 
 HO IV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 43 
 
 resulted in the " Gcmara," 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 difificulties, 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 Depping : " Die Juden im 
 Mittelalter," 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 debat-es, 
 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.
 
 HOW THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 45 
 
 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 field, 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 aiid 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. * * * A 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 difificult 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 are 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, — the marvellous story 
 Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, 
 
 Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer? 
 
 How, erect, at the outermost gates 
 Of the city celestial he waits, 
 
 With his feet on the ladder of light. 
 That, crowded wilh angels unnumbered, 
 By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered, 
 
 Alone in the desert of night ? 
 
 The angels of wind and of fire 
 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,
 
 now THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 1 47 
 
 With eyes uiiimpassioncd 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 soul-, 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 handsj 
 
 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 mediaeval tradition. 
 The beautiful, strange superstition, 
 
 But haunts me and holds me the more. 
 
 When I look from my window at night, 
 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 Eden, 
 
 To quiet its fever and pain.
 
 148 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 As in antiquity the traditional 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 Tahiiudists, 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 are 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 wants, the rules of 
 
 * Dr. Noel Gueneau de Mussy : Hygienic Laws of Moses. Nezo 
 York Medical Abstract, March, 18S5.
 
 HO IV 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 grotesque and repulsive super- 
 stition, the Jew comes forward in his long pilgrimage 
 through the centuries. From the time of those fierce 
 figures whom we 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 Ave come upon a memorable personage. 
 
 An illustrious type of the noble students and 
 thinkers of the Renaissance was Maimoiiides, a native
 
 ISO THE STORY OP 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 sufTered harsh treatment at the hands of his fellow- 
 Jews and the blind world in which his lot was cast, 
 he found defenders and 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
 
 //OtV THE RABBIS WROUGHT THE TALMUD. 15I 
 
 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 are 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 121 2, 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 east, 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 ancient 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 ^5,000, 
 as the result of which four large Israelites and one little one have 
 been converted to Christianity. To effect the change, therefore, 
 costs ;i^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 srORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 its dismal apparatus for causing 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 mediaeval 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 thing which so measures the length
 
 THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. \^^ 
 
 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 sufferer 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 hall, 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. Abarbanel, a Jew of the highest posi- 
 tion and worth, a man compared to the prophet
 
 THE HOLOCAUSTS IN SPAIN. I59 
 
 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. 
 Stufifing 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. But 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 
 went 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 Judenthums," 
 volume VIII., the Spanish chapter. It can hardly be said, however, 
 that Spain showed symptoms of decline until one hundred years later, 
 at the time of the revolt of the Netherlands and rise of the Dutch 
 Republic.
 
 1 62 THE STORY OT THE JEXVS. 
 
 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 thirty-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 penitents 
 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 spa in. 163 
 
 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 eflRgies 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. 
 
 Franciscan — 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.
 
 
 
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 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 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, which 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, and the innocent Hebrews 
 accused of the murder. The authorities of the city 
 
 * See the author's " Short History of German Literature."
 
 1 66 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 threatened at once to throw 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 Juden-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 IX GERMANY. 16/ 
 
 The persecution of the Jews in Germany, a chapter 
 ages long, cuhninated " 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 
 Christendom. 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 Worm.s, 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,! 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, "The 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 house, 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. 1 69 
 
 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 divine 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 house 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 is 
 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, in
 
 I/O THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 which is contained symbolical food — namely, an &%^, 
 lettuce, a radish, a lamb's bone, and a brown mixture 
 of oranges, cinnamon, and nuts. Then the master of 
 the house, seating himself at the table with all liis 
 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 w^hich 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 
 hke 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 wine-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 IX GERMANY. I /I 
 
 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 forrned 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 
 no quiet, 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 af^icted 
 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 }-ou." 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 to 
 his wife, then again took up his part, how " Rabbi 
 Eleazar, Rabbi Asaria, Rabbi Akiba, and Rabbi 
 Tarphen, 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 w^sh 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. 1/5 
 
 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 Wilhelm, 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 afiflicted 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. 
 
 King Pharaoh swam in the 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 slic 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 drawn away. 
 Above the Hebrew woman appeared the holy city 
 of Jerusalem 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. 1/9 
 
 of gay-pennoned craft. " This is Niegesehenburg," 
 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
 
 l8o 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 
 spores 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 IN GERMANY. l8l 
 
 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 STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 wall which enclosed it had two gates, which on 
 Catholic holidays 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 seats, 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 golden tassels. K
 
 THE BLOODY HAND hV 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 
 Dangs 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 read 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 JEV/S. 
 
 maltreated the boys. The parents of the children 
 had interfered to free them from the excessive pun- 
 ishment, upon wliich the friar had run to the market- 
 place, and cried with a loud voice that the Host, and 
 his own ofifice, 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
 
 1 88 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 }'et 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
 
 190 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 rabbis and bishops, and swore by the face of Stc 
 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 Coeur 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 the 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 remnant of the Israelites 
 maintained themselves in England ; but Edward I.,
 
 192 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the " English Justinian," though in so many ways a 
 great and good prince, drove them forth, 16,500 in 
 number, and from that time for 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 limbs 
 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 Bridge, 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 arc men who still believe, that the mys- 
 terious, uneasy bubbling and rush of the flood date? 
 from the day when it coldly stifled the death-cries ot 
 those perishing victims. It is as if that stream o' 
 tragedy, which has helped and hidden so much ot 
 ghastly crime, had somewhere a conscience of it5> 
 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. The 
 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 bravely 
 
 * Money-lenders who probably came from Piedmont. See Dep- 
 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 days, 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 
 
 * Gudemann : " Die Juden in Italian wahrend des Mittelalters," 
 P- 73-
 
 THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. 1 95 
 
 the 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 ofificials 
 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 THE JEWS. 
 
 horses, the manufacturing of farming-tools, the mak- 
 ing of vehicles, of ships and galleys." The document 
 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 testimony, 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 Hebrews," quoted by Gudemann, 
 p. 291.
 
 THE FROWN AND TH^ CURSE. 1 97 
 
 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 1180, 
 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 blasphemy, the beloved book, which in 
 
 * Reinach : " Histoire des Juifs," p. 160.
 
 198 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the midst of sufferings was their supreme consola- 
 tion, the safeguard of their 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 them, 
 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 
 
 acteristically 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 wrath 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.
 
 200 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 We need look no further in that lurid mediaeval 
 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 CcEur 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, 
 '''' Hierosolyma est perdita^' might break out at any
 
 THE FROWN AND THE CURSE. 201 
 
 time. The Jew was made conspicuous, sometimes 
 by a badge 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 Hebrew enmity was not the law of kind- 
 ness, but to set against it a more energetic enmity. 
 In a similar spirit, the 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 counted among the great Protector's
 
 202 
 
 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 chief titles to a noble fame, that he bore down, with 
 all the weight 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. Frideswide, 
 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. 
 
 Among the portrayals of Shakespeare stands one 
 figure, — a figure which perhaps has affected us with 
 aversion, but which as we 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 as that 
 arrogant hater, cringing so stealthily, 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
 
 SHYLOCK—THE WANDERING JEW. 20$ 
 
 death which 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 ruffians 
 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
 
 2o6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Shylock exclaiming : " And you, poor wanderers of 
 our household, so bruised and maimed, whence 
 come ye with your rags, your broken bodies, your 
 hollow eyes ? " " We are from the four quarters of 
 Christendom, from the Elbe, the Seine, the Thames, 
 the Danube ; from the dungeons of nobles ; from 
 galleys where we 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 pursuit 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 cheek 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 the 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 portraiture 
 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 " Madchen unci Frauen."
 
 SHYLOCK—THE 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 black. 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 STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 of heaven are shut, and no prayer finds admission, 
 I heard a voice in which the tears were trickling as 
 they were never wept with 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 suffer 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
 
 SHYLOCK—THE WANDERING JEW. 209 
 
 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 that they might have a look 
 at the one about to suffer. He stood in his door- 
 way when the troop ascended Calvary. As tliep/ 
 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: 
 " I 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
 
 210 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. " Balder 
 the beautiful is dead, is dead," sings the Swedish 
 poet Tegner, after the old saga ; and in like manner 
 with Balder, we have believed 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 rough hands of the old gods
 
 2li THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 refuse to become decrepit through 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 faith 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 Wandering
 
 SHY LOCK— THE WANDERING JEW. 213 
 
 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 dweHings 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 Corner 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 Matterhorn — 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 Avill well believe that there are 
 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 been there before far back in 
 the dim centuries ; again in the fulness of time he 
 will be seen standing 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- 
 day ; on that bleak summit he is to receive release 
 from his exceptional doom. 
 
 We shall best interpret the myth if \vc understand 
 the Wandering Jew to be the Hebrew race typified — 
 its deathless course, its transgression, its centuries of 
 expiating agony, in this way made for us concrete 
 and vivid. 
 
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 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- 
 amiable ; from the 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 are about to see how^ the synagogue excluded 
 a most noble spirit with blasting anathemas. 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 plainly 
 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 Sabbatai Zevi,f a 
 
 * " Die wenigen die was davon erkannt, 
 
 Die thoricht g'nug ihr voiles Herz nicht wahrten, 
 Dem Pobel ihr GefUhl, ihr Schauen offenbarten, 
 Hat man von je gekreuzigt und verbannt." 
 f Reinach, p, 270, etc.
 
 THE CASTING OUT OF A PROP FIE T. 2\J 
 
 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 lie 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 came at 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," by a miracle which ought 
 to be easy to him, should render his body invulner- 
 able to the arrows. Sabbatai 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, 
 The rabbis, undeceived at last, hurried to excommu 
 nicate his partisans, Faithful adherents even no\-
 
 THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 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 France, 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
 
 220 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 Hberty. The 
 IsraeHtish 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 
 with 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 trafficking 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.
 
 
 illllllll
 
 222 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 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 study, 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 word 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 
 opening 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. 22$ 
 
 which are written in the book of the Law. But ye 
 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 the 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, hearing 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, provided you add to your piety 
 the tranquil virtues of domestic life." * 
 
 He died when but forty-five, the peer of the sub- 
 limest 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 which his fame has long been burdened, 
 he regarded as the grossest and most wicked of 
 calumnies, and great champions at last arose to vin- 
 dicate his memory. It was, indeed, his teaching 
 that there was but one infinite substance, and that 
 is God. Whatever is, is in God ; and without Him 
 nothing can be conceived. He is the universal being, 
 
 * Colerus.
 
 THE CASTING OUT OF A TROPIIET. 22/ 
 
 of which all things 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 
 natura naturans, that which forever creates ; God, 
 viewed as a manifestation, as the modes under which 
 his attributes appear, is the natura natiirata, 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 {sub- 
 stans), 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, they 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 them into admiration of him. In 
 common talk he 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 they have the spirit of 
 Christ and are saved." 
 
 * Pollock.
 
 THE CASTING OUT OF A PROPHET. 229 
 
 If we 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 French Revolu- 
 tion, and as the young Englishman returned from 
 the Continent, and with little reticence proceeded to 
 pour out wild ideas into the ear 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 
 mad-brained men to be watched. A 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, and therefore it is that he 
 stands alone, unapproachable — the master in his art, 
 but elevated above the profane world, without 
 adherents, and without even citizenship." Says G. 
 H. Lewes: " He was a brave and simple man, earn-
 
 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 BREAKING OF THE CHAIN.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Israel's 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 element of the 
 population ; but for some reason an astonishing 
 change 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 
 abjectness. 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 
 * Reinach : " Histoire des Israelites," 1885.
 
 236 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 a deep-seated 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 way 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.
 
 238 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 wrote a diatribe against Jewish influence in music, 
 and there is a story 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. He makes the claim at the present
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 239 
 
 hour that he has conquered the world,* and many 
 are ready, with fear and dread, to concede it. Let 
 us study certain great figures in various departments 
 of effort, men whose genius and energy are 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 only 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 Hebrew and Ger 
 
 * Beaconsfield's assertion : see p. 2.
 
 240 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 man. Their religion became corrupted through super- 
 stitions ; their rabbis came largely from among the 
 Polish 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, 
 will 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 Amram, 
 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 spine, from which he 
 never recovered. As a boy 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 youth approached man- 
 hood he broadened his acquirements, adding almost 
 by stealth German, Latin, mathematics, French, 
 and English to his Talmudic 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 afifluence. 
 The young man became a member of a circle of 
 brilliant minds, among whom ruled as chief one of
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 243 
 
 the mightiest gods of the German Olympus, Gotthold 
 Ephraim Lessing, and henceforth, to the day of 
 Lessing's death, Mendelssohn was held in the heart of 
 hearts of that courageous striven 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 a+ways 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 " Phaedo," a work upon the 
 immortality of the soul. In this book Mendelssohn
 
 244 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 translated the dialogue of Plato, 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 life and character of 
 Socrates was given, full of the highest love and 
 veneration for the master-sage. The tone of the 
 " Phsedo " of Mendelssohn is most exalted, and soon 
 excited in the world 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 which renders 
 them quite 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-religionists, called " Jerusalem," Im- 
 manuel Kant wrote in such terms as these : " With 
 
 * Kurz . " Geschicte der deutschen Literatur."
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW 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 afTect 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. Lavater, the Swiss 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 creed.
 
 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. Mendelssohn," by M. Samuels, p. 54, etc.
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 2^y 
 
 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 men 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 obloquy in 
 which our nation is now living, in order to guard 
 him from a rash act which he might ultimately re- 
 pent. 
 
 " Thus you see the religion of my fathers does not 
 wish to be extended. We are not to send abroad 
 missions. Whoever is not born conformable to our
 
 248 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 laws has no occasion to live according to them. We 
 alone consider ourselves bound to acknowledge 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 we 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. We 
 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 improves and solaces me. 
 Never has my heart whispered : ' Alas, for this ex- 
 . cellent man's soul ! ' He 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 
 and 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, proved, for his sensitive nature, too severe a 
 strain. He fell ill, and at length, in 1786, came death.
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 249 
 
 Moses Mendelssohn was undersized and always 
 badly deformed. A habit of stammering, 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 
 depth 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 ofifice. 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 Gugenheim, and presently asked him what his 
 daughter, who was a very charming girl, had said of 
 him. 
 
 "Ah, most honored rabbi," said Gugenheim, 
 " shall I candidly tell you ? " 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " Well, as you are a philosopher, a wise and great 
 man, you 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 your daughter." 
 
 He went up-stairs and sat down by the young 
 lady, who was sewing. They conversed in the most 
 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- 
 cially wonderful happened to me. At the birth of a 
 child, proclamation is made in heaven : He or she 
 shall marry such or such a one. When I was born, 
 my future wife was also named, but at the same time 
 it was said: 'Alas! she will have a dreadful hump- 
 back.' ' O God,' I said then, ' a deformed girl will 
 become embittered and unhappy, whereas she should 
 be beautiful. Dear Lord, give me the hump-back, 
 and let the maiden be well formed and agreeable.' " 
 
 Scarcely had Moses Mendelssohn finished speak-
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 25 I 
 
 ing when the girl threw herself upon his neck : she 
 afterwards became his wife ; they lived happily to- 
 gether, and had good and handsome 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 History of German Literature."
 
 252 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 his grandest play, 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 
 late in life, when Lessing'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 affliction — 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 think he
 
 ISRAEL'S NEW MOSES. 253 
 
 went too far — that every historic reHgion is in some 
 sense divine, a necessary evolution, from the condi- 
 tions under which it originates. What a man 
 beheves is a matter of utter indifference if his life 
 is not good. 
 
 Gold win 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. 
 But 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. 
 
 THE MONEY KINGS. 
 
 In no department at the present day will the con- 
 spicuous ability 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 considered more honorable and 
 legitimate, was once held to be disgraceful, to a large 
 extent unlawful. It was indispensable to the on- 
 going of society, and therefore, of necessity, tolen 
 ated. The agents of business, however, have, for the 
 most part, 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 
 condemned 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 from merchants goods for 
 prompt sale, for they never can succeed unless they
 
 THE MON-EY KINGS. 255 
 
 lie most abominably. All mechanical laborers are 
 by their profession mean, for a workshop can contain 
 nothing befitting a gentleman." 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; 4, 42.
 
 256 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the lender contents himself with a trifle. The pic- 
 ture which has been drawn of Jewish avarice is far 
 from being 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 afifirmed that the 
 Jews, through the long ages when they have been 
 vilified as so sordid and covetous, administered to the 
 world a most important schooling. 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 MONEY KING. 257 
 
 the one hand excluding them from the handicrafts 
 much more strictly than American mechanics shut 
 out negroes and Chinese, — on the other hand the 
 higher professions and public 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 toward his per- 
 secutors. 
 
 In trade and exchange, the Jew in the darkest 
 times has had suf^cient 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- 
 delssohn, 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 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 The streets in the Juden-gasse at Frankfort are 
 dark even by day ; the worn thresholds are still in 
 place that have been stained with blood in the 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 which 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 
 from the sign above his door, was Rothschild. 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 coin ; 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 your trusti- 
 ness. I confide all I have in the world to you. 
 Here is my treasure ; here are the jewels of my 
 family. Save the jewels if you 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 plundering high 
 and low. Neither Jew nor Christian escaped, Meyer 
 Anselm suffering with the rest. 
 
 * Several interesting facts in this slcetcli are derived from a letter of 
 " Junot's " in the Philadelphia Press.
 
 IN THE FRANKFORT JUDEN-GASSE.
 
 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 Frankfort, 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 
 trustee 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 which they well knew how 
 to improve. 
 
 Heinrich Heine has left an interesting account of 
 being conducted by Ludwig Borne through the 
 Juden-gasse of Frankfort, 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 " Hanoukhah," the feast of
 
 THE MONEY KINGS. 261 
 
 lamps. The story has been told how Judas Mac- 
 cabaeus, 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 ia 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 when 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 themselves by an oath that they would
 
 262 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 remain faithful Jews, that they would always carry 
 on business in company, that they would increase 
 money as much as possible, but never divide it, and 
 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 genially 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 upon 
 her 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- 
 selves 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 family. He went to England a youth
 
 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 ways 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 Napoleon 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 Nivelles road across 
 the awful wreck, and the "■ sauve 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, exultingly: 
 "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 solemnly, and those 
 who met him felt confirmed in their impression that 
 England had gone by 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, ready to buy, 
 though a panic seemed to be impending. So passed 
 June 20th — so passed June 21st. On the evening of 
 that day 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 MEYER ROTHSCHILD. 
 
 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. 
 
 The house 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 
 implacability, and stripping it without mercy. When 
 England in the struggle with Napoleon was sore 
 pressed to supply its fleets and armies, the Roths- 
 childs, buying 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 military, 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. 267 
 
 Juden-gasse, who had played as little children on the 
 Maccabaean 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 
 w^ords : "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 Avas 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 money king no longer lived. 
 
 Lionel Rothschild, eldest son of Nathan Meyer, 
 and his successor as head of the London house, was, 
 in a difTerent way, not less famous than his father. 
 He was of agreeable person and manners, the friend 
 of royalty and the nobility, 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 House 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 the Paris house, is no less ex- 
 traordinary than that of Nathan Meyer in London.
 
 THE MONEY KINGS. 269 
 
 After the overthrow of Napoleon, the allies required 
 from the restored Bourbon, Louis XVIII., 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 Israelite 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 general, with
 
 2/0 THE STORY 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 
 gold 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 
 finds 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- 
 quest, whereupon the rich man curtly declared he 
 had already given. " Pardon," said the lady, " 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. 
 " How is Madame la Baronne ? " politely inquired a
 
 TFFE MONEY KINGS. 27 1 
 
 man of high rank, who met the Jew at the opera. 
 " What 's that to you," 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 '^ famil- 
 lionairement,'' 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- 
 crimae 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 Christ 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. 
 
 Alphonse, the son of James, showed to the world a 
 less brusque exterior than might have been expected 
 from the atmosphere in which he 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 ni 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 
 within 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 
 Commune, when all else was subjected to destruction 
 or pillage.
 
 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 " De Ofificiis," a story of certain vessels 
 which, in a time of great scarcity at Rhodes, set sail 
 thither in company from Alexandria, in Egypt, 
 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, while the remainder of the fleet was several 
 hours distant. The newly 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 duty 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 reply 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 frankly that the other ships were coming; 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 be no manner of doubt. For our 
 modern day, let our preachers and moralists speak 
 for themselves. It would be ludicrous, however, to 
 hear criticisms upon such a course from the Ameri- 
 can business world. You inquire as you ride with a 
 friend through some great city : " Who is building
 
 5"/.? MOSES AIONTEFIORE. 2/5 
 
 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 tne 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 Faith the cross, and Justice the scales, — 
 Americans all, unmixed, 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 STORY OF THE JEIVS. 
 
 goes for rapacity, over-reaching, criminal indifference 
 to human welfare, possibly deserves far milder char- 
 acterization. With what genius, at any rate, does 
 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 Frenchmen 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 France, they grasped at power over 
 the whole continent of Europe, organizing and con-
 
 S//? MOSES MONTEFIORE. 2'J'/ 
 
 trolling 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 detailed, that the Hebrew business- 
 man is by no means necessarily rapacious. One of 
 
 * Boston Advertiser.
 
 2/8 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the noblest and 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, prompted by a 
 wise and generous spirit, are as unparalleled as the 
 shrewdness, audacity, and persistence through which 
 his kindred and 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 which 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 the best Israelite strain. An 
 ancestor of his was the bold sailor, Lamego, that 
 captain of Vasco de 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 with 
 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 which has sometimes hurt the repute 
 of the famous bankers. Free 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
 
 S//^ 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 throufrh- 
 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 occurred in Damascus and Rhodes in 
 1840. A Jewish persecution sprang up in those 
 towns, scarcely less terrible than the dark deeds of
 
 282 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 those mediaeval 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. 
 
 Montefiore, 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 
 helpful. . He was presently on the spot, backed by 
 all the power 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 of the agitation grew 
 the powerful "Alliance Israelite Universelle," an or-
 
 S//? MOSES MONTEFIORE. 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 ev^erywhere 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 are 
 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 felicity 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 joy — 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 from the town by 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 of^cers, 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 vast crowd clapped 
 their hands in joy. Montefiore paid 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 Almighty who has protected 
 us w^hile 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 with songs and everlasting joy 
 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.
 
 SI/; MOSES MONTEFIORE. 289 
 
 A French frigate conveyed him from Gibraltar to 
 Tangier, where his landing had 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 STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 planets in the Western horizon, were now emittm^ 
 their silvery 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, 
 when will our eyes 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 wnll 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 always, 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 the efificiency of the 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
 
 •£^y 
 
 
 r/ f-ii V
 
 292 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 when he reached at last Jerusalem, set all to work 
 to clean the city to prevent the spread of cholera. 
 Nothing 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 suggestions follow, which were at once 
 acted upon. In late years the " Monteflore 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
 
 SIR 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 
 the cud. For each Jewish man-child he would have
 
 294 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 had the ancient rite of circumcision, — at the passover 
 time must be the feast of unleavened bread, — upon 
 occasion he wore the embroidered tcpliillin, 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 may, 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 France 
 is a Jew, and the head of the Conservatives of Eng- 
 land is a Jew " ; while, as others assert, the foremost 
 Spanish republican, Castclar, 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 Political Leaders," Tuttle.
 
 296 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 of the great national liberal party (the majority of 
 the body), 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 Oppenheim, 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- 
 rally, beyond the rest of the nation, have felt the 
 traditional dislike of the Jews, and have been accus- 
 tomed to ask, when any 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
 
 HERK I.ASKER.
 
 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, Avhich 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 would put out one of his eyes. His father 
 laughed 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 coolly 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 III., 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 
 revolutionary address was in progress, till prudent 
 tradesmen got their shutters ready, 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 days of barricade. The
 
 HEBREW STATESMEN. 3OI 
 
 daring 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 HI., 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 with 
 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 Italian 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 Prussian siege, he was at his post 
 in Paris, acute and bold, always crying out against 
 inaction, lavishing upon his disheartened country- 
 men, as he lashed 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 France lay for the most part beneath 
 the foot of the German, faced the danger with voice 
 and 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 with 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. By 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 ofificers. If he had known how to 
 handle the sword, those who studied the struggle 
 believe that even then, after Mctz 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, Gambetta 
 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 elite 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 
 
 * Brandes : " Life of Beaconsfield." 
 f His father was Isaac Disraeli, an author of some reputation.
 
 306 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 story of his first speech in ParHament, into which he 
 at last pushed himself after disappointments and 
 labors that can scarcely be measured. At length 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'Coimell, 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 with 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
 
 ^L 
 
 w 
 
 
 ^i'S^^^'^-i. \^Oi^:;i^"^v; 
 
 ISAAC DISRAELI.
 
 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. But 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
 
 LORD BEACUMbtlKLU.
 
 3IO THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 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 " Tancrcd " : 
 " There might be counted heroes and sages who 
 need shrink from no rivalry with 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 years, but 
 whose wisdom is still a proverb in 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 the 
 Jewess Eva, with an earnestness which we may be 
 sure is the real feeling of the author, " Suppose the 
 Jews had not prevailed on the Romans to crucify 
 Chri&t, 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 you 
 believe what you profess you should kneel to us. 
 You raise statues to the hero that saves a country.
 
 HEBREW STATESMEN. 3II 
 
 We 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 w^ore the diadem of 
 Hebrew sovereignty, and from him who in the su- 
 preme places of the world just now wore the coronet 
 of an Ensflish earl !
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL * 
 
 Has the spirit of this race, so intense, so persistent, 
 so trampled 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 
 the Rhine. " How old are you ? " says a personage 
 to him in one of his works. " Signora, I was born 
 on New Year's Day, i8oo." "' I have always told 
 you,' said the marquise, ' that he was one of the 
 first men cf the century.' " The Heine family came 
 from Biickeburg, a little principality whose insignifi- 
 cance Heine merrily hits off. Alluding to a saying 
 of Danton, in the French Revolution, who, when he 
 * Adapted from the writer's " Short Hist, of Germ. Lit."
 
 A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 313 
 
 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 Biickeburg'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 Varnhagen von 
 Ense and his Hebrew wife Rahel, people of elegant 
 culture and brilliant gifts ; whose salon fills almost 
 the place in the literarj^ history 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 he presently entered upon his poetic 
 career. He 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-ea^e 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 sufficiently 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 elephants ; 4, of 
 the feet of the ladies of Gottingen ; then if I can get
 
 HEINRICH HEINE.
 
 3l6 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 paper big enough, I will add thereto some copper- 
 plate engravings, with portraits, life-size, of the 
 ladies' feet of Gottingen." Again, 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 luciisa. ' 
 
 He soon arrived at fame. A multitude of readers 
 followed his pen with delight. His songs were 
 everywhere sung ; his witty and graphic prose com- 
 mended itself no less. His nonchalant irreverence, 
 which not infrequently runs into insolence and blas- 
 phemy, his disregard of proprieties, his outspoken 
 scorn of the powers that ruled, brought down upon 
 him, not 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, much in the field of politics. His 
 poems are numberless ; sometimes simple and sweet 
 throughout as an outgush from the heart of the most 
 innocent of children ; sometimes with an uncanny 
 or diabolic suggestion thrown in at the end, as the 
 red mouse at length runs out of the mouth of the 
 beauty with whom Faust dances on the Brocken in 
 the Walpurgis-nacht ; sometimes, again, full of a very 
 vitriol of acrid denunciation. 
 
 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 moanings from an ^olian harp were 
 ever sweeter than the utterances which occasionally 
 came as the tempestuous agony swept down upon 
 him. We see, too, abetter 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." 
 At length came Feb. 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 of 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 illustration. In one breath 
 he Avrites "The Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," a poem
 
 3l8 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 which one would say must have come from the 
 heart of an artless, ignorant peasant, full of unques- 
 tioning Catholic 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 difficulties of rendering in Heine's case are 
 perhaps quite insurmountable. Nothing was ever so 
 airy and volatile as his 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 Dusseldorf, 
 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 my father, who 
 still sat in the white gown in which the barber had 
 been powdering him, good-morning, I heard the 
 light-footed hair-drcsscr 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 French troops, the light-
 
 A SWEET SINGEH IN ISRAEL. 319 
 
 hearted 50ns 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 2S\^ point d' Jioiineiir , and the great silver-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 wdiistle, 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 
 things 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 STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 mile-boots thoughts — with which the emperor's spirit 
 invisibly strode over the world. The emperor rode 
 quietly through the avenue ; behind him, proud on 
 snorting horses, and loaded with gold and ornaments, 
 rode his suite ; the drums rolled, the trumpets 
 sounded and the people cried with a thousand voices: 
 ' Vive I'empereur ! ' " 
 
 The Germans have been accused of wanting 
 greatly 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 dull 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, shooting out, now 
 and then, the sharpest darts of spite. Poor Ger- 
 many was forever his butt, as in the following: 
 
 From Cologne, at quarter to eight in the morn, 
 My journey's course I followed ; 
 
 * J. R. Lowell : Essay on Lessing.
 
 A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 32 T 
 
 Toward three of the clock to Hagen we came, 
 And there our dinner we swallowed. 
 
 The table was spread, and here I found 
 
 The real old German cooking. 
 I greet thee, dear old " sauer-kraut," 
 
 With thy delicate perfume smoking ! 
 
 Mother's stuiTed chestnuts in cabbage green J 
 
 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-plate a pig's head they brought ; 
 
 And you know, in the German nation. 
 It 's the snouts of the pigs that they always crown 
 
 With a laurel decoration.* 
 
 * Deutschland, ein Wintermarchen.
 
 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 any thing. In multitudes of passages, 
 both prose 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 old university. " Strange ! a ter- 
 rible fate has already overtaken the three 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 
 Hbelled 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 clearly 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 immediateness, 
 whereas they were the products of consummate art.* 
 But no poet has ever been able to convey so thor- 
 oughly the impression of perfect artlessness. 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 dwelling, 
 
 And we will happy be. 
 
 Thy forehead will I moisten 
 
 From my clear-flowing rill. 
 Thy griefs thou shalt leave behind thee, 
 
 Thou soul with sorrow so ill ! 
 
 Upon my bosom snowy, 
 
 Within my white 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 thrill. 
 
 O come down into my castle, 
 
 My castle crystal bright ! 
 There dance the knights and the maidens ; 
 
 There revels each servant wight. 
 
 * Kurz : " Geschichte der deutschen Literatur."
 
 A SIVEFT SINGER IN ISRAEL. 325 
 
 There rustle the garments silken, — 
 
 There rattles the spear below. 
 The dwarfs drum and trumpet 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 thee brought water from the spring. 
 
 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. 
 Back to thy hands, O God, I give 
 My staff ; and now I pray thee guard 
 This lamb of mine, when 'neath the sward 
 I lie ; and suffer not, I pray. 
 That thorns should pierce her on the way. 
 From nettles harsh protect her fleece ; 
 From soiling marshes give release ; 
 And everywhere, her feet before,
 
 326 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 With sweet grass spread the meadows o'er ; 
 And let her sleep from care as blest 
 As once she slept 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 yet with which is marvellously bound such ten- 
 der feeling ! As one repeats the lines, they are aU
 
 A SWEET SINGER IN ISRAEL. 327 
 
 most nothing; yet caught within them, like 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 brought to pass desperation, which utters 
 itself at length in infernal laughter. 
 
 A touching 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 undergo 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 lips of the goddess, which appear to breathe, 
 smiled with her wonted smile at her unhappy vic- 
 tim." * Heine says himself in a letter : 
 
 " Only with pain could I drag myself to the 
 Louvre, and I was nearly exhausted when I entered 
 the lofty hall where the blessed goddess of beauty, 
 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 SINGER IN ISRAEL. 329 
 
 me, yet at the same time inconsolably, as though 
 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 Louvre. I stood 
 there on a day when 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 oiivriers 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 perfect beauty; within the eyes 
 lay the divine calm ; on the neck a symmetry more 
 than mortal ; — all this, and, at the same time, the mu- 
 tilation, the broken folds of the drapery, the dints 
 made in the marble by 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 type 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, while some idea is formed of the 
 kindred, some of whom scarcely less than he, 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 why 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 led, in times near our 
 own, famous and charming lives. The noble thinker 
 was, with all his liberal 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 1 
 
 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 due 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 thoroughly 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 the wife. Schlegel soon 
 rose to brilliant fame, with which Dorothea, whose 
 literary gifts were remarkable, was closely connected. 
 Schlegel's story " Lucinde " a memorable utterance 
 of " Romanticism," of which literary tendency he
 
 332 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 was the founder and best type, was an outgrowth of 
 this left-handed 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 powers 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 von 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 Bartholdy, was 
 his second child. The modest father deemed him- 
 self inconspicuous and unimportant between the 
 illustrious names that preceded and followed him. 
 " Formerly, I was the son of my father," he used to
 
 SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 333 
 
 say, " but now I am the father of 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 suffi- 
 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 memory of your 
 father. * * * You may remain faithful to an 
 oppressed, persecuted rehgion — 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 Fanny, 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, and a conscience which warns 
 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 you 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 the heathen
 
 SOME HARMONIOUS 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 Henscl, 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 daughter :
 
 336 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 "Seriously, my dear Mr. Hensel, 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 are 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 
 marrying 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 competency, 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 you, 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 summer the garden-house, in which 
 Fanny and Hensel lived after their marriage, was 
 perfectly charming. The windows were embowered
 
 338 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 w^as 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 
 TJiicr-garten, and w^as 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.' By 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 poetry, 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,
 
 340 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 Paganini, Moscheles, Spontini, Schadow, and Dev- 
 rient. No more serious ripple disturbed the even 
 flow of the hfe than some such little incident as 
 follows, narrated by Fanny. Alexander von Hum- 
 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 ini 
 Tciifclsnamcn is there ? ' Enter, with majestic step, 
 Louise (Hensel's sister), saying that she heard thieves 
 rummaging about in the hall, and then going into the 
 garden with a lantern. She had thought it her duty 
 to wake 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 I'elix went forth to become in his 
 sphere a conqueror, the favorite of princes, and at
 
 FELIX MENDELSSOHN.
 
 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 Europe, 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, 
 affectionate, and dignified. The music that he wrote, 
 like the lyrical poetry of Goethe, reflected accurately 
 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 works 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 was very 
 mobile, the brow full, the eyes possessed of a power 
 of expression quite extraordinary. 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 was born annid 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 shadow upon the very reverberating jubi- 
 lance, subdued for the sake of one whose beauty 
 lifted over us, appeared 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 he yet stood with his 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 overture. 
 
 "It opened like the first dawn of 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 
 blazed 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 calni 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 supplications, 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 HARMONIOUS 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 Alleluiah, I had not looked up at all ; now I 
 forced myself to do so, lest I should lose my sight of 
 Jiim, 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 
 quick 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 Hensel grew, and under the in- 
 fluence of Fanny the Berlin home became the centre 
 of a culture more than ever rich and brilliant. Hen- 
 sel had a habit of sketching their guests, and in the
 
 34^ THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 series 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, poets, 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 Garten-saal, 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 Bader, 
 and Mantius. Any thing so perfect will not soon 
 be heard again. Bader 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 
 beautifully." 
 
 In this home the parents accomplished their days, 
 — the rhother so full of good sense and watchful
 
 SOME HARMONIOUS LIVES. 347 
 
 affection, the father broad-minded and rehgious. 
 Always they bear in their hearts their children 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 happiness 
 of their lives. Upon the christening-day of her boy,
 
 348 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 you, 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 happiness might last. I truly know and feel 
 how blessed I am, and this consciousness is, I think, 
 the foundation-stone of happiness." 
 
 At 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 possible, 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 HARMONIOUS 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, 
 leaves 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 arc the Messengers ! ' Before 
 I liad 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 ? 
 ' Schoucr Jind scJwncr scJiniilckt sicJi ' — 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 mir' really quite 
 faultlessly, and with charming feeling and expres- 
 sion. * * * 
 
 " After this Prince Albert sang the Aerndte-Lied, 
 * Es ist ein Sc/uiittcr,'' 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 the 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 naturally ; 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 
 you 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.
 
 SOME 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 humanity, the large- 
 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 genera] 
 were as fortunate and as good !
 
 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
 
 356 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 body 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, are deftly 
 and properly laid out and interred. The hate enter- 
 tained against the Israelites by the rabble, and even 
 by those higher in station, has uttered itself at the 
 present day in the old mediaeval cry, " Hep ! Hep ! " 
 The days of proscription are scarcely passed, and 
 men have even been tortured and murdered in times 
 quite recent, under the old accusation of poisoning 
 wells and crucifying children. This mingled fear 
 and repugnance finds a half-humorous but forcible 
 expression in certain stanzas by Franz Dingelstedt, a 
 poet of Vienna, which may be thus translated:
 
 OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 357 
 
 Gone are the days of bitter tribulation ; 
 
 Changed are the times which now we see emerge. 
 The cunning '^Q^'^, amid our lamentation, 
 
 From our unskilful hands doth wrest the scourge. 
 
 He crowds the farmer hard with scheming knavish, 
 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 about 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 
 are beautiful as frost-work, — with fringe of gold and 
 lamp of silver, — the Oriental arches throwing back 
 from their purple vaults the sound of the silver 
 trumpets and the deep chant of the high-priest.
 
 35S 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 rem.ember 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 oflfice of lavadorc, the one who pre- 
 pares the body for the grave, is one of high honor 
 among them ; their cemeteries are tended and made 
 beautiful, even when the descendants of the sleepers 
 have utterly 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 white 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 
 
 With 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 tlie 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 went ; 
 Trampled and beaten were they as the sand. 
 
 And yet unshaken as the continent. 
 
 For in the background figures vague and vast 
 Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime. 
 
 And all the 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 ! what 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 
 
 * " Pie Juden von Barnow," by Emil Franzos.
 
 OUR HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 36 1 
 
 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- 
 tance 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 carved 
 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 d^iy, 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 short, 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, walking 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,
 
 OUK HEBREW CONTEMPORARIES. 363 
 
 he obtained the story, Leah Rendar had been 
 marked, as a girl, among her companions for awealth 
 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. 
 
 Li 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. 
 
 Tom 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. 36: 
 
 In Venice city, bright and gay, 
 
 Upon the purple flood there flies, 
 In swift gondol, a soldier fair. 
 
 And on his breast a Jewess lies. 
 Her grave awaits 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 sped a dream of bliss. 
 
 When daydawn 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 beggar-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 lone ; 
 Their silent, solemn rest, who breaks?
 
 366 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 A shadow falls 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 
 
 Within 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- 
 riess to be : "A Jewish Yorkshireman of Scottish 
 /extraction with a Yankee education." Such a com- 
 Vbination 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 samFfiTne' 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 t hrown off, has soared with such imperial 
 sweep ! ^ " \ 
 
 Do we like our Hebrew neighbors and rivals?* Says\ 
 Felix Adlcr, 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 hate 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."
 
 368 THE STORY OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the coarsest and least representative of its mem- 
 bers." 
 
 The characteristics which Fehx Adler 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, unoverwhelmed, 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 vv^ill 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 askenazhn, that 
 degraded German Judaism, with its foul Juden-straii^ 
 sen, from among the people despised even by those
 
 ^'^O 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 Mendelssohns 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. 
 
 -'^^y^'B^mQS^^^
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aaron and the oral law, 77 
 Abarbanel at the court of Spain, 
 
 158 
 Abraham, Rabbi, story of, 16S, 
 
 etc. 
 Abram goes southward from I la- 
 ran, 12 
 Adler, Felix, on the Jews, 367 
 ^lia Capitolina, Roman city on 
 
 site of Jerusalem, 133 
 Ahasuerus, see Wandering Jew 
 Alexander tlie 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 tiie He- 
 brews, 12 
 Ananus, high-priest, slain, 11 1 
 Antiochus Epiphanes oppresses 
 
 the Jews, 64 
 Antiochus of Commagenc at tlie 
 
 siege of Jerusalem, 120 
 Anton ia, fortress of, described, 
 
 104 ; destroyed, 117 
 Apelles slain by Mattathias, 65 
 Apocrypha, how composed, 76 
 Apollonius defeated by Judas 
 
 Maccabzeus, 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, 
 61 ; 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 
 
 Asmongeus, ancestor of the Mac- 
 cabees, 64 
 
 Assyrians, threaten Palestine, 26 ; 
 their jirominence in Hebrew 
 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 JEWS. 
 
 B 
 
 Babylon, captivity at, 57 
 Bacchides defeats Judas Macca- 
 
 bseus, 6q 
 Badges worn by mediaeval Jews, 
 
 201 
 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, 2g6 
 Black Death in the 14th century, 
 
 167, 198 
 " Book Le Grand," work of 
 
 Heine, quoted, 318, etc. 
 Borne, Ludvvig, 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 
 Cahorsin, money-lenders, 193 
 Caleb, ancient Hebrew champion, 
 
 18 
 Canaanites, their civilization, 
 their conquest by the Israel- 
 ites, 18 
 Canon, of the Old Testament, 
 
 formation of, 76 
 Canute banishes the Jews from 
 
 England, 189 
 Cartaphilus, see 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 Felix 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 
 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, 282, 298 
 
 Cromwell brings Jews back to 
 England, 192, 201 
 
 Cuneiform inscriptions, 36 
 
 Curse pronounced upon Spinoza, 
 224 
 
 Cyrus, the Mede, conquers As- 
 syria, 54 ; restores Jews to Pal- 
 estine, 57 
 
 D 
 
 Damascus, seat 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 
 
 Dingelstedt, Franz, his anti-Se- 
 mitic poem, 357 
 
 Dispersion of the Jews, 133 
 
 Disraeli, I'enjamin, Earl 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 
 Beaconsfield, 305 
 
 Dominicans prominent in perse- 
 cuting the Jews, 162 
 
 Domitius Sabinus, the centurion, 
 at the siege of Jotapata, gg 
 
 Edomites subdued by Hebrews, 
 12 
 
 Edward I. banishes Jews from 
 England, ig2 
 
 Eleazar, brother of Judas Mac- 
 cabeus, 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 
 
 F 
 
 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 
 
 G 
 
 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 medisval 
 times, 165, etc.; in modern 
 times, 239, 240 ; ridiculed by 
 Heine, 321. 
 
 Gessius Florus, 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, 22g ; friend 
 of the MendeJssohns, 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 
 
 II 
 
 Halevy, 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 
 Rothschilds, 260 
 
 Hazael, of Syria, conquered by 
 Assyrians, 38 
 
 Hebrews, see Jews. 
 
 Hegel, admirer of Spinoza, 229 
 
 Heine, Heinrich, his " Rabbi of 
 Bacharach," 167 ; admirer of 
 Spinoza, 229 ; called by Mat- 
 thew Arnold first German poet 
 since Goethe, 238 ; with Borne 
 in the Frankfort Juden-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 the 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 the 
 yoke of Assyria, 48 
 Hillel, Jewish teacher, 81 
 Hiram of Tyre and Solomon, 23 
 Holland, the refuge of the op- 
 pressed, 219 
 
 I 
 
 Idumseans, subdued by Judas 
 Maccabseus, 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, Jewish poet, 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. 
 
 Jacob the patriarch, 12 
 
 Jaddua, high-priest, 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.; beiieged by Titus, 
 109, etc.; its capture and de- 
 struction, 119 ; visits of Sir 
 Moses Montefiore to, 2S4, 2S9; 
 the new town near the Jaffa- 
 gate, 292 
 
 " Jerusalem," work of Moses 
 Mendelssohn, 244 
 
 Jesus, of Nazareth, his birth, 86 ; 
 in the Temple, baptism, 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- 
 iiy, 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 with 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- 
 tory, 134 ; how they became 
 traders, 136; their services in 
 commerce, 137; contact with 
 the Moslems, 138 ; enter Spain, 
 138; at the Renaissance, 139; 
 favored by the Saracens, and lay 
 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 Spain, 16 1 ; an 
 auio-da-fe, 162, etc. ; in Ger- 
 many, 165, etc.; lightly touched 
 by the Black Death. 167 ; pic- 
 ture of their mediceval life, 
 168, etc ; in England, pro- 
 tected by early Plantngenets, 
 189 ; Richard Coeur 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," iu time of 
 the " Black Death," 198 ; be- 
 come chattels, 200 ; b.idges, 
 narrowne>sof 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 Sabbatai Zevi, 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, 29Q, 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 ; orthodox nucleus,
 
 37^ 
 
 TITE STORY Of THE JEWS. 
 
 368 ; reformers, 368, 369 ; 
 
 promise of a better day, 369 
 Joachim, Jewish musician, 237 
 John the Baptist and Jesus of 
 
 Nazareth, 88 
 John of Giscala defends Jerusa- 
 
 salem against Titus, iio, etc.; 
 
 dies in prison, 119 
 John Hyrcanus, descendant of 
 
 the Maccabees, 71 
 Jonathan, son of Saul, 20 
 Jonathan, brother of Judas Mac- 
 cabeus, 70 
 Josepli, son of Jacob, 12 
 Joseph, husband of Mary, 86 
 Josephus, commands in Galilee, 
 
 45 ; the 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 
 Jotapata, defended by Josephus 
 
 against Vespasian, 95, etc. 
 Judah, kingdom of, 25 ; invaded 
 
 by Sennacherib, 49 
 Judas Maccabseus, 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 
 
 Kant, Immanuel, his tribute to 
 the "Jerusalem" of Moses 
 Mendelssohn, 245 
 
 Karaites, Jewish sect rejecting 
 the Talmud, 148 
 
 Lamego, Portuguese ancestor of 
 Sir Moses Montefiore, 280 
 
 Lasker, 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, 
 
 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 Mendelssohn, 243 ; 
 his " Nathan the Wise," 251, 
 etc. 
 
 Libraries, cities as, 33 ; destruc- 
 tion at Alexandria, 55 
 
 Literature, Jews 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 XVI II. 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- 
 bseus, 67 
 
 M 
 
 Maccabees, their origin, 64 ; their 
 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, 236 
 
 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 custom, 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 Veit, 
 her connection with Friedrich 
 Schlegel, 331, 332 
 
 Mendelssohn, Fanny, daughter of 
 Abraham, 333 ; marries Wil- 
 helm Hensel, 335 ; her home 
 in Berlin, 337, 345 ; letters, 
 348, 349 ; death, 352 
 
 >lendelssohn- 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 ; with 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, Jewish composer, 237 
 
 " Midsummer Night's Dream," 
 overture to, by Mendelssohn, 
 338 
 
 Mischna, combined with the Ge- 
 mara to form the Talmud, 81, 
 142 
 
 Moabites subdued by Israel, I2 
 
 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, 283 ; enters Jerusalem, 
 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 the Holy Land, 294 
 
 Moors, see Saracens 
 
 Moriah, Mount, site of the Tem- 
 ple, 103 
 
 Morocco, Montefiore visits, 2S8 
 
 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 IH. and Gambetta, 
 300, 301 
 
 "Nathan the Wise," drama of 
 Lessing, 251, etc. 
 
 " New Christians," insincere con- 
 verts from Judaism, 153 
 
 Niegesehenburg, a mediasval 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, 210 
 " 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 mediasval 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. 
 
 " Phredo," 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, 198 
 
 Philistines as conquerors, 18 ; as 
 conquered, 20 
 
 Philosophy, eminence of Jews in, 
 238 
 
 Phcenicians, contact with Jews, 
 23 ; subjected by Assyria, 47 
 
 " Pilgrimage to Kevlaar," jwem 
 of Heine, 317 
 
 Poland, Jews in, 360 
 
 Pompey takes 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 
 
 R 
 
 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 Cceurde L.ion persecutes 
 
 the Jews, 140, 190 
 Romans, first contact of, with 
 
 the Jews in time of Judas
 
 INDEX. 
 
 379 
 
 Maccabseus, 70 ; their coming 
 to Palestine, 73 ; their 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 
 
 Rothschild, 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, 283 ; 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 
 
 Sclileiermacher, his tribute to 
 Spinoza, 230 
 
 Science, distinction of Jews in, 
 238 
 
 SeleucidjE 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 
 
 -, °^' 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- 
 bseus, 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, ill, 
 etc ; slain at Rome, 123 
 
 Sisebut, Visigolhic 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 ; his magnanimity, 
 polishes crystals for a liveli- 
 hood, 225 ; his catholicity, his 
 death, 226 ; his philosophy 
 outlined, his humanity, 227, 
 228 ; 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, 
 90 
 
 Stocker, German anti- Semitic 
 leader, 356 
 
 "St. Paul," oratorio of Mendels- 
 sohn, 342 
 
 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, 
 145, 146 ; its hygienic value, 
 148 
 
 Targums, Aremaic paraphrases 
 of Scripture, 76 
 
 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, 118 
 
 Tenth legion at the siege of Jer- 
 usalem, 112 
 
 Titus storms Jotapata, 99 ; ad- 
 vances upon Jerusalem, 108 ; 
 his army, 109 ; his narrow es- 
 cape, hi; besieges the city, 
 112, etc.; his victory, 119; his 
 triumph, 121, etc.; the arch 
 of, 124 
 
 Torah, see 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, 
 218 
 
 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 'I'itus, I2i 
 
 Victoria, Queen, and Felix Men- 
 delssohn, 350, etc. 
 
 Visigoths and Jews, 152 
 
 Voltaire harsh toward Jews, 202 
 
 W 
 
 Wagner, his futile effort to bring 
 the Jews to confusion, 238 
 
 Wandering Jew, different ver- 
 sions of the legend, Carta- 
 philus or Ahasuerus, 208 ; his 
 pilgrimage, 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, 168 
 
 Wild Huntsman becomes blend- 
 ed with the Wandering Jew, 
 210, etc. 
 
 William the Conqueror protects 
 the Jews, 189. 
 
 William Rufus befriends the 
 Jews, 189 
 
 Woistes, mediaeval German town, 
 Jews at, 168, etc. 
 
 Yankee and Jew, 366 
 York, tragedy at, igo, etc.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 Z 
 
 Zadikim, division among the 
 
 Jews, 77 
 Zealots, a Jewish sect, 79 ; at the 
 
 siege of Jerusalem, no 
 
 Zion, symbol of Hebrew n'^tion, 
 I ; the ark finds a sanctuary 
 there in the time of David ; at 
 the time of the siege by the 
 Romans, 102
 
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