Page:Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages (1917).djvu/72

68 Do not provoke those who throw off Appearances of Justice, who are too strong to be compelled to the Reality

the ungenerous grant a favor, it is generally clogged with so many hard conditions as to render their pretended generosity of no avail. Under such circumstances, prudence commands us to submit to our hard fate, rather than to provoke fresh insults by useless resistance.

A short time after Trajan had mounted the throne of the Roman Empire, the Israelites obtained his permission to rebuild the holy temple at Jerusalem. The Samaritans no sooner heard of it than, with their usual malignity, they represented to the Emperor the danger of permitting the Jews to assemble again in their former metropolis, where, being once more united, they would soon shake off their allegiance. Trajan, unwilling to revoke the grant, yet fearful of the consequences, was at a loss how to proceed, when one of his counsellors suggested to him a very easy method of getting rid of his embarrassment. "Order them," said this artful adviser, "to build the intended temple on a different spot; or, to make it five cubits higher or lower than its former dimensions, and you may be sure their strict adherence to the letter of the law