Page:The spirit of the Hebrew poetry 1861.djvu/140

 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 purposes of art, this race also—unlike the Oriental races—fully partakes of the same original qualities, and is apt also toward the highest civilization. Not so those races that are properly Oriental, and which, like the imperfect metals, show a sparkling surface, but are stereote in thought, in usages, in political structure—the same from the beginning to the end of millenniums. As the Jew of modern times is our equal, intellectually and morally, so has he been from the first;—such was the Israelite of the Exodus, and of the next following centuries.

Orientals—those who are such by destiny—have always, as now they do, surrendered themselves inertly to despotisms of vast geographical extent. Not so the Israelite, either of the remotest times, or of later ages. Often trampled upon and loaded with chains, he has never ceased to resent his bonds, or to vex and trouble his oppressor. Always, and notoriously, has he been a dangerous and turbulent subject. The Romans, great masters of the art of governing dependencies, learned at length this lesson—that the Jew must be indulged;—or, if not indulged, then exterminated. It is true that the kinsman of the Israelite—the Arab, has defied subjugation;—but he has done so as the roaming man