Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/150

134 Founded on the clear and simple dogma of Divine Unity, scattering naturalism and pantheism to the winds, by this phrase of marvellous precision: “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth;” possessing a Law, a Book, the repository of elevated moral teachings and lofty religious poetry, Judaism had an incontestible superiority, and at that time it might have seemed possible to predict that some day the world would worship as the Jews; that is, leave its ancient mythology for monotheism. An extraordinary movement which took place at that moment, in the bosom of Judaism itself, decided the victory. Side by side with these grand and incomparable portions, Judaism contained the principle of a narrow formalism and fanaticism, both exclusive and disdainful of the foreigner. This was the Pharisaical spirit; in later times it engendered the Talmudical spirit.