Page:Meir Ezofovitch a novel, from the Polish of Eliza Orzeszko.djvu/333

Rh those near the door who tried to get a better view of the speaker. They did not see anything unusual. Behind the white table, quiet and grave, stood Meir Ezofovitch. He was much paler than usual and his eyes burned feverishly; his emotion was not the outcome of fear or doubt but of a powerful conviction and radiant hope. In his hands he held a few sheets of old yellow paper which he raised now and then, to show whence he took his words.

“Oh Israel!” he read out, in a clear and thrilling voice, “you are a great people! You were the first amongst nations who recognized one God in heaven and heard on earth amidst the roar of thunder and flashes of lightning those ten great commandments which like ten rocks helped you and other nations to climb towards the sun of perfection.

"Oh Israel! blind from his birth or blinded by malice must be the man who fails to recognize the greatness of your mission.

"Dry from its birth or dried by the searching breath that comes from the nether world must be the eye that does not shed a tear at the sight of your sufferings.

"Ill-fated he, who looking at you calls you contemptible. May the Lord pity him and forgive him, as he possesses not the balance in which are weighed a nation’s virtues and crimes, possesses not the wisdom which shows how pain and degradation produce sin.

"Israel! from you was born Moses, whose love was like the flaming bush. David with the golden harp; the beautiful Esther, weeping over the misery of her people. The Maccabees with their mighty swords came from