upon Alpine sublimities; nor shall ever wish to tread the broad walks that surround palaces; shall never be taxed for my admiration of those things which wealth and pride have superadded to Nature. 11 CHAPTER VII. THE ISRAELITE OF THE EXODUS, AND THE THEOCRACY. T WAS upon no such bright themes as those of the IT Paradisaical era it was upon no subjects so well adapted to the purposes of Poetry as those of the Patriarchal era — that the Hebrew Prophets employed themselves. It was far otherwise: leaving subjects of this order open and unoccupied to the genius of distant ages, these witness-bearing men, in long succession, addressed the men of their times upon matters of more immediate concernment, and in a mood and style adapted to the people with whom they had to do. If it be so- and on this point there can be no reasonable question then it must be true in this instance, as in every similar instance, that a correct notion of the people who were so addressed, as to their degree of culture, as to their moral condition, and their social advancement, and as to their comparative intelligence, may with certainty be gathered from these remains of their literature: the literature being regarded as the mirror of the national mind. Yet if we so regard it, and so use it, this safe method of induction may perhaps lead the way to conclusions that materially differ from those which, on the one side, as well as on the other side, of a controversy concerning the Old Testament History, have been advanced, and have been tacitly assented to. To defame, by all means, the ancient Israelitish people, as a "horde of barbarians," has been the purpose of a certain class of writers; and on the other side a mistaken timidity has beguiled writers into the error of supposing that, in admitting this imputed barbarism, an extenuation, or a palliation might be found for those events and those courses of action in the history of the people which most offend our modern tastes, or which stand condemned by Christian principles. What has been wanting, and the want of which has shed confusion upon the subject, has been - we need not say candor and truthfulness on the one side; but more of intellectual and moral courage on the other side of this modern argument. The ancient Israelite had no peer among his contemporaries; nor do we find analogous instances on any side that might render aid in solving the problem of this race, either in its earlier or its later history. In truth, there is as much need of an admission of the supernatural element for understanding the national character, as there is for understanding the narrative of its fortunes and its misfortunes the catastrophes that have overwhelmed it, and the fact of its survivance of each of them in turn. The Jew—such as we now meet him in the crowded ways of European cities — is 1 indeed a mystery insoluble, unless we are willing to accept the Biblical explication of the problem. So understood, we do indeed yield credence to the supernatural; but then, in not yielding it, the alternative is a congeries of perplexities that are utterly offensive to rea son. - Taken on the ground of ordinary historical reasoning, the earliest literary remains of the Israelitish people give evidence of a far higher range of the moral and religious consciousness than is anywhere else presented in the circle of ancient literature. The inference hence derivable is not abated in its meaning by the anomalous and remarkable fact a fact which has no parallel that these writings, through a great extent of them, take a form of remonstrant antagonism toward the people toward the masses, and toward their princes and rulers. Those who take upon themselves the unwelcome and dangerous office of administering national rebuke, and of uttering denunciations, are not wont to attribute to their hearers more of intelligence and of right feeling than they find among them. We may believe, then, that there was, in fact, with these hearers that measure of mind and of virtue, the existence of which is fairly to be inferred from the language of these public censors, whose often-recurring phrases are of this order people a foolish nation : are ye." "Ye are a stiff-necked as were your fathers, so As was the country, so the people: -the country, - geographically, was embraced within the circuit of the East; nevertheless, in climate and productions it was European more than it was Asiatic. And so the people - Orientals by origin, by physiognomy, by usages, and yet in many points of mental constitution, and by its restless energy, it was more European than Oriental. Toward the trans-Euphratean races the ultraOrientals the Israelite showed a decisive contrariety or alienation: he refused his sympathies toward the sunrising; or, if in some instances amalgamation in that direction took place, the sure and speedy consequence was loss of nationality in every sense — physical, ritual, social. The captive tribes, when carried eastward, forgot their institutions-forgot their very name. But toward the people of the "Islands of the sea" -the European races the Jew, while maintaining a sullen antagonism, and continuing to rebut scorn with scorn, has done so in a manner that gave proof of his consciousness of what might be called-intellectual and moral consanguinity. By his sympathies, by his intellectual range, by his moral intensity, by his religious depth, and even by his tastes, the Jew has made good his claim to be numbered with those that constitute the commonwealth of western civilization. Intimately consorted with European nations, this integrate people has repelled commixture, as if it might serve as an alloy; but it has shown its quality, in this way, that if the Western nations, like the perfect metals, are fusible, and malleable, and ductile, and apt for all pur |