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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

JUDAISM
AND
THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

SOME CHAPTERS

JUDAISM
AND
THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

Rabbi LOUIS GROSSMANN, D.D.

NEW YORK AND LONDON
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
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COPYRIGHT BY
LOUIS GROSSMANN

Press of
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York

DEDICATED TO
REV. DR. I. M. WISE
PRESIDENT OF THE HEBREW UNION COLLEGE
AS A HUMBLE TRIBUTE
AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE
SEVENTIETH YEAR OF HIS NOBLE LIFE
BY HIS GRATEFUL PUPIL

PREFACE.
RELIGION is the truth that absorbs all other
truths. It is the highest synthesis, the science
of all sciences. All attainments are subservient
to the purposes of progressing culture. The
aggregate experiences of mankind are on the
line of the universal end to emancipate the
soul. In this sense all the activities of humanity
in their vast variety and multiform energies
are in the employ of religion. For religion is
the name of the final and much desired state,
when man will be sovereign of himself, as far
as he can, and master of the tools of his life.
I have attempted in the following pages to
sketch a few agreements which are already
noticeable between historical Judaism and the
present science of religion. I mean to do a
humble task, conscious of the magnitude of
the problem. I am content with suggesting
merely the thought, that the science of religion
is the science of Judaism.
I find it is time to say something with respect
to the science of religion from the Jewish
standpoint. For though Max Miiller, Am-
berly, Albert Kuhn, Otto Pfleiderer, Tylor,

viii Preface.
Lubbock, and Reville have done monumental
work, and are the worthy protagonists of a
thought which already has gathered to itself
many illustrious devotees, Jewish teachers have
been silent concerning it, and I thought that
something ought to be said by a Jew concern
ing this most promising and noblest work of
our age. In fact, I cannot hesitate admitting
that I think I see a profound revelation in this
new science — a revelation such as shall corrobo
rate and illustrate most notably the doctrines
of Judaism. It will find the keynote to bring
the dissonant chords of sectarian religions into
harmony. It will unfold the true character of
religion, and teach the sublimity of God by
pointing out anew and in the loftiest instance
how sublime His work is. It is my fervent
belief that the results of the science of religion
and the doctrines of Judaism overlap each
other, and so I have treated them in these
chapters. In this spirit I have essayed touching on
some points common to this science of religion
and to Judaism. I shall be content if I have
succeeded at least in recommending the subject
of these chapters to the earnest thought of
the reader and to men of greater learning and
of more efficient skill. L. GROSSMANN.
Detroit, October, 1888.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. — The Intuitive Character of Religion . i
II. — Spontaneous Religion ... 25
III. — The Universal Religion And The Sects 3g
IV. — Religion and Dogma . 57
V. — Prophecy . 73
VI. — Religious Books . go
VII. — The Standard of Morality . 105
VIII. — Theories of Ethics . . 115
IX. — The Progress of Knowledge . 123
X. — The History of Judaism . . .134
XI. — Foreign Elements in Judaism . 146
Index .... . . . 177

JUDAISM and the
SCIENCE OF RELIGION.

CHAPTER I.
THE INTUITIVE CHARACTER OF RELIGION.
To trace the history of religion to its first
epoch is more than merely matter-of-fact his
torical work. At least, so we are continually
told. And to analyze the mass of religious
teachings, as we have received them, and to dis
criminate between principles and precepts, an
incisive master is needed, who can discern the
constituent elements, and teach them discreetly
and with more reverence, because of his superior
knowledge. But when we consider that each
one of us, however humble his attainments are,
is held accountable for the quality of his re
ligion, for as our principles, so our life, and that
again determines the worth, or worthlessness, of
our career, such an investigation becomes a mat
ter of consideration for us. And when we add
to this, that it accords with our native dignity,
and that it is the ambition of our manhood, to
grow as wise as we can with regard to reli-

2 The Intuitive Character of Religioiz.
gious knowledge ; and also, that we have re
spect, more than for perfunctory acts of ours,
for such acts of ours in which lies evidence of
self-origination and self-conscious purpose, this
study of nature and of the contents of reli
gion, and of faith and piety, becomes serious.
To each one of us, then, such an investiga
tion is profitable. The results of it can but con
duce to clearing up much which now is mysteri
ous, and to making us respectful toward the
phenomena of nature, the significance of which
we cannot make out. It will also reconcile us
to certain aberrations of our fellow-men, with
that sort of forbearance and sympathy, with
which, being conscious of occasional errors
and constitutional foibles on our part, we wish
ourselves to be received.
The study of the science of religion makes
us both tolerant and hopeful.1 As soon as we
have, by a desire to know, come to look upon
religion as a sacred matter, in which all hu
man beings have a profound interest, and
upon the ways in which people believe to
worship the supreme being, as co-ordinate
1 " The nations are the introduction and preparation for the
expected Messianic time." — Jehuda Halevi,"Kusari," IV., 23,
" The teachings of the Nazarene, and also those of the
Arabian after him, are proper to pave the way for the Mes
siah, and subserve the purpose of the eventual serving of the
Lord distinctively by all mankind." — Maimonides, " Hil-
choth Melochim," XL, 11.

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 3
data in a large aggregate,1 our own individual
mode of contemplation, which we have of the
things, of the affairs, of the events, and of
their significance in this world, sinks down
into a level with the rest. We realize that, at
best, we are nothing exceptional, but follow a
rule of human action, a law of mind, a divine
intuition, by which all men feel out, as we do,
the spirit, according to the capacities of which
each one is possessed.
When we go into that large region, where
moves the soul of man, let us remember that
we have not to deal with vagaries, but with
thoughts and actions, the certainty and the
regularity of which may surprise us. We shall
see them appear in all places where the mind
of man was busy devising means of suste
nance, and even where, without care, savage
man was satisfied to be at the mercy of the
earth. The unsophisticated child of nature
may lack the words for confidence and for
hope.2 We shall see, however, in a state of
1 Remembering that the word Thora has a factitive sense, with
the intimation that the " pointing" out the way, the directing,
teaching, has a progression, the passage in " Pesachim," 68, b,
is suggestive of the thought, that the virtue of a doctrine is its
promise of a greater illumination : " If it were not for the
doctrine (Thora), heaven and earth would not be maintained."
2 When the Talmud says ' ' The aboriginal man (Adam
Ha-rishon) was a 'Min,' i. e. a dissenter," — (Sanhedrin, 38,
b), it means that the child of nature had no servility in his
temperament, and believed himself to be master.

4 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
primitive culture and in the aboriginal
condition, the demands of intuition plainly
declared ; and, as we know there is a religion
of civilization, we shall come to recognize re
ligious elements in the life of the wild man.1
1 Dr. David Kaufmann maintains : " The fact deserves
being mentioned, that the Jewish philosophers of religion do
not advert to the proof for the existence of God on the
ground of the consensus gentium, and because the concept of
God resides in every human being, either by intuition or by a
primeval inward revelation." — " Geschichte der Attributen-
lehre," Gotha, 1877, p. 2, note 4. See, however, the remarks
of Dr. Wise, in his " Judaism and Christianity: Their Agree
ments and Disagreements," Cincinnati, 1883, p. 11.. "Vox
populi vox dei is in Hebrew, Kol hammon ke-kol shaddai, and
Cicero's argument based on the common consent of all nations,
(argumentum a consensu gentium) must not be taken too
lightly . . . for all men know more than one man ; and
when we speak of human reason we mean the reason of hu
manity, or at least of that portion thereof which is capable of
reasoning." Even Nachmanides, in " Sechuth Adam Horishan," speaks
of a Sebara hoenushith Hayeshara, a healthful rationale of the
human mind. See Jellinek ed. " Derasha des Nachmanides,"
Leipzig, 1853.
See also Salomo ibn Gabirol, " Mibchar Hap'ninim " (in
Lowinsohn's German translation, Berlin, 1842, p. 12). Here
Gabirol speaks deprecatingly of philosophy. They (the phil
osophers) are not aware, he says, that their disputes are set
tled already before their disputations, by the Haskomo — com
mon consent. See Geiger's " Salomo ibn Gabirol," Leipzig,
1867, p. 87, and note 97. Abraham ibn Ezra says: "The
laws which are fundamental, exclusive of time, place, and
relation, are native inclinations, intuitive qualities, treasures,
as it were, put into our hands for safe-keeping. . . . These

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 5
Nay, we discover a wealth of religious ideas
where we supposed there was nothing but ani
mal living, barren of all mentality. When
our sestheticism and our finer feelings shall
abhor barbarous practices, our study leads us
to recognize that, even in this forlorn condi
tion, the native instinct has come to the sur
face, and we may find some kind of extenua
tion for them.
We deplore that a shockingly low degree of
humaneness led the Hindoo widow to immo
late herself on the pyre of her husband, or the
Fiji to drag his mother, strangling her at the
grave prepared for her ; but psychology will
reconcile us to these practices, and by intro
spection into their soul-life we shall know that,
at least, they are bona fide efforts of religious
exaltation, which are analogous to that high-
strained piety through which the Buddhist re
signs himself to a life of ascetic beatitude, and
which still produces hermits, our monks and
nuns, and those cases we read of in our crimi
nal news of the frightful extravagances of
fanatics.
modes of our being, men were conscious of previous to the
delivery of the Law through Moses, and there are many of
them. The ten commandments are such, except the Sabbath.
Moses merely taught them again." — " Yessod Mora," Sha'ar
V., 1. Jellinek mentions a kabbalistic work on Intuition, by
Chamai Gaon, " Auswahl Kabbalistischer Mystik," I. Heft,
Leipzig, 1853, p. 8.

6 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
There is one thing in which we must be
clear. It is apparently a truism. There is not
a religious system in the world which does not
allege teaching the doctrine, and I am bold to
say there is not one of them that, at some time
or other, does not forget it. It is : All men
have religion. I know that as soon as I state
this I incur tacitly blame on all sides. There
is an everlasting impugnment of the charges of
heresy. All the sects stand over against each
other with this cannon of heresy loaded
against all respective outsiders. So that, as a
matter of course, all are in the fire, all heretics.
Every phase of religious thought is against
every other phase. There is a continuous
assertion of the dogma : I am right, all the rest
of you are wrong. I am saved, all of you are
damned. Some, led by sympathy, felt and
said that, perhaps, behind the errors, as which
they were proclaimed, there might be some
truth. They declared that the all-assertive
power of the good is such, that in all the
guesses of the mass of human beings, there
lies an element, which it is fair to admit as
somewhat promising. But the power of
Church and of sects was quick to silence these,
not from a suspicion only of danger from them
to their own safety, but in accordance with
the nature of sectarianism.
But this very righteous indignation at the

The Intuitive Character of Religion. J
heterodox, and the loyal guarding of the cho
sen doctrine, is perhaps as good a testimony
as one wants to advert to the fact, which
those who should know, are bent on stifling,
and those who do know, are brought to grief
for. Every man forms his own religious con
ception, and within the precincts of each re
ligion, who can guarantee that the co-devo
tees to his faith have the identical concep
tions of it ? 1 Is not every one aware that,
owing to individuality, which defies all rules,
latitude must be tolerated. The organism
of church discipline must relent for its own
good sake, and forbear interfering with the
interpretations, which are as various as the
multitudinous refractions of the ray of light,
coming down from the great central fire in the
sky, and breaking up into a thousand colors.
The discreet leaders of religious movements
appreciated this. Such, however, as with more
enthusiasm than wisdom, like Calvin, attempt
ed to invade the precincts of individuality, and
1 If we look still more minutely, we see that no two men are
exactly alike in character, circumstances, and development,
and therefore that no two men can exhibit their religion in just
the same way, though they kneel at the same altar and pro
nounce the same creed. From the difference between men,
it follows that there must be as many different subjective con
ceptions of God, and forms of religion, as there are men and
women who think about God and apply their thoughts and
feelings to life. — Theodore Parker, " Discourse of Matters of
Religion," London, 1877, p. 27.

8 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
employed the irrational method of insisting
upon a pattern of religious conception, as the
workman uses his pattern to turn out work,
came to nought.
Even in the very beginning of history, when
the affairs of the. individual merge into the
communal interests, there is an unmistakable
evidence that the motive force of the life of
every member of the tribe has a centre, a spot,
which no amount of compulsion and no degree
of terror can touch. The cause of sustenance,
of self, and the most elusive and still no less
positive element of inward direction, induce
and regulate his actions, and these yield no
where, and at no point are they to be bent.
In fact, throughout the history of mankind,
there has been nothing which has been held
to with more obstinacy, and, I might even say,
with more heroism, than this very self-asser
tion and the power of individuality ; in bar
barian times and in epochs of regeneration, in
periods of intellectual decay, perhaps not much
less than in times in which the geniuses of
mankind lit up the world with new light. This
is the great gift of the deity to which every
man clings, whether he knows it to be a divine
thing or not ; for by it he is himself, by it he
contrasts himself with others, and comes to
see himself. By it he has a standard to check
himself off, as it were, as one amongst his fel-

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 9
low-men, nay even gauge himself with a more
ambitious standard.1 In individuality, and in
the progression of the fainter and gradually
strengthening power of self, lies the track for
the march of religion. Individuality is the
source, and individuality is also the end of re
ligion. From a glimmering self-consciousness,
in which acts are part and parcel of Ego, there
is an evolutionary process into a condition of
manliness, in which every thought and feeling
and act are determined and bear the stamp we
are pleased to put upon them, are ours, as
God can call all creation his, being the benefi
cent and munificent in one.2
This individuality at all periods must stand
for the best expression we have of religion ;
and if we have any respect for the false re
ligions, it is because there was in them this
element of individuality, at a time when to
1 " This passing beyond the empirical world implies in itself
a gauging of the things at hand, a contrasting them with the
eternal." — Dr. H. Steinthal, " Mythos und Religion," Berlin,
1870, p. 20, in Virchow und Holtzendorf's " Sammlung ge-
meinverstandlicher Vortrage," No. 97.
2 "My son, know thy soul, and thou shalt know thy crea
tor!" — Albo, " Ikkarim," III., 6. So also says Gazzali
(" Mos'ne Zedek," ed.. Goldenthal, Leipzig, 1839, p. 28):
" One of the wise men said : ' Know thy soul, and thou shalt
know thy God.' "
Isaac Arama in " Akedath Jitzchok," Shaar 68, exclaims:
"I am much surprised to find that he, who does not even
know of his soul, desires to perceive God ! "

io The Intuitive Character of Religion.
have had a correct and faultless religion
would have been nothing short of a miracle.
We are willing to admit that in so far as hon
est efforts were made with limited capacities
and meagre tools of intellect, it behooves us
to have respect even for the false concoctions
they called their religion, because we are sure
that that which set their intellects at work,
the spirit, which produced all this mental ac
tivity, which backed its ambitious undertaking,
was akin to the noblest mind that ever earned
the admiration and the lasting gratitude of
mankind.1 1 Let me call attention to a passage in Renan's new work,
" The History of the People of Israel," Boston, 1888 (English
translation), p. 3 : "We must assume primitive humanity to
have been very malevolent. The chief characteristics of man
for many centuries were craft, a refinement for cunning, and a
degree of lubricity, which, like that of the monkey, knew nei
ther times nor seasons. But amid this mass of shameless
satyrs there were some groups, which had the germs of bet
ter things in them. Love was in the course of time accom
panied by reverie. Slowly but surely a principle of authority
was established. The need for order created the hierarchy.
Force was met by imposture and by working upon the super
stitious fear of men ; sacerdotal offices were founded. Cer
tain men persuaded others that they were the necessary inter
mediaries between them and the divinity."
This is an account of the original history of religion,
which must be designated as truly Mandevilian. Notice that
even Mandeville did not posit a more aggravated base
ness as the source of religious practices. Mandeville holds
that virtue sprang in the first instance from the cunning of
rulers. They acted upon the feeling of vanity. Similarly

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 1 1
We analyze the mind of the primitive man.
We try to get behind the scenes of his mental
life ; to discover the motives which, because
of their peculiar character, we never fail to
recognize as aboriginal. This is an instance in
which primitive studies, apart from their in
trinsic interest, become instructive and disci
plinary. What gives to this first period in the
history of religion the characteristic which is
inalienable, and which perhaps no later period
possesses, as this one does ? It is that here
we have a time in which every thing is direct.
Every one himself communicated with God,
with nature, with spirit. The questions are
direct, the answers gathered direct. There is
a reaching out on the part of every inquiring
individual to satisfy a conscious, an emotional,
a peremptory question. Go through the his-
Renan speaks of original "lubricity" and subsequent priestly
imposition. In his " Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Vir
tue " Mandeville says : " Observing that none were either so
savage as not to be charmed with praise, or so despicable as
patiently to bear contempt, they justly concluded that flattery
must be the most powerful argument that could be used to
human creatures. Making use of this bewitching engine,
they extolled the excellency of our nature above other ani
mals. ... by the help of which we were capable of perform
ing the most noble achievements. Having, by this artful
flattery insinuated themselves into the hearts of men, they be
gan to instruct them in the notions of honor and shame, etc."
— Quoted in Lecky's " History of European Morals," New
York, 1882, Vol. I., p. 6.

1 2 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
tory of the Church and through many other
phases of religious history, can you take out
of the mass of believers one, who went to the
bosom of nature in such a childlike way?
Then there were herds that were driven in
mass by the dictatorial teaching of the leader.
Did any one dare to hide apart, going out in
the yearning of his burning soul, to drink from
the universal spring — he was a heretic. Man
in the pure state of naturalness could do what
the man of a civilized age cannot. Individual
ity must have free scope ; it is imperative ;
it is regal. There can be no gainsaying.
And now there has been a happy reversion.
Providence has at last freed individualism from
its unnatural prison ; there is much promise.
Now let prophets arise ! They have a glorious
theme. Man has been emancipated, and the
proclamation of freedom has been heard ; it
has penetrated everywhere. There is no nook
in the civilized world, but what some one has
heard the appeal that has been sent out broad
cast. The dry bones are beginning to move.
There is a regeneration ; but this time not by
priest, not by holy water or baresma. Do not
look for an intricate composite, for an ingeni
ous contrivance, by which all religions and all
sects can be adapted to one gauge? There is
no compromise, because it is the most simple;
in fact, up to our time there could have been

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 1 3
no such simple faith, because these times were
not simple. It is the most peaceful solution of
the perplexing matter. It is no antagonism ;
because the universal faith comes spontane
ously out of the heart of man. Let me lay it
down here without question, and in a plain
way, that the coming faith does not antagonize.
It does not ingratiate itself into the good graces
of any sect, and cares not for the immediate
benefit of dissemination. It has no opposition
to any faith. It states candidly the claims that
a man, by the fact of his manhood has an in
alienable possession.1 It guards these. It
stands for individuality, which is the solid
content of all religiousness, and it goes out to
preach the gospel of individuality, as the scien
tist undertakes to gain converts to the belief in
the unerring laws of nature. Science takes
out of the mass of human studies the depart
ment of religion, and makes that the paramouut
object of thought. He, who wants to know it
and make it his own, must come and attend.
Does any one say this is sacrilegious? He
who thinks it is sacrilegious to analyze, to study
religion and religious phenomena, goes farther
than we dare ever go.2 The pearl that sparkles
1 ' ' The act of converting a man is like having created him. "
— " Bereshith Rabba," 84.
* Rabbenu Nissim declares . ' ' There is no doubt of it that
it is proper that the things appertaining to natural phenomena
and their explanation should not be mysterious, but be under
stood and popularized." — " Derashoth " of R. Nissim, I., 5, 2.

14 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
on the sands of the ocean is no gift of God as
long as it lies there. The religion which God
has implanted in us is to be mined, as gold is
mined out of the bowels of the earth. The
faith that is found on the surface is not the
faith we want. We want it dug up, carefully
cleansed of all alloy, and then beaten with
blows from the hammer of our character, into
a thing of beauty and of use. Did God give us
any thing on earth, that putting our hands
lazily into our lap, we shall be the consumers?
Am I not at least to put the acid on it to test
its degree of fineness ? The times of recep
tivity, with enforced absence of self-assertion
are — God be thanked ! — passed ; and — God be
thanked ! — the time has come when we can go
to work earnestly and manfully in the serious
endeavor of self-enlightenment and self-im
provement, to find for ourselves what is religion ;
how it came ; what was its first form ; what is
its history; how did mankind progress in the
school of religious teachings. What is religion
in itself? Taking away the heap of accretion
which has gathered upon the venerable faiths
of antiquity, what is left ? And having obtained
the residual quantity, what is worthy the name
divine intuition, and destined to become in
fact the universal faith?
In the light of these considerations, by
which we grow more strongly convinced of

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 1 5
the fundamental unity of the human race,
every man being found to be endowed by
nature with an aptitude, with which he fashions
for himself the furniture of his mind and fits
up his spiritual home, we have yet one matter
to attend to. Strange to say, it is to vindicate
a truth against the author of it. It is interest
ing to notice an assertion made by Max
Miiller, and before stating it I bear witness
gratefully to the " epoch-making " services of
that profound scholar, who has given the first
impulse to the liberal and liberalizing study of
religions, and to whom is due the growing
habit of toleration and communion between
the faiths. He says, and it could scarcely be
expressed more concisely, that there were
different modes of aspects among the races,
and makes ethnical distinctions in matters
of religion. " The worship of the Aryan
race, characterized by one word, is a worship
of God in nature, appearing behind the gor
geous veil of nature, rather than as hidden be
hind the veil of the sanctuary of the human
heart." ' And " The worship of all the Se
mitic nations, characterized by one word, was
preeminently God in History, of God as affect
ing the destinies of individuals, and races, and
nations, rather than of God as wielding the
1 Max Miiller, "Science of Religion," New York, 1870,
pp. 62, 63.

1 6 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
powers of nature."1 But it is not evident in
what connection these two precise characteri
zations stand with the third quotation, which
I allow myself to transcribe: "The names of
the Semitic deities are mostly words expressive
of moral qualities ; they mean the Strong, the
Exalted, the Lord, the King ; and they grow
but seldom into divine personalities, definite in
their outward appearance, or easily to be rec
ognized by strongly marked features of a real
dramatic character. Hence many of the an
cient Semitic gods have a tendency to flow
together, and a transition from the worship of
many gods to the worship of one god required
no great effort. In the monotonous desert,
more particularly, the worship of single gods
glided away almost imperceptibly into the
worship of one God." 2
If it is said, on the one side, the data in the
formation of the idea of God are gathered
from nature, and on the other from history,
1 Ibid., p. 63.
2 Ibid., p. 63. Let me refer here to page 19, where the
dramatic aspect will be found to be not an insignificant factor
in matters of religion. The moral conduct of man is conven
tional and utilitarian, except for the display of man's un
questioning submissiveness to the stringent supremeness of
Providence. The presentiment is prominent in Judaism that
personal fate is coordinate with communal destiny and subordi
nate to the unfailing and persistent assertion of the universal
end.

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 17
the distinction is ingenious with respect to
the ethnological aspect in later stages of reli
gion among the two races respectively. It
seems, however, that we do not misapprehend
Max Miiller's method, in which he was incon-
testably the protagonist, that in dealing with
the connotation of names of gods and with
the modes of worship, he searches for essen
tials of human nature, and that he is inclined
to estimate the modifying influences of cir
cumstance, and race, and history, as merely
incidental. The premise is that natural dispo
sition is alike in all human beings, the consid
erations of ethnology are after-considerations.
I shall not contend here that to determine
the fundamentals of a religious conception
something more is needed than observation of
worship; though that is no small aid to the
religious scientist. But, admitting that the
kind of religious practices may be hints of the
drift of religious thought, the thought, at any
rate, is earlier, and has its own history, which
supervenes that of ritual and worship. In
fact, worship is an institution, while religion is
not. This is original. To distinguish, there
fore, between Aryan and Semitic religions is
legitimate only when we keep in mind that we
are treating of later phases, not of the origi
nal state of them, which was identical in all,
as human nature is identical in all men, with-

1 8 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
out regard to their race, or nationality, or place
of living singly.1
In addition to this,, the explanation which Max
Miiller offers needs to be investigated, in the
first place, of the transition of the henotheism
of the Semitic peoples, and of the merging of
the separate gods into one generic God, and
in the second place, of the moral character of
each of these former ones, and of their po
tency because of their dramatic character.
For it looks just to say that the gods of the
Phoenicians, Babylonians, and Jews, were,
in the main moral conceptions, and in this
sense the analysis is happy. But with respect
to the contrast drawn between Semitic views
of a predominating moral norm in destiny and
Aryan materialistic fatalism, it will be noted
that no finality has been stated. It must be
remembered that in fixing a relation between
1 " The distinction is not to be sought in the difference of the
objective aspect of a nature, but solely in the practical inter
est of every tribe to suppose that the divine being is specially
and exclusively connected with it. Only in this practical
sense of a special God of the separate tribes can we speak of
the ' mono-theistic instinct of the Semites.' But not in the
theoretic sense of a recognition of one universal world deity.
In fact, the Semites were originally farther removed from the
theoretic conception of a divine unity, which is inseparably
connected with its universality, than the Indo-Europeans, for
of a mono-theistic, speculative idea of God we find, among
these latter, nowhere any trace." — Otto Pfleiderer, " Religions -
philosophic," Berlin, 1884, Vol. II. , p. 120.

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 19
himself and his God, man transcends purely
moral and natural phenomena. The impres
sions gathered from the play of fate, i. e. of
moral and of natural law, coalesce. Weak and
transient man feels himself incommensurate
with the power, and helpless in the regime, of
both fate and nature. It is clear that by re
gime of nature is meant the execution of laws
in the world of matter, the experiences man
has come to value at the expense of personal
cost. So also it is plain what is meant by the
power of fate. The overwhelming demonstra
tion of " a power not ourselves " that condi
tions and rules us, and of which, after a lapse
of prolonged observation and experiences, we
form a conviction that it is just and " making
for righteousness."
Now, to hold these two experiences apart is
making a distinction which an inward feeling,
hard to define, tells us does not obtain ; but,
on the contrary, this intuition suggests the
presence of one grand intelligence. It is not
nature by itself, or fate as exemplified in his
tory by itself, that brings home the thought of
God, but that which they both jointly suggest.
It is the dramatic which I mean. There is a
dramatic expression in the peal of thunder, of
which the frail being is keen to be cognizant,
for he knows that the elements have their own
sovereign way. Often enough the thunder has

20 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
rolled threateningly above him, and he has
seen the brows of heaven knit, and that
sinister foreboding he knew. He saw the
spirit of heaven wrap himself in the dark
clouds, and the kind light disappear. All
prayers and sacrifices were then in vain. It is
the mise-en-scene of the superior law, in the
presence of which the reed-like hand of man
can avail nothing. It was a spectacle of force,
but not malevolent. Somehow, we reproach
ourselves, mentally, for our lack of trust. And
so also in the moral world the dramatic pre
sentation of Providence is perceptible every
hour and in every place. We have not yet
learned to divorce will of God from laws of
Providence. They are substantially one. It is
useless, under all circumstances unwise, and
it implies skepticism, hurrying to get out from
beneath the hand of Providence.
Mark what Reville says l : " What is a tra
gedy? It is the exhibition by the setting
forth of an event, or of a situation, or of a
human destiny, of a superior order of things,
overwhelming in its irresistible course our
petty calculations, our limited previsions, our
vulgar wisdom, advancing imperturbably
towards its goal without concerning itself with
these spiders' webs, and attaining its ends with
1 " Prolegomena to the History of Religions," Translated
by A. S. Squire. London, 1884, p. 70.

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 2 1
the fixity, the regularity, and the certainty of
a planetary movement. Take any, no matter
what, example in history or in art, of stirring
tragedy, and this definition will be justified."
" Most of those," he continues, " who are
the spectators of a tragic event or catastrophe
are unable clearly to describe the profound
impression which they receive from it. Their
imaginations, their consciences, are stirred ; but
they do not think of analyzing the significa
tion of this; they see only the terrible or the
grandiose side of tragic things. Nevertheless,
there are terrible things which we cannot call
tragic: the hurricane, for example, when it
passes over without causing great misfortunes;
and there are grand things, such as the sea
when calm, but which again are not tragic.
The terrible as such, and the grand as such,
are not enough to constitute the tragic element.
It is necessary that there should be, in addition
to these, the revelation of a law, or of a supe
rior direction of things. The ancient drama for
a long time confined itself to the external side
of tragedy, showing in it little more than fatal
ity. . . . But to-day, as in the old times, it
is really the manifestation of the superior law
of things which constitutes its value and its
true character. A powerful empire which falls,
undermined by internal vices long concealed
under brilliant appearances; a benefactor of

2 2 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
humanity who, at first received with acclama
tion, perishes, the victim of human wickedness ;
a catastrophe which engulfs the most legiti
mate hopes, the most tender affections, all that
recalls the inalienable sovereignty of the moral
order, or of the frailty of our best combined
plans, or the necessity of aspiring after eternal
spheres as the only region in which the supreme
sentence of destiny is pronounced ; — all this is
tragic, and deserves the name." " Man is led
by a secret tendency of his being to love the
tragic and to find pleasure in its contempla
tion." " This is because there is a mysterious
affinity between that mind and this superior
order of things, which tragedy reveals ; and
the more the human mind is developed, the
more it is sensible of this emotion which stirs
it to its depths."
Reville might extend the applicableness of
his fine analysis. This contemplation and
awe of the irresistible course of law, in every
department of phenomena, is the occasion
for the birth of the latent thought of the
deity, and upon it man throws himself in his
craving to deify. Let me emphasize this ad
ditional importance of Reville's thought. I
mean to say that the perception of sovereign
law is not, as according to Max Miiller, con
fined to the moral world alone, but that the
Aryan religions also, which he defines as simple

The Intuitive Character of Religion. 23
nature-worship, must be reduced to the same
original taste for the tragic.
With this as a guide we can attempt to ascer
tain why Max Miiller was constrained to say
that " the gods of the Aryan pantheon assume
an individuality so strongly marked and per
manent that, with the Aryans, a transition to
monotheism required a powerful struggle and
seldom took effect without iconoclastic revolu
tions or philosophical despair." The transition
from polytheism to monotheism must have
been slow, and must have involved an inevi
table contest, since it is not difficult to perceive
that the popular mind could not turn readily
from fearing and venerating catastrophes of
matter into heeding the less obvious instances
of an omniscient judicature, to turn from Tight
ness of action to righteousness of motives, from
legalism into ethics. It implies not two stages
of theology, but two different phases of culture.
On the whole, the distinctive doctrine of
Judaism is its rounded conception of divine
unity. With regard to this conception of unity,
the contrast between polytheism and mono
theism is not precise. Aside from the total
negation of the materiality of God's being,
there is characteristic to the Jewish conception
of God, that he is considered to be absolute, a
thought which makes an uncompromising con
trast between it and paganism. — There is a

24 The Intuitive Character of Religion.
step in the ascent of this thought, which
must be first well noticed, or else there is
misunderstanding. Monotheism, in the Jewish
sense, is more than oneness of God, more than
a protest against multiplicity of deities. It is
deified individualism1 — the highest soul in the
greatest magnitude, with the vastness of power,
with the infinity of efficiency, with the unap
proachable grandeur of exalted being, but also
with the infinite delicateness of virtue. The
Jewish God is Supreme, in the natural as well
as in the moral world. It may be convenient
to classify the aspects in which He becomes
manifest. But in Himself, He is the substance
of all life — nay, He is "The Life," pulsating in
the universe.
'Quoted by Kaufmann, "Die Attributenlehre," p. 24.
" We say God is one. We mean he is one, neither in the cate
gory of greatness, nor of the reverse ; one, not as to the fact
of creation, but in complete absoluteness, in which there is no
differentiation nor consistency of component parts ; one in
supremeness with no analogy. All this is equivalent to saying :
He is one, the first without beginning, the last without end,
the inducer of all events, the cause of all effects."—" Hali-
choth Kedem," p, 73 and Fiirst's " Orient," 1847, p. 620.

CHAPTER II.
SPONTANEOUS RELIGION.
In what I shall say now concerning the fun
damental doctrine of Judaism and concerning
that, which in the study of the history of reli
gion is found to be the essence of religion,
the essence of Judaism and the essence of
generic religion are identical. Let me ask the
reader to take two words as synonymous. I
mean, intuition and spontaneity. For I shall
treat them as such. I believe I am not stretch
ing the meaning of these two words too far.
Both are attributes of our soul-life, and both
imply that they are present at the inception of
mental activity. Intuition is an innate dispo
sition, spontaneity is that likewise, with an ad
ditional element. Spontaneity does not stop
at suggestion, but it also induces work. In the
conception of religion, a native disposition and
a direct effort on the line of it, are constitu
ents. It is incumbent on a religious man not
only to feel religious, but he must also not
delay the doing of the duty. The fact is, that
the suggestion of faith has an inner necessity,
which compels the act. We shall, therefore,
25

26 Spontaneous Religion.
forego etymology, and use intuition and spon
taneity for each other.
I wish to intimate that there is a way of con
ceiving religion, in which the interchange of
these terms will not only be granted as an in
dulgence, but perhaps be required. Let me
explain. It is agreed that whatever is imme
diate in the sphere of speculation is elemen
tary. The axioms, which need no proof, are
elementary ; every man is willing to admit
them as true without any further trouble. They
are immediate. They are the brick with which
the thinker builds up his speculative structure.
Let us attend to this subject more closely.
The barbarian infuses into his surroundings
the poetry that is in him ; he personifies, all
events become alive, and every thing in nature
is akin to him. You see how man, in his prim-
itivity, was no mean idealist. The whole
world was his kin1; the gross matter had for
him a spirit in it, by virtue of which it as dear
to him as the glorious day of summer was dear
to the cultured Emerson. Strange contrast ;
still so natural. The soul, which goes out into
the vast fields of the earth, to pick up stray
1 " God said : Let us make man ! With whom did he take
counsel ? Rabbi Josua says, in the name of R. Levi : He con-
suited heaven and earth. R. Samuel bar Nachmani says :
He consulted all the creations of every day." — "Bereshith
Rabba."

Spontaneous Religion. 27
hints of logic to discover God, is poor and pit
iable. But he, whose heart is open to the
bountiful inspiration which streams in from
creation, and who hails every atom of the uni
verse as his brother, fashioned like himself by
the hand of the Great Father,1 — I say such a
one, though he be aboriginal, stands upon a
high plane which, for this redeeming com
munion, I would like to call culture, if I
could. The earliest religion was a religion of per
sonified nature, and I have long noticed a
poetic strain, having its source in aspects of
natural beauty, which runs through all ancient
religions, for which I have looked with much
disappointment among the later phases of
belief,2 and surely in vain in the modern schools
of rationalism and of philosophic eclecticism.
They have crowded all poetry out of religion.
I do not know how far they wish to go in their
' " He gathered dust from the four ends of the world, red,
black, white, and yellow . . . Why from the four ends of the
world ? — If a man go from the east to the west, and die
there, the earth shall not be able to say : ' Thou art not of
mine, go to the place where thou wast created.' Every spot
on which man is, is kin to his body and to it he returns." —
" Bereshith Rabba.'7
2 Even into practical Judaism an almost metaphysical name
of God came to be current; vid. "Midrash Rabba," 117.
"Why do they call God " Mokom " (Place, or Space)?
because He is the Space of the world, but the world does not
encompass him."

28 Spontaneous Religion,
rationalism ; but I care not to what else they
have recourse to reconstruct upon a logical
basis the principles of conduct, they must not
neglect the inherent love of man for the
poetic. Speaking of poetry in religion I do
not mean the artificial coordination of syllables
and sounds — an art beautiful in itself, some
times noble, but never a natural intuition.
We want rather symmetry of thoughts and of
sentiments.1 I speak not of verbal poets, nor
of artistic fancy, which is charming, but as far
from poetry in the wide sense as the repeated
striking of the key-note is to the swelling and
resonant and sweetly responsive song of the
nightingale in the branches in the silence of
the night.
There is suggestiveness in nature, and the
first men felt it. The open and ingenuous face
and the clear lisping of the child are evidences
of a pure soul-life and kinship with God's
world. On this account the religions of an
tiquity are attractive, because they bring to us
the record of a time, when the life of a man was
unreserved, when left to himself, the intuitive
sense led him to the spring of truth as directly
as the birds, after the winter is gone, find their
home when the air is clearing, the grass is
1 Therefore, by the way, Semitic poetry, notwithstanding its
poverty as to versification and prosody, is the best type of
poetry we have.

Spontaneous Religion. 29
again stirring, and the little brooklet is mur
muring again in the meadow.
It is hard for us now to realize how strong
the imagination can be, so much has our native
instinct been dulled. Now the glorious spirit
leaps about before our eyes in thousand glow
ing colors, his voice laughs in myriads of merry
sounds almost in vain.
But let us once more imagine the position
the primitive man was in in this eventful world ;
we shall perceive in an approximate way that
there were temptations for his fancy to roam,
and that his unbounded and youthful imagina
tion saw the deity even where we do not suspect.
They say man feared the gods and therefore
worshipped them to appease their wrath. But
they are wide of the mark. The child is not
afraid of his parents, in fact the unsuspecting
child has no fears whatever; should the child-
man have feared ? He felt insecure at night
when the sun had sunk and darkness had set in.
His miserable tent was exposed to the prowling
beasts. But when the morning came, and in
the east the clouds became gilded, and the sky
grew bright, and the sun rising, slowly drove
the clouds before him, did he not rejoice ; and
did he not forget the night ? An immature
child takes every thing seriously, and rarely has
sense for humor. In our youth we are un
compromisingly serious, and so I am bold to

30 Spontaneous Religion.
say, the original man was. He accepted all
experiences in the sober spirit of fatality. The
night was an evil; but the day was joy. The
thunder was Satan, who dashed the clouds down
from the sky, pouring a flood upon his frail
tent ; but the light in the heaven was kind,
and kissed away the clouds, and brought the
plants out of the soil, and breathed fresh red
life on fruit. To him the birds sang their an
thems and languishingly bade adieu at the
break of the dark, when he dipped down into
the underworld and went out of sight.
We have not as vivid a conception as the
man in the early day had of the display of
power, when in the seasons, as they alter
nated, the powers of nature swept down streams
of water and extinguished the sun, which
henceforward shone like a mouldering coal,
growing pale and pallid ; when the wind swept
across the plains and made them shiver ; when,
at the resuscitation of the sun, he soon regained
his strength, and shot down hot arrows, burn
ing the parched fields. The barbarian was
witness to this play of Good and Evil. The
man was a great questioner, like our children
of to-day, who, when once their curiosity is a-
roused, have many questions to ask. But he
asked and answered himself. There was the
work of Providence ; but what did he know of
Providence? We, in our dry, philosophic

Spontaneous Religion. 31
habit, hold to that word, and for want of a
more suggestive name use that. But he
wanted persons, not names. He wanted a
soul in the universe, not an abstraction. And
so he made himself a Father in Heaven — a
name which we to-day have not improved
upon.1 The sun is the good shepherd, who, at
every rising early in the morning drives the
cows, the clouds, to the pasture. The thunder
is the heavy hammer which the hero of the
heavens swings to smite the overbearing sun
of the noon-day. The waves, throwing them
selves tumultuously in the sea, are the steeds,
which wantonly cast up their heads and backs,
and are lashed into obedience by Neptune and
Okeanos. These features of poetry and of personifica
tion in the primitive faith might be appre-
1 " Thousands of years have passed since the Aryan nations
separated to travel to the north and the south, the west and
the east ; they have each formed their languages, they have
each founded empires and philosophies, they have each built
temples and razed them to the ground ; they have all grown
older, and, it may be, wiser and better ; but when they search
for a name for what is exalted and yet most dear to every one
of us, when they wished to express both awe and love, the in
finite and the finite, they can but do what their old fathers
did, when gazing up to the eternal sky and feeling the pres
ence of a Being as far as far, and as near as near, can be ;
they can but combine the self-same words and utter once more
the primeval Aryan prayer, Heaven-Father, in that form which
will endure forever 'Our Father which art in Heaven.'" —
Max Miiller : " Science of Religion," p. 72.

32 Spontaneous Religion.
hended as having their source in one bent of
human nature. That properly they have. But
there is a difference between poetry and per
sonification. The one is a disposition, the
other is more. The former glides easily into
the latter. Though it is an earlier fact of ex
perience to say God is like a father, it is trans
formed into a conception that he is the Father
actually in a later stage. It is after a con
sciousness of an intimate relationship between
ourselves and God that we turn our eyes up
ward into the clear blue of heaven, spread out
our hands, and cry: "Our Father!" In re
ligious practice the child-man saw that father,
heard him. There was no delusion, no con
nivance in his heart, that, though pleasing,
these fine words and visions were nothing but
words and visions after all. They were real and
serious. The entire mental world, every thing,
was taken at first hand in unquestioned verity.
Now, in the beginning of the history of reli
gion (and I am going backward very far into
the primitive times, where records fail us) all
psychical phenomena were reflex, similar with
reference to their mode of origination to the
mechanical contraction of the biceps after
external irritation ; they were uncalculated,
simple, immediate effects of causes, which
carried in themselves the provocations of ap
propriate actions.

Spontaneous Religion. 33
How do we move ? How do we see? Do I
think and precalculate every time Imove my
hand or my foot? Do I know, every time I
see, of the mechanical work done, that I am
putting my eye into a proper position, so that
the rays of light can impinge on my retina
and my optic nerve can carry the sensation to
the brain ? Nay, do not these events take
place without consulting me at all, and I must
see, whether I will or not ? I touch by accident
a burning coal ; I pull back my hand. I have
not thought of the matter ; I have pulled back
my hand even before I was aware of the
danger. The aboriginal man did not speculate; he
was happily ignorant of complicated systems,
of dogmas and doctrines. He had no theory of
nature ; he was, in fact, in every respect, bound
up with nature. Thousands of experiences and
events came upon him as so many occasions,
demanding him to act. He led a sort of intui-
tfve life, and his activities were all spontane
ous. He was a child of nature, that knew not
of obligations and still was held down to the
laws which he thought he could transcend.
His knowledge was only an aggregate of de
tails, presenting themselves singly in a detached
manner from day to day. He had no science,
not the faintest suggestion of a generalization
other than that which his sensuous experience_

34 Spontaneous Religion.
would suggest as profitable and harmless.
Experience was reflexive ; in these his mind
responded promptly at the incentive of a
sensation. It was a regular life. Despite cru
dities and barbarities, it was a life such as was
led according to the dictates of an organic
constitution, and this is normal.
But an ideal which I like to indulge in, is that
the final religion, too, will be marked by this
feature, the ennobled conduct will be sponta
neous, at any rate that we are approximating to
this soul condition. Culture refines, spiritual
izes. If the health of body conditions the
health of mind, why should the soul be de
barred from reciprocating at some time? The
virtues often sustain our physical life. What
self-subjugation can do by repression is ac
complished gracefully and to more lasting
good by the slower effect of moral discipline.
There is to every observing person a charm in
the offer of sympathy ; the worth of it lies not
in the assistance rendered, but in the fact that
it came without solicitation or appeal, that it
was spontaneous. The child's confidence in
the first best man is fascinating. The manner
in which it confides its little affairs is a charm
ing simplicity, which we fain would have chil
dren keep for their maturer years. But, when
these maturer years come, if all this has
not been outgrown, we look eagerly for the

Spontaneous Religion. 35
manifestation of heartiness. Still it can be seen
sometimes in old people who have happily
preserved their good nature despite bitter ex
perience, and there are some who have main
tained a sovereign freedom in manhood. These
might be observed with benefit if we wish to
conceive what is promised the good man of
the future will be.
Experience disciplines, and we are chast
ened organically as well as ethically. What
accumulation of discipline and chastening is
likely to accrue to us in the long history of
culture ! Here, then, is the ideal of the heir
of the prolonged discipline, historical, many-
sided, and universal. He will respond to
worthy suggestions, as the fibres of the violin
respond to the vibration of a note of the
strings, and there will be consonance with the
outer world, which he will cultivate, such as
poets dream of. The deed will follow the ef
ficient thought, the act will be the associate
of the sentiment. True thought, feeling,
and deed will be one. There will be a spon
taneity in all departments of human activ
ity, and it will not be the labored result
of cogitation and of calculation, but each
righteous man, being inured through his en
tire being to the conception and creation of
worthy doings, will be transformed into a
spiritualized organism, as it were, where there

36 Spontaneous Religion.
shall be a regular and a conscious and on all
sides self-realizing manhood.1 He will know
that there can be no a stop at the acquisition
of merely formal truth, and that nothing is
complete till the thought is transformed into
deed. Then the truth shall be understood, which
now is simply a glimmering ideal, that desiring
the good has no merit, and none must content
themselves with simple desire ; but rather that
the thought, barren of action, is inane and
worthless, even though it plead its intrinsic
worth ever so much. The man of the future
will know the good thought can never be bar
ren, but has its own vitality and energy, which
urge it to the carrying out of it. There will be
an immediateness between the intuition and
the motive. There will be no interval between
them. All right action will be spontaneous and
the religious man shall set into scene his relig
ious life, striving to attain to organic certainty,
such as creation now is pursuing in the broad
realm of being.2 There will be thus in every
' Frederic Harrison, in a brilliant rejoinder to Herbert
Spencer's Euhemerism, says: "The final religion of en
lightened man is the systematized and scientific form of the
spontaneous religion of natural man." — "The Ghost of Re
ligion " in " Nature and Reality of Religion : A Controversy,"
p. 47.
2 In " Berachoth," 10, a, an analogy is drawn between God
and the human soul, which is an evidence of the conception of
the primitive purity of man's nature : " As God fills the uni
verse, so the soul fills the body of man. As God maintains

Spontaneous Religion. 37
man of such a robust type a microcosm,1 a small
world, sufficient in itself, and will exemplify the
divine thought as it never before was exempli
fied, law in its highest characterization, the di
vine thought continuously productive, a glor
ious seed that shall thrive, and there will be
little to hinder its growth and unfolding,
save the will of God.
The history of the religious life of mankind
begins and ends with spontaneousness. But the
first chapter is sensuous spontaneity, the imme
diate action of the senses, rising slowly out of
the grossness into the spiritual. But out of the
chrysalis another being is arising with the same
body, but transformed, passing through the
various stages of transformation into a condi-
the universe, so the soul maintains the body. As God is pure,
so the soul is pure. As God resides in the centre of the world,
so also the soul is the innermost principle of human life.
How proper then, that the soul, similar to the divine soul in
these five excellencies, shall adore it : ' Praise, O my soul,
the Lord ! ' "
From this passage, of which many similar ones could be
cited, also this can be gathered : Jewish theology does not
wish to do away with natural religion. Nay, it makes it its
own. The native instinct is acknowledged as divine, and the
physical life of man is made correlative to the divine. An
imism in the highest degree and theology are harmonized in
Judaism. 1 This thought Salomo ibn Gabirol anticipated long ago.
See his " Fons Vitse," § 9, Man is an " Olam Katon." — Cf.
Dr. B. Beer, in Frankel, Monatsschrift fiir Geschichte tt.
Wissenchaft des Judenthums, 1854, p. 249.

38 Spontaneous Religion.
tion in which the new living is no more simply
the product of organism. Dependent upon and
having its possibilities circumscribed by it, but
transcending the realm of body, it will have a
more spiritualized character. Muscles and
blood and brain and nerves are deprived of their
office as informers and advisers, and are pressed
into service to do that which the emancipated
spirit commands by its sovereign will.

CHAPTER III.
THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION AND
THE SECTS.
Speaking conventionally we look for acts and
not for intentions. The standard by which the
state adjudges citizens has had mischievous imi
tation. The judgments of the practical and of
the sentimental diverge. The good citizen is
not implicitly entitled to credit for religious
ness ; for all common purposes the community
is content with a temperament which simply
refrains from evil doings and makes no effort
to induce the meritorious to voluntary
righteousness. The civil and economic life
is detective besides being protective ; but
detective in the derogatory sense of the word.
The state cares not to award honor to the law-
abiding, but much more to visit the law-break
ers with the weight of its corrective authority.
Religion cannot carry out its condemnation as
severely, but awards praise more effectively.
Religion has no means of executing its judg
ments. It lacks disciplinary and executive
power. Religion once had it, and that time of
the union of church and state was very sad.
39

40 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
Historians who narrate it would be glad to
slur it over. It has been found better to dis
arm religion of administrative power. Since
then religions are less of a disturbing element.
We feel now that there is something besides
court and legislature that we are responsible
to. We owe allegiance to our sect. It seems
as if sectarian dictation were exerting no mean
strength, and to many it is a heavy cudgel.
Nay, most people have grown rather fond of
following it.
Sects are the diverse attempts of the human
mind to solve the problems of being. In a
common way, we might say, sects are so many
classes into which humanity has divided itself.
The most matured minds and some who are
still worrying along with the elementaries, are
learning the lessons of religion. Providence
has wisely graded the lessons ; but in the end
the knowledge will be the same. Sects are pro
pedeutic. The one, in his crude way, tries his
stunted brain on the problems so mysterious
and impenetrable. Sir Samuel Baker asked
Commoro, chief of the Latooki : " Have you
no belief in the future existence after death?"
"Existence after death," says the poor fellow,
"how can that be? Can a dead man get out
of his grave, unless we dig him out ?"
"Do you not know," persists the inquisitive
and dogmatizing traveller, "do you not know

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 4 1
that there is a spirit within you more than
flesh ; do you not dream and wander in thought
to distant places in your sleep, nevertheless
your body rests in one spot. How do you ac
count for this ? " Commoro: " Well, how do
you account for it? It is a thing I cannot un-
stand ; it occurs to me every night." He brings
him the message of St. Paul ; he tells him of the
decaying seed, and how it will rise againin all the
glory of its array. And the child-man answers :
" Exactly so, that I understand. But the
original grain does not rise again ; it rots, like
the dead man, and is ended. The fruit pro
duced is not the same grain that we buried,
but the production of that grain. But my
children grow up like the fruit of the grain." '
Perhaps some of us would answer no different
ly ; still there is a long stretch of civilization
between the savage and the present state of
culture. It stands in the way of a proper and just
conception of religion to deny that the savage
has a mind, latent with rational suggestions ;
to say that his guesses at the universal truth,
1 Quoted in Herbert Spencer, " Ecclesiastical Institutions,"
Pt. VI. of " Principles of Sociology," p. 672.
Incidentally let us cite analogous arguments of the Talmud,
" Kethuboth," 67 ; " Sanhedrin," 90, b.; " Sabbath," 30, b.
For another curious instance of primitive philosophy of reli
gion, see Sir John Lubbock, "Origin of Civilization," New
York, 1870, p. 200.

42 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
which he made in his day, with his intellectual
means, as we make them in our way, are mean
ingless babble. It certainly is improper to say
that his practices, which he indulged in fervent
ly, were criminal, simply because we do not un
derstand them, and because they have not our
sympathy. The religion of the savage suffices
for the purposes of his life, the activity of
which is at any rate circumscribed. He is with
held from doing mischief to his companions by
considerations, and it is wrong to reprehend
them dogmatically. They are, notwithstand
ing their crudeness and heterodoxy, valid
enough to bring into the tribe a certain sense
of order and mutual understanding, even, of
compact and of fraternity. Still such are our
received notions, that we may be aware of the
fact that he often has a high regard for a promise
given, and he may thus give evidence of an in
tuitive humaneness, which is undisguised, being
the voice of purity, a divine soul-life. Still
this all goes for naught. The least, however,
we can say for it, and we have said a great
truth: "The religion cannot rise above the
state of the votary." '
Max Miiller, prophetic of the glorious future
to dawn for mankind, and appreciative of all
phases of religious history declares, that
1 Emerson, " Conduct of Life," Essay on Worship, Works,
Boston, 1885, Vol. VI.. p. 196.

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 43
" there never has been any religion consisting
exclusively of the pure and simple tenets of
natural religion,"1 and that "the tenets of
natural religion, though by themselves they
never constituted a real historical religion, sup
plied the only ground on which revealed
religion can stand; the only soil where it can
strike root, and from which it can receive nour
ishment and life."2 By it he means more of
the natural disposition of the religious faculty
more than a preexistent fund of religion, which
is self-sufficient. He has in mind a demonstrable
fact that sects have validity in so far only as
they are in harmony with and corroborate, not
an a priori, primeval, and revealed dispensa
tion, but an intuition, which, being an organic
capacity, permeates and seeks its coordinate,
and flies from what it feels to be inherently
hostile. 1 " Science of Religion," p. 44.
' Ibid., p. 48.
In Sluczki's edition of " Choboth Haleboboth," by Bachja
ibn Pakudah, B. Goldberg gives a definition of "Emunah,"
which is extensively employed by the Jewish philosophers.
" Glauben " conveys a meaning different from that of reli
gion, and that again is different from faith, (p. xi.) Religion
suggests authority, by the criteria of truth ; Glauben, belief
implies consultation of reason without questioning special
revelation ; faith, renunciation of personal choice, along with
trust in a benevolent power ; here authority of dispensation
is external, and the suggestive aspect is predominantly emo
tional. " Emunah" is the first.

44 The Universal Religio7i and the Sects.
' ' Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ;
The soul, that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home." '
The rejection of a religion and the dispar
agement of it by votaries of another, takes
place within limited capacities. The univer
sahst despises nothing and finds causes for the
being of every phenomenon. There is nothing
concerning which he will moralize and declare
that it was unhappy, or a failure. For, in the
large area that he surveys, in which all indus-
1 Wordsworth. — This thought of a preexistent state, which
in philosophy might be termed original mode of soul-being, is
found often in the Talmud.
The Talmud holds "that there is a separate heaven for the
souls, before they begin their earthly career." — " Chagiga,"
12, b. "The soul brings from its pre-natal abode a dower of
conceptions, whose original clearness, however, is lost at the
entrance into bodily life." — "Nidda," 31, a. — "When the
child is born and enters life, an angel strikes it on its mouth,
so that it becomes oblivious of its former knowledge." —
Ibid. "The soul has previously known all which it experiences
in this life in a previous existence ; the sensuous impressions
are merely the occasions or opportunities by which the soul is
reminded of these forgotten former experiences." Cf. Moses
Mendelssohn, " Preisschrift iiber die Evidenz in metaphysi-
schen Wissenschaften," Schriften, Leipzig, 1843, Band II. , F.
10. This may be occasionalism, not unlike that of Leibnitz.

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 45
trial as well as intellectual efforts are included,
he is aware of the well-established fact that
failures are almost intentional, as much as it is
proper and well-intended that the little child
should stumble and keep on falling until the
chubby body has learned to keep its equilibrium.
The intellectual immaturity of mankind must
be exercised and taught in mental stumbling
that it shall prepare the growing intellect to
subsist on its strength, and trust in its mental
poise.1 And thus it does not surprise us to
hear that the Persians denounce and stigmatize
the Buddhists, and these again vice versa. The
former, worshipping Ahura, the light, the
Spirit of the Good, the joy-bearing sun, with
the express declaration that they antagonize,
nay spurn the teaching of Boddhisatva, it is
natural and in the spirit of sectarianism a
justifiable policy on the part of the Buddhists
to cry horror at the innovators of their faith.
Ahura was to them the Evil, the bearer of
'An interesting illustration is the remark made by R.
Jaabez of Spain. He thanks God that the Jews have been put
into the midst of Christians (with full knowledge of the bitter
treatment they received at their hands). Christians, he says,
believe in the creation of the world by God, in the examplars of
the prophets, in the divine authorship of the Bible, in future
recompense in heaven and hell, and in the resurrection of the
dead. This fact brings the Christians nearer to Judaism than
are the heathens. Besides, if the Jews had been surrounded
by sensualheathens, there might have been inducement offered
to waver. — " Ma'amar Ho-achduth," 3.

46 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
plague and of death, the adversary of men and
of the Devas. The Persians were not slow to
return the compliment. Up to this day it is a
pious belief amongst them that the Devas, like
goblins and spectres, haunt the abodes of men,
lurking to do mischief and harm.1
Again, while in one sense there obtains an
irreconcilable enmity between religions, there
sometimes occurs a strange toleration which,
however, is not indicative of any broader com
prehension of the import of religion. The Chris
tians of the first century, for instance, though
Christianity must have appeared undisguisedly
as a protest against the prevailing polytheism,
were received comparatively well. But the
explanation is, that it was the policy of the
bishops, even of some of the Church fathers, to
make concessions to the state religion, and it
happened not infrequently that an emperor
was admitted into the hybrid pantheon. The
Christians attended pagan services almost as
much as the synagogues. Among patristic
curiosities the bland philosophy is not a little
interesting, by which the early Fathers of the
Church strove to prove that the gods of Rome
and of Greece were real beings, existing as
much as the Son of God, reserving the dis-
'"Yasna," XXX., 5 (Gatha Ahunavaiti) in Haug's" Es
says on the Parsees," London, 1884, p. 150; also/, c, p.
287, ff.

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 47
distinction, of course, that these are inferior and
constrained to yield precedence to the heir pre
sumptive. You see orthodoxy is here playing
with fire.
Now, there is a primitive revelation. Let
me remark that by primitive revelation I mean,
not the revelation on Mt. Sinai, and by primi
tive tradition, of which we shall have occasion
to speak later on, is not meant the Biblical
tradition. Both are much earlier, in fact the
earliest possible, at the very beginning of
things, when the first man was fashioned by
hand of Providence. Says Dr. Wise :1 " Knowl
edge precedes science and cognition is prior to
philosophy. Mankind knows vastly more than
science and philosophy have utilized and sys
tematized . . . The entire material of philoso
phy in all its disciplines consists after all of the
spontaneous productions of the mind. Philoso
phy discovered the form, it invented not the
substance of its contents." Again: "The
natural man is the transition from the lowest to
the highest degree of self-consciousness and
morality in the man of culture and civilization,
the man of history. It is all one first cause,
developing gradually its various functions in
the progression of evolutions. It is all self-
conscious in the first cause to become again
1 Dr. I. M. Wise "Cosmic God," Cincinnati, 1876, p. 150 ;
and compare " Agreements and Disagreements," p. 14.

48 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
self-conscious in man. It is also the philo
sophical foundation of moral theology, without
ignoring one fact of science." l In this primi
tive revelation we find the guarantee of that
faith, which bears in its lap, seed like, the crea
tions of peace and of good will.1
It is well known that it is maintained with
respect to this original dispensation, by those,
who conceive it to have taken place in an
actual, tutorial communication, that God has
withdrawn this gift now. He once gave it, but
owing to the sinfulness of man, he has deprived
mankind of it. The question naturally suggests
itself, of what use was it then ? And a useless
thing like that, inefficient to accomplish the
purpose, for which it was intended, was it
divine? And can God proceed in a manner,
which in a pedagogue we would find fault
with ? Mankind erred, let us say. It was a
' Salomo ibn Gabirol says : " The native rationality of man
is related to faith as the head is related to the body. With the
absence of the one, the other is made impossible." — " Mibchar
Hap'ninim," No. 32. (Engl, translation by Rev. D. A. Asher,
London, 1859.) Also : "A man's faith is perfect then only
when his reason is perfect." — L. c, No. 23.
See Philippsohn, " Israelitische Religionslehre, Leipzig,
1867, I., p. 35. The Jewish dispensation demands investiga
tion before acceptance. Its principles should be tested by
every one, both by reason and by considerations of affinities
and sympathy. — Cf. Saadja, " Emunoth Wedeoth," § 17;
Maimonides, "More Nebuchim," I., 50; II., 40; Albo,
"Ikkarim," Parti.

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 49
natural error, for mankind was ignorant, at any
rate is heir to foibles, and this eternity of grop
ing is its punishment ! Scarcely commensur
ate, hardly just ! Still such a man as Gladstone
holds to the doctrine with tenacity, and men of
the Huxley and Max Miiller type have coped
with him in vain.
It is a fascination of pessimism. Because
some are listless, or (we are ready to say) most
people are not inured to the appreciation of
the lofty doctrines of religion, as ideally con
ceived, or as theologically maintained, faith is a
make-shift, a refuge, a compromise, at best, for
the ills of life. It is a straw, thrown out into
our eventful career to save us ; but to those
who reach out for it with uncertain hands,
and have not learned the authorized manner of
seizing hold of it, belief and faith may turn to
be a thin reed, that pierces their hands. To find
a logical basis for a religion of disparagement
is difficult. The seeming listlessness of the
mass of people to the holier conceptions is ex
plained by the general status of their intellectu
ality. There is a direct ratio between culture
and religion, just as there is between culture
and optimism. By as much as we attain to en
larged knowledge, by so much we dismiss the
suspicion that there is any thing arbitrary in the
government of the universe. The truly cultured,
as well as the truly righteous, are confident.

50 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
The primitive child of the steppes of Africa
and of the luxuriant wilds of the islands of the
Pacific has a similar and not much more dis
heartening fancy. The great unseen spirit
once moved across the heavens and set a great
heap of fir brush into the sky, lit it with his
everlastingly burning torch, and swept forever
out of sight of the tribe, and ever since the
sun shines and glows and burns the parched
fields. Here is Gladstone's primitive com
munication in its original and more natural
instance. As here the savage supposes himself
grievously abandoned, so Gladstone feels con
strained to have unending sympathy and com
miseration for orphaned humanity which has
been set afloat in the sea of life, without
compass, without guide, to drift, destined to
sink! Is it true ? Can it be true that in this world
in which, out of every blade of grass, in the
complex of existences, in the harmony of
powers, in the peace of the spiritual life of
humanity, in the grand concerns by which
these shall be perpetuated, viz., by the recog
nition and enhancement of them through
man's religious conduct, there all at once could
loom up a plaguing God ? The whole world
is replete with evidence that it is permeated
with the spirit of a benevolent God. Is it
possible that mankind is bound to be forever

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 5 1
dull to the thousand voices, which from every
atom of created things declare to him who will
listen the wisdom and the love of God ? Does
it not behoove us to have sympathy with the
tardy children, and look more kindly on their
tentative faith as a striving after the better,
and upon their puerile solution of mysteries as
efforts of mind which are promising and as
earnest as are our own ?
Primitive revelation ! It is a good doctrine.
Break off the bands ; let the sweetness of it
flow. God has revealed himself, and, like the
sleepers that waken out of their slumber, one
human being wakes up after another, and sees
the morning dawn. That moment of awaken
ing is the moment of revelation. It came to
some in days gone by ; it arrives to some now.
I can well understand how religion originates.
I notice the struggles of men who move in
their respective spheres of life and engage in
their work with such an ardent spirit, that they
might be free from reprehension. I notice the
noble yearning of men to attain gradually to a
state in which there shall be serene content
ment. And in this continuous effort for the
noble and pure, I think I see a whole cycle of
revelation, a never-ending series of divine in
struction, which shall have its most felicitous
climax. This is the hopefulness of religion ;
this is the faith, the inspiration that will once

5 2 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
conquer the world. If there has been listless-
ness, it was because the holiest offices of
religion were delegated to one — that he per
formed them for the many. Out of the mass let
the individuals rise ! From conventionalities,
which prolonged habits of representativeness
have engendered, let each one step out in the
panoply of his individuality ! Let each for
himself take up the task of right doing ! And
over this process of individualization the liber
ating spirit hovers, disengaging from the mind
of men the falsehoods, which of necessity go
along with imcomplete culture, and giving
grand exposition of the divine powers in man.
This is primitive revelation, primitive as is the
soul of man, original as is his duty of labor, that
in return for the work of his hands he gathers
his food out of the lap of Providence.
But there is another fancy which stands in
the way of understanding what is meant by
religion. It is said : " This is the age of iron ;
the age of gold is gone. The happy time of
innocence is no more ; we live in the midst of
a depraved mankind that has forgotten the
command of God, and has not yet learned to
know him. Religion, pure religion, once was,
but you will never see it again." Reville re
marks1 very pertinently that this reminds him
of the anecdote concerning good aged St.
1 "Prolegomena to the History of Religions," p. 59.

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 53
Cyprian, who wailed over the approaching end
of the world. The fruits diminished in bloom ;
they had no longer the flavor they once had,
and which in his younger years he had relished
so much. Alas ! poor St. Cyprian had lost his
teeth, his palate was worn, and his eyes were
failing. Deplorable delusion this, to imagine
the freshness is gone out of life when a little
stimulus to our own eyes and more cheerful
ness in our mental vision would bring it home
to us so readily.
The presumption is, the origin of religion
was a glorious shower of faith, which at once
has ceased. Mankind started with a percep
tion of truth, and its history is a continuous
series of deterioration, a waning day. You
see where this leads to. It takes out of the
midst of men all incentives, all ambition, ener
vates men in their work in all occupations (for
there is an intimacy between the intellectual
and the industrial activities, as is just now be
coming more recognized). Deny a man men
tal possibilities, and you have done the next
best thing not only to stunt his intellect
entirely, but to take from him all that is the
worth of his life, which he himself has put on it.
Say to mankind there is nothing great in store
for it to accomplish, that, in fact, the valuable
things it has are slipping out of its hands, and
that it cannot prevent it ; say to me that my

54 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
life-blood is oozing out of me, and that there is
no saving of me. I will hold myself pious to
resign myself to the inevitable dissolution.
History shows an ascending effort for better
ment. Mankind lives for the future, and the
present is continually opening out into still
more promising times. There is much pro
gression and improvement, with abundant
suggestions of better things to come. The
ascetic spirit that chews the cud of the past
and blears gloomily into every new day as a
new term of penalty, has never accomplished
any thing, and it is the blightening spirit. The
ideal drift, which happily is in man, those im
pulses and incentives which never rest content
with present attainments, but are untiring to
make new conquests and to gain greater victo
ries, to these we owe all that, in the aggregate,
makes up the nobility of life and the proud
record of humanity.
Those are not fit to solve the problem of the
origin of religion who ogle sanctimoniously
with the past and see not even a glimpse of
the great future dawning, and we accept a
theory of religion with hesitation (we cannot
help it) from such a source, whose waters are
so murky. Whatever religious principles they
present, however much they may cry out in
the market-places "These are divine ! " we re
fuse to recognize until they show that they
imply cheer, promise, hope.

The Universal Religion and the Sects. 5 5
The life of all such theories of religion is
short. Religion cannot be dealt with dog
matically. This lesson we are learning from
day to day ; and the history of religions, as
they have appeared, bear home the grave les
son that it will not do to concoct a scheme of
religion ' henceforth to be abided by men, or
take upon themselves the burden of heresy.
Religion finds its best expression in the lives
of great men, but no man, however great, can
presume to stand for religion itself and save
men the trouble of reasoning for themselves.
The time has now arrived when we have
such an unfailing trust in the persistent and
benevolent progress of the life, of the intel
lectual, of the industrial work of mankind that
nothing will satisfy us with respect to the
highest subject, viz., that of religion, except a
suggestion of a happy destiny. The religion
which stands over against such ideals, as now
'In this sense the passage in "Berachoth," 25, is to be
taken : ' ' Withhold your children from philosophy. " A clear
distinction between Judaism and philosophy is made in Mid
rash Tanchuma : Moses yearned to know the ways of God,
Bileam boasted knowing God himself. Compare also "Exo
dus Rabba," 13. Viscount Amberly says of Positivism :
" Auguste Comte's Positivism is weak, because he attempted
to compose a faith for his disciples by the merely arbitrary
exercise of his own ingenuity. He perhaps did not consider
that in all history there is no example of a religion being
invented 'by an individual thinker." — " Analysis of Religious
Belief," I., p. 194.

56 The Universal Religion and the Sects.
have proven themselves a mere alphabet in the
reading of the book of life, is a sorry parody,
which may have historic interest, perhaps aes
thetic value, but no intrinsic worth, and no
place in the conviction of men.1
1 Kusari. — Tell me, how did your religion originate, how
was it disseminated, and how long a time was needed so that
it became an established faith? For undoubtedly religions
have their inception in the minds of individuals ; these, de
voting their powers to secure domination for them. They
enlist converts, and thus enlarge their influence, till, through
govermental aid, they become national ?
Master.- — In this wise only administrative principles arise
and become valid, but not religion. They are rules of con
duct suggested by reason, and when these are gradually per
fected and obtain general acquiesence, they may be said to be
of divine import. But divine religion, which has its immedi
ate source in God, is instantaneous in its birth (i.e., it is in
tuitive). As to it we can say with the Bible, just as at the
first creative word of God: "Let it be, and it was." —
"Kusari, I., 80.
Compare the dispute concerning the relative merits of
philosophy and theology in ' ' Kusari, " I. , 79. See also ' ' More
Nebuchim," II. , 32.

CHAPTER III.
RELIGION AND DOGMA.
Religion is originally a sentiment, and
consisted in the earliest times of spontaneous
suggestions. To these, as the source, the
popular view of religion can be traced. But it
is difficult to realize how there can be a change
of this inalienable feeling into a philosophy,
which, by the fact that it is a creation of our
mind, is a later phase of our spiritual life, no
essential mode of our being. It is not beyond
demonstration, and it is undeniably an event
in the life of mankind, which obtrudes itself
on our attention, that there was a transition
from an unsophisticated state, in which reli
gion was simply an affection, an organic dispo
sition, into a condition of mentality in which,
after once the intellect had wakened into self-
contemplation and discrimination of surround
ings, principles became articles of faith, and
were set down as letter and law. There are
two distinct epochs in history, that of emo
tional and that of theological religion, the one
early, the other later. 57

58 Religion and Dogma.
But let me say distinctly, I am not willing
to admit that the theological phase is in all
matters an advance. I do not know whether
it is a fanciful prejudgment, but there is an
element present in the sentimental religious
ness of many people, in whom I have had
opportunity to observe it, which despite its
crudity makes it seem to me worthy and ac
ceptable. True, it lacks the finish a reasoned
belief has. It is without pretense of intel
lectuality; but it is not less a strong faith,
and is a modest effort which I am willing to
place at the side of the speculations of great
intellects. It has not the merit of being self-
originated ; but it is direct in purpose, and is
an immediate outflow of a very undeceiving
source. It comes unhesitatingly from a warm
heart, and leaps confidently with one leap into
the midst of the mystery we call religious
problems, and solves them. As if there also a
loving heart were pulsating. Sometimes I
come to see that God has placed this yearning
soul in us, and it has its own innocent way
to come out from everywhere into the light
of day, seeking and finding God.
Religion is a child of our heart, theology
is a creation of our mind. The one needs a
warm soil, and thrives only in the heart of
man, the other shuns the emotional side of our
make-up, and is calculating, meditative, scien-

Religion and Dogma. 59
tific.1 Religion is aboriginal, theology is ac
cessory. Religion is an intuition, that which
was planted into the soul of man at the time
when God put the seed of life into the uni
verse. Theology is the work of man, an after
thought, by which he endeavors to parody the
divine spark of faith, bringing together dry
sticks of reasoning. Religion is eternal ; the
ology a make-shift, which the exigencies of
time and the compelling agents of Providence
may throw into a useless heap. Religion is a
work of art which God wrought into the spirit
of man ; theology an artificial construction of
which circumspection only can postpone the
eventual collapse.
The difference is simple and self-evident.
Theologians attempted to reduce the reli
gious life to a schedule of laws, accord
ing to which they thought they could
regulate the thoughts of people. The spirit,
however, is impatient of rules ; there is no
prescription to the workings of the divine.
The divine has a way of its own ; it will not
be hampered, it wants a clear road on the
1 " In peace and on an even plain he walketh with me
(Malachi ii., 6), because he did not speculate subtly con
cerning the ways of God, just as Abraham did not." —
" Jalkut Shimeoni," ed. Warschau, p. 308, col. 2.
So in Ecclesiastes vii., 29. " Lo, this only did I find, that
God hath made man upright ; but they have sought for many
devices."

60 Religion and Dogma.
highway of life.1 Though there is great re
spect in the universe for law, for order, though
every atom and the great masses of moun
tains and of seas obey, though all creatures and
organisms are submissive to the behests of the
laws of nature, still the spirit is emancipated,
and man, in so far as he is inspirited, is free.2
1 The word Ankh, which is of Egyptian origin, signifying
"life "or " he who lives," " the Living One," is found on in
scriptions at Pithom,' — vid. Brugsch, " True Story of the
Exodus," ed. Underwood, Boston, 1880, p. 217. Compare
with this, Kuttner, " Ha-emunah Wehabitachon," p. 2, who
says Anachi, the first word of the Ten Commandments : " /
am the Lord," is deducible from Anch, Plumb line, i. c,
" similar causes produce similar effects." Here already, then,
we have " law " as a fundamental conception of divine being,
which in modern phraseology is not unlike " the Eternal, not
ourselves, that makes for righteousness," or " the stream of
tendency by which all things fulfil the law of their being." —
Matthew Arnold, "Literature and Dogma," London, 1883,
P- 37-
2 " By every thing God pursues his purpose, even by means
of a serpent, a frog, a scorpion, yea, even by a gnat." —
" Midr. Rabba Vajikra," 143 a; cf. Ps., civ., 4, and Sirach
xxxix., 36-37. See also Ikkarim, I., 14.
The affinity between God and man through the soul is made
the basis of ethics, in a manner similar to the biblical ground
for human righteousness (" Holy shall ye be, for holy am I,
the Lord,"), in this passage : "As God is called the Merciful,
the Gracious, so also thou shalt be merciful and gracious, and
be beneficent to all. Just as God is called righteous in all His
ways, so also shalt thou be righteous. Just as God is called
the kind in all His doings, so shalt thou be kind." — " Siphri,"
Ekeb. The Eternal is the prototype, to follow which is possible for
man, because the divine soul resides in him.

Religion and Dogma. 6 1
To say the soul of man must feel, think, act
as theology prescribes is like laying tracks for
the wheels of Providence.
Theology, let us say, is a science. Whether
a legitimate one let us not decide now.1 If it
is a science, and if by virtue of its being scien
tific, it presumes to have a right to do service
as an applied science, it forfeits its claim. Re
ligion is neither an abstract science of a meta
physical kind, nor an art among the other arts.
It is the wisdom of history ; it is the best
in every phase of individual living, taught by
the life of mankind during its eventful career.
It will in the end of days stand for all the
noble and precious things mankind has earned
1 When Fairbairn says (" Theology as an Academic Disci
pline " in Contemporary Review, 1887): " Theology is used
to denote a science whose field is coexistent with the prob
lems and the history of religion, and we may say of the sci
ences as of religion, that since it has to do with every region
of thought and relation of life, whatever concerns man con
cerns it," he forgets that theology is not so impartial. The
fact is, that of all characteristics of theological studies none is
so prominent, as well as proverbial, as their partisanship. The
raison d'etre for theology is, if not polemics against the hete
rodox, at any rate apologetics pro domo. Theology has a
" Tendenz," i. e., the theologian has his purpose and end
fixed before ever he has started out. He has his conclusions
already given. The business of theologians is to find cor
roboration for a preconceived whim. This takes it out of the
realm of legitimate sciences. The science of sciences^ the
highest synthesis, such as the science of religion is, is supremely
impartial, and is continually acquiring more and better mate
rial, and is the profoundest promise.

62 Religion and Dogma.
by its work and experiences. The history of
religion is to humanity what biography is
to an individual, in which the gist of it is
the average capacity evidenced, and the no
bility of it is instanced in the moment of
greatest power. Religion and civilization over
lap each other. It is the cultivation of the
best abilities to the neglect of none. It is the
harmonizing of all capacities. Matthew Ar
nold says : " Religion, the greatest and the
most important of the effects by which the
human race has manifested its impulse to per
fect itself ; religion, that voice of the deepest
human experience, — does not only enjoin and
sanction the aim, which is the great aim of
culture, the aim of setting ourselves to ascer
tain what perfection is and to make it prevail,
but also in determining generally in what hu
man perfection consists, religion comes to a
conclusion identical with that which culture, —
culture seeking the determination of this ques
tion through all the voices of human experi
ence, which have been heard upon it, of art,
science, poetry, philosophy, history, as well as
of religion, in order to give a greater ful
ness and certainty to its solution — likewise
reaches." ' And Emerson 2 puts it in his own
"Matthew Arnold, "Culture and Anarchy , " London, 1882,
p. 10.
2 " Essay on Worship," Works, Vol. VI., p. 196.

Religion and Dogma. 63
inimitably terse and telling manner : " The
whole state of man is a state of culture, and
its flowering and completion may be described
as religion or worship." Religion is an ever-
active impulse, no philosophic theorem. It is
an incentive which from the inward soul of
every man radiates out into all the activities of
life. Theology and dogmatism are the letter,
religion is the spirit.
But in religious history theology constitutes
an important chapter. It is not the happiest
chapter. Theological history is sad ; but it is
a part which once was very significant, and
which, even now, some are loth to forsake ;
and many would be indignant to be suspected
of ever yielding it up. The reason is, that theol
ogy has usurped great powers. It asserts sole
right to ownership of religion. But there is no
proprietary claim valid on thought. That is
public property.1 I cannot imagine that any
church or sect can claim more than that it has
found the phenomena of religion at hand ; and

1 " They encamped in the desert, for this reason : If the
law had been given in the land of Israel, they might have
persuaded themselves to say : Ye Gentiles, ye have no share
in this law. Therefore, the law was promulgated in the des
ert, to the people, in open assembly, publicly ; so that all,
who wish to receive it, may come." — " Mechilta," Parshath
Jithro. Truth is public, and the good man is public, belong
ing to all.

64 Religion and Dogma.
that the one it found is the true religion. This
is what it must assert.
We, who know the universality of the reli
gious intuition, can appreciate these claims.
We are apt to look upon the legitimacy of
them as we would upon the allegations of a
man who would come to us and seriously tell
us that he has possession of the magnetism of
the earth ; and, though he will admit there
may be other magnetisms flowing through the
bowels of the earth, he will assert that this, of
his, alone is the terrestrial magnet. You see
the folly of monopoly. The forces of nature
cannot be monopolized. The lightning, which
comes down from the cloudy sky, will go down
the rod of your house, and of mine, and every
body else's within the neighborhood. All men
have the same chance to breathe the air. I
hold religion is such a force of nature, but the
noblest. Religion is a free gift of Providence,
and the only imperishable one. But it is as
elementary as fire, as air, as electricity, as the
trembling column that bears the light through
space from the sun in the vast distance to
the little iris of my eye. As little as you can
lay your yard-stick on the majestic clouds, sail
ing along over your head, you can put your
theologic gauge on the sublime sweep of reli
gious emotion. As in the past, so through the
future of mankind.

Religion and Dogma. 65
Definitions of religious principles are proper;
but not limitations to a partisan conception of
them ; and, above all, care must be taken that
the doctrine preferred be the wisdom of expe
rience, a generalization of discreet understand
ing, probed and tested ; but no standard of
camp, no self-imposed assertions to impose in
turn upon others. It is perilous to stake our
sectarian existence on a theological obstinacy.
Providence has an irresistible way of her own.
Who knows, some day Providence may set it
into her head, having shrewdly prepared the
way by a gradual unfolding of her culturing
plan, to throw the whole construction of the
ology into a heap ; and what then ? We must
take into our reckoning the consent of all-wise
Providence. No teaching will stand, save it
have the tacit consent of the divine thought,
which manifests itself in the universal order
and in the unfailing vindication of the just
and the true.
Let me, in a few words advert to the posi
tion which Jewish teachers have thought fit
to take with regard to the temporary character
of religious dispensations and to the universal
religion. It should be taken as significant of
more than mere sectarian presumption, when
we find the following declaration in the Mid
rash. The inception of the world is to be ac
credited, with regard to its source, to religion,

66 Religion and Dogma.
and as to its ultimate purpose, to the eventual
vindication of Israel.1 One, who is conscious
of the profound content of religion and is im
bued with the conviction, that to do justice to
the aspect of religious doctrines and to give it
that validity which makes them scientifically
certain and comprehensive, will naturally fall
into fulsome rhetoric. He feels that, despite the
extravagance of words and the verbal osten-
t'atiousness, his subject is in itself essentially
grander than words can paint, and goes farther
into the secrets of the universe and of God than
his meagre vocabulary and ambitious phraseol
ogy ever can portray. We meet such boastful
language in the prophets, which must always be
taken as the demonstration of an impulsive at
tempt to reach the unattainable.2 A mind that
has monition of the presence of a Great Spirit,
1 " The Pentateuch begins with the words, ' In the begin
ning,' to suggest that the creation of the world and the Thora
and Israel carry out one identical purpose of God." — " Midr.
Rabba," Gen. I.
2 Matthew Arnold says : "... The spirit and tongue of
Israel kept a propriety, a reserve, a sense of the inadequacy of
language, in conveying man's ideas of God, which contrast
strongly with the license of affirmation in our western theol
ogy. ' The high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity, whose
name is holy,' is far more proper and felicitous language than
' the moral and intelligent Governor of the universe.' Just
because it far less attempts to be precise, but keeps to the lan
guage of poetry and does not essay the language of science."
— " Literature and Dogma.," p. 34.

Religion and Dogma. 67
that ties down the universe to His own person,
and feels that the changes and the vast web of
fortune are the work of the unseen hands of
that Spirit, whose unceasing activity he has
observed in a transient conglomerate of matter
made supremely intelligent — such a one, not
withstanding eloquence and skill, is like Moses
of old — only a stammerer, of uncircumcised lips.
So here the bent for order and for peace (this
the religious disposition is, no more, no less)
maintains the universe, and works out that
consummation. This is meant. The origin of
the world, in the creative thought of the deity,
is like the end of it will be. As coming from
God, so in returning to him. The beginning
and the finality of the design being in God, the
two terms, beginning and end, are identical.
God puts a soul into men, and this soul shall
have grand revelation. Struggling amid the
deterrent influences of body, circumstances
and fateful conditions, the spirit of man will,
some day, have glorious vindication. The life
and history of mankind has, for its inward pur
pose, the emancipation and the open acknowl
edgment of its sovereignty.
There are allusions to universality in the
literature of the Jews which, keeping in view
the fact that their traditional legalism was
scarcely apt to encourage it, merit special men
tion, for they are liable to be neglected. It is

68 Religion and Dogma.
more than simply an ethical (surely more than
a caballistic) indoctrination, when even the So
har is led to say that, " Every noble act
awakes the power of a higher life out of its
latency, and every rude and ignoble act weakens
or deadens it." ] Nor is the suggestive remark of
the Midrash to be disregarded : " The first
stage is that in which virtue looks up to God
as its prototype, he being merciful ; the sec
ond stage that of justice, in which the grace
and the forgiveness of God becomes a nobler
sentiment, though less delicate, that of jus
tice."2 The philosophy of Maimonides is well
known, and is being ranked higher since the
subjective side of religion is looming up as a
more important constituent in the determina
tion of the quality of our religion and conduct.
The effort of which this founder of Jewish
philosophy never wearied is to find in every
instance of mediocre or exalted religiousness a
psychologic explanation.3 He reduced the
loftiest states of prophecy to little less than a
genial, though in the unfolding of it a com-
1 " Sohar," 403, 92.
2 " Midrash Rabba," Genesis, xlix.
3 " Iggereth HaRambam," No. 2 ; cf. Narboni to " More,"
I., 21. The soul of the creature is its essence, "Jessode
Hathora," 4, 8. The essentiality of the soul is posited in
" More Nebuchim," IL, premise 10 and 11.

Religion and Dogma. 69
pletely normal, display of mental activity. This
is per se an almost sufficient evidence that this
democratic theology is preeminently Jewish.
If others before him did not succeed in giving
exposition to a similar conception of univer
sality as to religion, it was not because they
did not harbor the same conception, and I may
say, the same sense of spiritual fraternity, but
because it was in their time not the common
method to speak in generalities, and to devise
philosophemes of religion.1
The philosophy of the Talmud, if of such
there can be any mention, is practical. It pre
sents theorems not in logical concatenation,
but as ingredients of precepts ; and perhaps
this experimental philosophy is not less legiti
mate. For us it will be for the present pur
pose immaterial to find the value of either the
oretic or practical religious teachings. We
wish merely to assure ourselves that it would
be a grievous error to suppose that, because
the apothegms of an axiomatic character or in
ductions that have a pleasing ring to them are
not frequent in the Talmud, that on that ac-
1 It is just to the much-maligned Sepher Yezirahto give space
here to this declaration in VI., 2 : " The heart is in the soul
as the king in the combat." Compare with this Ghazali " Eben
Haphilosophim," in " Moz'ne Zedek," p. 40 : "A man —
his heart is royal (residing centrally in him), like a king in his
realm." — Compare Jellinek, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Kab
bala. — Erstes Heft.

70 Religion and Dogma.
count we may suspect that universal teachings
in Jewish literature are reformatory efforts only
on the part of the few against the conserva-
tiveness of the mass. Nothing would be wider
of the mark.
A catechism which pretends to being no more
than a compilation of ethical particularities,
we are in the habit of looking down upon as
failing to fill the very first requirement. Re
ligious inculcation must be adaptive. But it
is obvious that in religious instruction there
must be, as a matter of necessity, an identifi
cation of precept and example. The training
of the mind and the heart, and more especially
of the latter, for it is more directly involved in
the formation of habits and of disposition,1
can be made efficient only in the presence of
the urgent demands of duties by parental or
tutorial cooperation, not only by prescription.
To understand what is right is not sufficient.
The application of the abstract right gives
worry. One example is more efficacious and
instructive than many refined abstractions.
And I hold that the Talmud is such a kind of
catechism, and that its method is applicative.
The theology of the Talmud is insignificant
In fact, with the exception of foreign importa-
1 "A mere philosophical system, however true, can never
take the place of religious faith." — Mueller, "Science of Re
ligion," p. 43.

Religion and Dogma. 7 1
tion, which it will be our business to speak of
later on, there is no appreciable metaphysics
in Talmudic literature. It is Halachic, that is
it concerns itself with fixing the law ; and it
occasionally delights in fancy and produces
those sweet scented poesies which constitute
the Haggada. These latter, moralists of the
Jewish schools would offer for the delectation
of the listeners and for their edification, and
were intended to suggest thoughts in this
loose and unauthentic manner, which other
wise might have been neglected. At any rate
the Haggada was exquisite homiletics.
The feature of Rabbinic teaching is its habit
of making sentiment and reason mutual, per
haps even of identifying them.1 And here
again we see the character of aboriginal faith
felicitously repeated. It is not infrequently
recorded in the Talmud how the Rabbis, I
mention Rabbi Joshua ben Chananjah es
pecially, were in dispute with philosophers ;
and in every case the native impatience of the
Jew against philosophy is manifest.2 We shall
1 "A religion, to be accepted by any but an insignificant fac
tion, must find a response not only by the intellects, but in the
emotions of those for whom it is designed." — Amberly, "An
alysis of Religious Belief," Vol. I., page 194.
2 Vid. " Mid. Rabba" to Koheleth, sub voce, "All words are
vain." " Baba Bathra," 9 ; also Hamburger, " Real Encyclo-
psedie filr Bibel u. Talmud," Strelitz, 1883, II., p. 1023-24 ;
Instance also R. Simlai's answer in "Talmud Jerus." ed

72 Religion and Dogma.
have occasion in the course of an investigation
of a chapter of religious history to see the
disinclination of Judaism to tolerate the inter
ference of philosophy in matters of faith.
What was manifest in the special issue of the
period of the origin of Christianity, was the
persistent policy throughout the history of
Judaism. Indeed our explanation of Judaism and of
the history of the Jewish people per se might
be found in this very matter. The Jewish peo
ple are distinctive for this lack of desire for
catechismal exactness. The Jew is ignorant
of the formulae of religion ; in fact he is in such
a frank state of religious ardor, that his blunt-
ness to theological niceties can scarcely be
looked upon as reprehensible. By this renun
ciation of abstractions and dogmatism and by
this native love for empiricism, however, the
Jew evoked no small amount of polemics.
This is the everlasting disputation against the
" First Covenant."
Krakau, p. 12, d., and " Niddah," 31, a ; " Sabbath " 31, a ;
" Aboth d. R. Nathan" I. " Aboda Sarah," 54 ; " Mid. Rab
ba," Gen. i., Exodus, xxx.

CHAPTER V.
PROPHECY.
We shall have a word with the defenders of
the doctrine that prophecies have been ful
filled. Such a doctrine of a fulfilment of pro
phecies is a legitimate phenomenon in the
history of religion, but is unfortunate in the
genesis of a faith. Much effort is exerted for
the purpose of justifying hints supposed to
have been made in Bibles and for making out
that they were actually fulfilled. Pretension
is seriously made that the life of one religion
lies according to divine intention in the death
of another.
It is valid and the conventional right cannot
be impugned that a new doctrine claim pre
dominance. But we have grown up in the
habit of conceiving that along with innova
tion there must be improvement. We cannot
reconcile ourselves to the assertion that a new
revelation is simply a new edition of what the
old taught long ago. In fact it seems to me,
that in thus founding a faith, or in believing that
one's faith is thus justified, we have good cause
for wonder. If some one, praising his inven-
73

74 Prophecy.
tion, or desiring to dispose of a patent of his,
alleges naively, that it is non plus ultra, since it
is identical with an ancient model, we should
have reason for humor.
The dogma of a new faith, ambitious to
take the place as a legitimate religion, but
drawing the sap of life from, nay having its
entire cause of being in another, is from these
very circumstances polemic.1 This is a serious
weakness. A religion which starts with a com
bat against another repels. For it is neither
an evidence that the later phase has a worth
of its own, upon which it can rest its claim
that it be received ; nor is it an inviting spec
tacle to see a doctrine of peace and of concord
starting its pilgrimage of salvation with a com
bat and a dispute.
But we have to deal here not so much with
this inconsistency in practice as with the in
herent faultiness of the conception of prophecy,
which is implied in the practice, and which is
the fertile source of false religion.
Religion is independent, as to its essence,1
of bible, priests, and prophets. A faith must
have a vitality of its own, and be acceptable
on its own account. Any other legitimization
1 ' ' There is a difference between the prophets of Israel and
the prophets of other nations. The prophets of Israel exhorted
against the commission of sins, those of other nations caused a
breach," i. e., were sectarian, polemic. — " Bereshith Rabba,"
20 ; cf. " Ikkarim, " II. , 28 and 74.

Prophecy. 75
and support may warrant endurance to a sect.
But the evangelization of men by the spirit of
manliness and by the incentive, which the dis
play of individuality offers, goes on spontan
eously, and has its own method of generous
and noble persuasion. I do not mean to inti
mate that the appurtenances, which custo
marily belong to the inculcation and to the pres
ervation in purity of religious doctrines, are
valueless. It is evident, however, that he who
takes pains to determine his opinions concern
ing conduct, and lets them grow upon himself as
conviction, and is bent upon exercising them in
the form of the best actions, has very efficient
reminders in himself. The antithesis to theo
logical religion is personal religion ; and the lat
ter has its best exemplification when we are
emancipated from the bonds of dogmatism, and
walk unhampered upon the way of pure intelli
gence, resolutely devoted to acting according
to the dictates of a chastened personality.1
Knowing, then, that in the perfect faith there
is an approximately high degree of self-de-
1 "' All depends upon the conduct of a man. In accordance
with the quality of that, the spirit of God can be said to reside
in him." — " Pesikta " Parshath Para, and also "Midrash
Rabba," Chukath. ' ' The power of the prophets was profound,
for they typified in human form the image of God." — Ibid.
" I shall make of thee a great nation, i. c, I shall make thee
high-priest, like Adam." — " Tal Pijoth."

76 Prophecy.
termination of religion and practice, we cannot
say unconditionally that the shaping of our
conduct is taken out of our hands, and that we
are subserving merely a fore-ordained end —
fulfilling certain prophecies.
The trouble in the matter is that in most
sectarian religions the notion obtains that
there is due on the part of the adherents an un
questioning loyalty to priesthood, episcopacy,
papacy, and also an unquestioning belief in the
identity of this priestly character of religion
with prophetic authentication. They teach
that priests and prophets taught the same ; the
prophets foretold to oblige the priests. We
need, however, pretend to no profound scholar
ship in presuming to remind people that priests
and prophets were scarcely ever on such inti
mate terms, and they never played into each
other's hand. If it is asserted by the priest
hood of modern sects that they have the cor
roboration of prophets, if it is said that their
doctrine was foretold and thus legitimized,
they commit a grievous misapprehension of the
relation of priest and prophet.
Nothing is clearer in the history of every re
ligion than this : that priest and prophet of a
faith always disagreed ; nay, the prophetic
calling, in fact, is radically a protest against
the usurpation and extravagant domination of
the priesthood. This is historical, and is sub-

Prophecy. j1/
stantiated by the circumstances of our time.
There is even now a large number of intelli
gent people outside of the pale of the Church
and of organized religion, who have withdrawn
from conventional modes of ritual with intent
and protest. Their integrity and character is
irreproachable, and they will not, I am sure,
be branded as irreligious because they protest
against conventional forms of church-practice.
They protest against hierarchy in religion.
They cannot reconcile themselves to the sancti
moniousness and the artificiality which fre
quently pass for piety. They demand a vig
orous and a self-asserting sort of religion.
Somehow they cannot help speaking of religion
as being manhood, and they are fond of believ
ing that worship is not merely Sunday service,
but a serving of the spirit of right, without
looking at all at the precise day of the week.
Their faith is not dreamy, but wide-awake, as
behooves men in the duties of every moment
of our eventful life. If they are not geniuses,
inspired with a regenerative fervor, and borne
along in the exaltation of a self-vindicating
spirituality, they are, at any rate, somewhat
conscious of a responsibility they owe, and
which no one but they themselves can shoul
der ; they have a conviction that religion is
solely their own matter. As little, they be
lieve, as there can be delegation in matters of

78 Prophecy.
morality,1 but each one stands or falls on the
strength of his merit, so in the whole field of
religious activity determination of the proper
course and principle is to be left to them, and
not to any other one, to do that work for them.
You see by thus insisting on standing for
themselves on their own feet, they protest
against the representative habit of Church-
ritual. In this lies the reason why the hier
archies combat and struggle. It is the same
war which priests always waged against the in
dividualization of religion, to which the
prophets devoted their energies untiringly.
The prophet in religion stands for the
future of it ; he is the spokesman, not of the
infantile promises of local interests and of the
enactment of surprising occurrences, but of the
noblest content of human life, of that because
of which the present is made worthy, and the
past ceases to be a breath of air that has blown
over us. He infuses into all departments
the spirit of life, by teaching concerning the
1 "When God said to Aaron : 'Thus shall ye bless,' the
people of Israel exclaimed : 'The priests shall bless us ? Thy
blessing is the only one we require ; by Thy decree we are
blessed.' But God answered : ' Though I have said the priests
shall bless ye, I shall be present with them, and I shall bless
through them.' Therefore, when the priests spread forth
their hands (in the recitation of the customary threefold bless
ing), they intimate thus symbolically, that God is about us and
guards us by His Providence." — " Debarim Rabba," n.

Prophecy. 79
events, deed, thought, sentiment that they are
the seed to bear fruit. Instantly, under his
genial treatment, the ills of our condition are
healed. For he has the balm of hopefulness.
For the workman at his task he has the cheer
ing word of encouragement. Labor is not a
drudgery. Life is not filled with wants that
forever plague and are never satisfied. Means,
which are serviceable for all the needs of our
life, have been put into our hands. We can
fashion our character into beautiful proportions
for contentment and delight. Towards the
holy interests of mankind and the destiny of
humanity to behold the undimmed light of
truth ; towards the everlasting ideality of hu
manity, which it attains to and progresses
in ; towards this most of all the prophet turns
in the profound yearning of his soul, and in
the brightness of his vision. If ever prom
ises were given in the books of religious
precepts, he gave them, and his will be fulfilled ;
such promises are the hopes, the exalted and
the exalting ideals.
There is a high degree of sentiment in
prophecy, too high that it should grovel in
the dust amid petrified bones of " fulfilment."
Prophecy is not a trick of foretelling. Should
the prophets be simply the channel through
which God is pleased to make manifest His
supreme power of foreknowledge, little rever-

80 Prophecy.
ence would be due to the spiritually perforated
beings which let the revelation pass through
them as through a sieve. God's men partake
of His transcendency ; inspired with His sacred
breath, they are somewhat more efficient, and
give better evidence of their selection and
exaltation. Let us have greater respect for the
geniuses of mankind, more reverence for the
divinity, when it reveals itself in the most
sanctified spot, the human mind and heart.
There is not one word uttered by their lips
but what a spirit prompted, which was con
scious and felt deeply. But, I am not slow to
admit, they were in the bounds of human virtue
and human passion. As much as there is of
the glory of spirituality in the prophet, there
is also the admixture of the lowness and the
limitation of body. He is never perfect, never
angelic. This is the imperishable honor of
the prophet, that he freed himself from the
deterring influences of his time and condition
and lifted himself on the pinions of his genius
into the regions of profound contemplation.1
From these he could look down and see more
than many other men. His heroic struggle
makes the great man exemplary and didactic.
This emancipation and this greater vision, this
prophetic exaltation, can be ours, is possible
for all, if we will. 1 " Kusari," I., 103.

Prophecy. 8 1
This truth must be emphasized. I call atten
tion to the condition. Self-determination is the
prime condition. The constituents of this feli
citous state of soul-independence, however, are
not simply wisdom and energetic effort in the
direction of wisdom. There is a third factor,
which eludes us. But the product will never
be right unless this third factor is present.
There is a difference between complete manli
ness and geniality. The one is the end and
completeness to which latent human abilities
can be brought : the other cannot be accounted
for in a mathematical manner.
The analysis of a genius will always leave
something that we cannot account for ; this is
its exceptional feature. Our will can command
the capacities at hand; but cannot create
capacities. The genius is accoutred in a
manner such as makes him recognizable at first
sight. He is the best man. That much we
may venture to assert. But the moment he
has satisfied us as to that, and still transcends
the standard, he is not any more of a class, but
stands by himself. He is isolated by his genius.
No amount of exertion of our will can make us
associates of him. Some come nearer to him,
as near as they well can ; these are our men of
talent. Genius creates, the talented imitates.
The one discovers, the other invents. Genius
creates in the twinkling of the eye, without

82 Prophecy.
exertion ; the work comes off his hand in com
pleteness and beauty, with grace and ease.
The talented must labor hard and rest content
with mere approximation to all this.1
Religious leaders, those who control the
thoughts of the masses, are either geniuses or
talents, according to the primal character of
their temperament. They are, each of them,
exemplifications of how high God has made it
possible for the human mind to rise. The
practical side of their life is another matter ;
the results of their career must be divorced
from their personalities. The geniuses must be
estimated with respect to their intrinsic worth,
and not to the temporal features of their work,
1 Jiirgen B. Meyer, in Zeitschrift filr Vblkerpsychologie, von
Steinthal und Lazarus, 1880, says : " Talent is conscious of
itself, and knows the ' how ' and the ' why ' it arrives at its
inferences and conclusions. Not so genius ; to it the how and
wherefore are always subtle. There is nothing less self-
conscious and less immediate than a genial thought." — He
says further: "The imaginative faculty of talent reflects
things and facts which have received already a greater or less
amount of corroboration ; while the fancy with which genius is
endowed presents matters never before presented. Talent is
like a marksman aiming at a point, which seems lo us difficult
of hitting ; genius has a target which is not visible to our
eyes. The novelty, it must be remembered, consists not in
the material, but in the direction of the new shot sent forth."
" Talent may be inherited, acquired, and lost ; and genius
is a commission from on high." — Dr. I. M. Wise, " Genius in
History and History of Genius," American Israelite, March
17, 1882.

Prophecy. 83
as to how they transcended their time and con
ditions, and, it may be, a stretch of time beyond
their own.
It is precarious to apply the law of the sur
vival of the fittest to matters of genial thought.
Genius has not always the world to applaud it.
Genius stands over against the mass of com
mon men, and is more likely to incur their
hostility than their enthusiasm. This feature
in the life of great men is generic. All great
men were misunderstood. Not only Jesus, but
also Moses.1 Happily they were full of faith
and hope. If we would gauge men by their
successes or failures, many a one, revered and
honored, would be turned out of one pantheon.
And, on the other hand, there is not one but
thinks regretfully of the noble efforts of those
unfortunate lovers of mankind, who dreamed
of the felicities of human life, and were rudely
awakened by the noise of merciless practicality.
To pass judgment upon Moses, Jesus, Bud
dha, or Zoroaster, according to their fortunes,
and not to perceive their soul-career, is missing
the very point of their greatness. Whether
Cf . "Sanhedrin," no, a. — "When Moses passed through
the camp all the Israelites stood in front of their tents, until he
had entered the sanctuary." The reason alleged for this is
such, that out of respect for the memory of Moses we forbear
expressing it. Let it be merely intimated, for the purpose at
hand, that also upon his fair name the sacrilege of suspicion
was cast.

84 Prophecy.
Moses would not have been known of in
Europe, and brought to esteem there through
Christianity, and whether Mahomet popularized
Judaism and Christianity in his native country
and in all Asia, and similarly as to Buddha,
are questions of fortune, incidental, not essen
tial, to their dispensations. The paramount
question is : Are these individually, in them
selves, worthy? Does their personality reside
in their dispensation to such an extent, that it
is itself sufficient as an exposition of truth?
Is there among these any one, who belongs
not to sect, or time, but to the world ? As
soon as Moses is a genius, it matters not
whether he rode in the triumphal chariot,
amid the plaudits of the people, or whether
his hands were tied by the limitations of his
circumstances, by race or by theology, or by
tradition and conventionalism, he is a genius,
through the fact that his person, his thought,
every element of his character made him illus
trious above all ordinary men, and revealed
that he was moved by a mind transcending
the given conditions by the faculty of vigorous
perception Every one is genial, if, either by
heroism or by fortitude he teaches about the
divine in humanity.
A gradation of religious leaders is not easy
to make. For we have our preconceived no
tions as to them. We have none of us grown

Prophecy. 85
out of our sectarian teens ; and the maturity
of full-grown universality in spirit and tempera
ment is not yet upon us. Besides, we ought
to know these men by a sort of imitation of
their subjectivity. We ought to strive to
know them almost as they knew themselves.
This is very hard. To delve into the mysteries
of another man's soul-life is beyond our power.
Only fancy can help us.
Let us recall here the distinction between
genius and talent. Genius has only the intui
tion for its material, with which to accomplish
its great work. Now, with this let the genius
create a beautiful song, a statue, a law, a faith,1
and let the talent parody it in his plodding
manner, and carry it abroad. A Moses creating,
a Homer, a Raphael, a Michael Angelo. Jesus
promulgating,2 Luther reforming. The Jewish
people beholding the revelation at the foot
of Sinai, and Christianity interpreting this
1 " Just as the magnet attracts the needle, so Moses and Mt.
Sinai were drawn toward each other in an instant."— " Sohar,"
II. , 21, a.
2 See the disciple regarding Jesus as a Hillel, Geiger's
" Vorlesungen iiber Geschichte des Judenthuins," in " Zeit-
schrift fur Wissenschaft u. Leben," Jahrg., III., p. 30 ; and
Renan, " Vie de Je'sus," Paris, 1863, p. 80. Even Delitzsch,
in his rejoinder to both Geiger and Renan, cannot deny in
toto a striking similarity and possible connection between the
humanitarianism of Hillel and the Messianic teachings of the
Essenes. Vid. "Jesus und Hillel," von Franz Delitzsch
Erlangen, 1866.

86 Prophecy.
revelation and this Judaism to Europe. Here
is a division of labor : the producer and the
distributor; the genius and the talent.
True, the dissemination of the faith is a
condition of its value. Some one may hasten
to conclude, since Judaism needed the mis
sionary labor of Christianity, without it it
would not have been known outside of Pales
tine ; hence, even from the Jewish aspect, the
authentication of Christianity is made out. I
fear for that sort of logic. Here is wheat to
furnish bread. To whom shall we be grateful
for this food ? To the farmer? or to the good
soil that produced the rich wheat ? No, to the
freight-car, to the railroad track, it may be to
the engineer ! Suppose the farmer had not
planted, or suppose the soil had refused to
bear ? All the railroads in the world could
not have carried one solitary grain !
The condition of will, therefore, is not rele
gated to us entirely. There seems to be in it
also the will of God, a certain pre-determina-
tion, a contribution from the hand of Provi
dence, in addition to those gifts, which are de
livered to us.
Keeping this in view, we shall understand
the thesis of Maimonides, who says: "We
believe that, even if one has the capacity for
prophecy, and has duly prepared himself, it
may yet happen that he does not actually

Prophecy. 87
prophesy. It is, in that case, the will of God
[that withholds from him the use of the
faculty]. . . . As for the principle which
I laid down, that preparation and perfec
tion of moral and rational faculties are the
sine qua non, our sages say similarly : ' The
spirit of prophecy rests only upon those who
are wise [in intellectual attainments], strong
[in vigor of character], and rich [illustriously
endowed in morals]." ] And he gives one ex
ample, amongst others, to illustrate his idea :
"As to the revelation on Mt. Sinai, all saw
the great fire and heard the thunder, that
caused such an extraordinary terror ; but only
those of them who were duly qualified were
prophetically inspired, each one according to
his capacities. . . ." Moses rose to the
highest degree of prophecy, according to the
words ; " And Moses alone shall come near
the Lord."2
Notice his account of the Sinaitic revela
tion more closely : " There is, however, an
opinion of our sages to this effect : The
Israelites heard the first and the second com
mandments from God, i. e., they learnt the
truth of the principles contained in these two
1 In this manner the Talmud explains these four condi
tions. Vid. " Sabbath," 30, b.
2 " More Nebuchim," II. , ch. xxxii. (English translation,
" Guide of the Perplexed," M. Friedlander, London, 1885, Vol.
II. , pp. 163-165.)

88 Prophecy.
commandments in the same manner as Moses
and not through Moses. For, these two prin
ciples, the existence and unity of God, can be
arrived at by means of reasoning, and what
ever can be established by proof is known by
the prophet in the same way as by any other
person ; he has no advantage in this respect.
These two principles were not known through
prophecy alone." !
It is sufficient to have adverted to this.
Prophet and genius are synonymous terms.2
There is a selection in both. The gift of
prophecy is exceptional. It may be said that
in "such extraordinary personages we have
1 L. c, chap, xxxiii., Friedlander, p. 167. See also Joseph
Albo, " Ikkarim," II. , 18.
Iii " Kethuboth," 39 ; " Sabbath," 149, allusion is made in
the peculiarly Haggadic style to the a priori notions of the ex
istence and of the unity of God. All men and all women, of
all nationalities, says the Talmud, were ideally present at the
revelation at Mt. Sinai ; yea, even all souls which will here
after appear on earth in human bodies.
2 " The mind, which originally conceives supersensuous
truisms, together with the impulse to promulgate them, is
called a genius. . . . Genius must. It has no will of its
own. ... If it is permitted to call the prophets of Israel
geniuses, we must certainly be permitted to rank them among
the highest of that kind ; hence their characteristics are char
acteristics of genius. With them, there can be no doubt, one
of the characteristics is that they spoke and acted by an irre
sistible impulse, contrary to their own will and happiness ;
hence this impulse must be characteristic of genius, at least in
its loftiest state." — Dr. I. M. Wise, " Genius in History and
History of Genius," American Israelite, March 17, 1882.

Prophecy. 89
an instance of wisdom of the generations,
having slowly accumulated and become clar
ified and finally individualized as the high
est power of prolonged growth of commu
nal culture. But it must be remembered that
genius transcends time, and is not retro
spective, but prospective. There is a wide dif
ference between the great man and the
prophet : the one sums up in himself the wis
dom of his age, and by this subtle inspiration
of popular wisdom is practical ; the other
however, is a dreamer, in an introspective state
of mind, very impractical, an idealist.1 The
great man is a leader engaged in actual work,
the returns for which he may be fortunate to
witness. The prophet and the genius (it is sad
but true) has not often the gratitude of his con
temporaries, for these likely are not capable of
appreciating him. He belongs less to them
than to the coming times. If there is any
prophesying of future events, the genius does
it. He is oracular, but oracular of world-
thoughts, and of universal, eternal aims.
1 The Rabbis perceived the psychological character of
prophecy, and attributed subjectivity to it ; so that they are
led to say : " Not two prophets declare alike what is com
municated to them." — "Sanhedrin," 89, a.

CHAPTER VI.
RELIGIOUS BOOKS.
Coordinate with the history of the concep
tions of religion are the histories of litera
ture and of art. We are nowadays tending
towards a view of religion in which, besides the
theological authority, deference is also paid
to minds maturing in literature and art. The
religious effort is kindred to all ennobling
kinds of effort which aim at creating the best,
at giving shape to thoughts and to visions of
beauty as the mind and the genius of men
conceive them ; ideas to realize which they
yearn, and never cease yearning.
The first word of truth and of honor declared
by a man who had the respect of his fellow
men, was the first bible. It was the heirloom
which later generations held in veneration,
until a newer and brighter and a timely word
came out of the heart of another genius or
prophet, which, in its turn, corroborating the
worthy and the honorable in the first, served as
the translation, as it were, of that first bible,
done into a fresh and living language, so that
90

Religious Books. 91
the humble man might understand it and take
it to heart.
The life of the great man has always drawn
admiration toward him because of his dignity
of mind and of character, and has secured the
obedience and obeisance of the crowd. In
deed so great became its influence that every
item of his royal conduct became of con
cern and of interest. The biography of the
leader became a sort of literature, which,
passing at first from mouth to mouth among
the fearing and the admiring, grew into tales
and into narratives, and finally into litera
ture. Thus the chief's or the leader's life and
conduct became the prototype according to
which the people should conduct themselves
and emulate his example. It is evident that
those who are keen to observe such an impres
sive guide fell gradually into a habit of imita-
tiveness, and that this devotion grew upon them
till it became venerable, to alter which was a
lamentable heterodoxy, and finally turned out
to be held sacred.
There is no department, neither in the men
tal nor in the emotional, surely not in the
industrial activities of mankind, in which, if we
would analyze the present complicated condi
tion, we should not find constituents of hero
worship. It seems as if this affection for
genius and the awe at the display of excep-

92 Religious Books.
tional power were ingrained into the nature of
humanity, that not to submit at some time to
them is likely an evidence of obtuseness. The
conclusion is somewhat justified, that the
stronger the spirit of individuality becomes and
the more we insist upon the play of well-
balanced determination as the proper and only
creditable mode of character, the more this
sentiment of admiration for the great man
dulls, and the more, in the gain of indepen
dence, a loss is involved, which some will be
loth to relinquish. We must have a hero at
all hazards. He will be merely of a different
kind. Manliness is more than boorish strength.
It must be chastened. Robustness is not
strength. The fibres, communicating among
themselves, exchange the delicate thrills of
nervous pulsation. They are made efficient by
cooperation. * Human kind is more than an
aggregate. The individuals coalesce into a
unit, and the life-blood of the social organism
is mutuality.
This mutuality of the members is evinced
in the relation in which they stand towards
the best man of the community. The
benefits received from him unite them ; the
abuses shared by them, under temporary mis
guidance, bring them nearer to each other.
And as for gratitude, it is given silently and as

Religious Books. 93
affectionately as the child full of love looking
up into the eyes of its parents. There is affec
tion for the popular hero which does not rest
content with encomiums and conventional
honors, but goes as far as apotheosis and
deification. In the history of religions the hero celebrates
his carnival of praise. Here the holiest mat
ters are dedicated to him ; here he is enshrined,
and his name is set in an untarnishing halo.
He meets us on the first page we open in
the books which serve for edification. The
lessons of religion generally take their texts
from his life. The bible is his biography.
All races have their bibles, for each of them
has its pantheon. There is a gradation of in
trinsic worth, to be sure, and there are men
whom we would not emulate. But they have
had their following in their day, and the incense
was burnt to them by a devout public, and
so they must be given a place in the history of
religion.1 Nay, more ; they must be estimated
in a benevolent way. For, having been
chosen leaders, do they not exemplify those
who chose them ? Are they not honored, for
that which people thought worth honoring?
So that we shall not dispose of men, nor decide
their worth, but we deal with stages of civiliza
tion and epochs of culture.
1 See page 84.

94 Religious Books.
If the great man gives the text of the bible,
the nation gives the spirit. For, evidently,
that of which they are fond of speaking con
cerning him is their choice ; and choice is a
hint to character. Selection of a type of re
ligious conduct is a testimony to the principle of
religion, which they regard as proper. The holy
books of the races and of the nations in history,
the library of these alleged inspired books,
which were successively venerated as the re
spective best rendition of the best thought
and the best object, is an epitome of the his
tory of civilization, a concise statement of
what each people and each race and what all
races and all mankind collectively have at
tained as the result of their prolonged efforts.
Analyzing these various bibles (and there
are many of them) we shall adduce plentiful
evidence of the tentative character of the in
tellectual life in the past and a conviction, also
that for the future there will be merely at
tempts, a few more guesses at the same pro
found problem of eternity.
Some one stands on a high place, sees more
and farther, from a clearer atmosphere in a
brighter light. Moses, from Sinai, from a
height of sanctified ideality, which is forever
striving and shall never cease to strive after
the best. Jesus preaching on the mount hu
mility and asceticism which are liable to thin

Religious Books. 95
out into a mortified transcendentalism. Mo
hammed, grasping for the eternal joys which his
appetite craves for, unable to subdue it. Bud
dha, dissolving into dreamland, all conscious
ness dissipated, floating into a realm where
the greatest bliss is : not to be. But each one
of them has the hearts of many people. As
such let us approach them with the earnestness
of students and with the sympathy of men.
Will I be suspected of dogmatism if, after
mature deliberation, I make an assertion and
reserve judgment on the point? Balancing
intrinsic values, and checking off differences,
being careful to get to the residual quantity of
the essential contents of the Jewish Bible, I
claim that it is the best and the most promis
ing expression of religious conception. I claim
no perfection for it ; that is beyond the scope
of any doctrinal effort to attain. A bible is a
record of tradition. Our own, leaving out of
view the theological questions involved, is also
a book of literature. But literature is avowedly
a repository of either of two creations of
mind or of both : either of the general mental
habit of the people of whom it treats, or of the
best thoughts of its most prominent men.
The one is popular, the other is genial ; the
latter being as much beyond the people as
ideality is removed from practice. Whatever
is biblical (and I embrace under the term

96 Religious Books.
" biblical " others besides the traditionally
Jewish one) is literary as much as it is re
ligious, historical as much as it is theological.
The literary element in the characterization of
the Bible should be dwelt upon more than is
the practice, to the greater illumination of it.1
Literature is not foreign to religion ; both
are fed by the spirit of the people. There is
not a line written to-day but what has for its
substratum the religious tone of our time.
Some render this general character of contem
poraneous religion unconsciously, some lift
themselves out of it, and by their profounder
vision become known as prophetic. They are
instances of a manhood, to the records of
which reverence and later on sanctity are at
tached. Their biographies are transformed in
the course of time into bibles, and their say
ings are quoted as ethical maxims. Being
frequently narrated they finally become pro
verbial and public property. I know not but
what bibles are significant, besides through
priestly authority, perhaps through the fact that
1 " Some of these ancient sayings were preserved because
they were so true and so striking that they could not be for
gotten. They contained eternal truths, expressed for the first
time in human language. Of such oracles of truth it was said
in India that they had been heard, sruta, and from it arose
the word sruli, the recognized term for divine revelation in
Sanskrit." — Max Miiller, Preface to the "Sacred Books of
the East," Vol. I., p. xiii.

Religious Books. 97
they enjoy recognition in a literary sense.
Being universally acknowledged of superior
order, we have a warrant for the literary worth
of the Bible, since only the best products of
mind are thus received. The public is fastidious
in its criticism, and is as ready as a magazine
editor to throw bad poetry and bad essays into
the waste basket. The public uses it preroga
tive for recommendation as well as for con
demnation. The Bible deserves being rated
high that, through the shifting of public taste,
it has stood its ground well. Even now no one
has yet deliberately dulled his inherited vene
ration for this ancient monument of religious
fervor so much as to throw the Bible off
peremptorily, denying to it every good quality.
That some believe to have found flaws in it
may be a matter to disprove or to admit ;
but it is allowed on all sides that it is a tra
dition which depicts faithfully the intellectual
and religious status of the Jewish people.1 It
is an acknowledged record, whose chapters and
verses and language are the skeleton of the
spirit which prevailed among the Jewish people.
No work of literature can claim more. This
claim being uncombated, even by the most
radical critics, we may safely say that this
credit is guaranteed to the Bible.
1 See Colenso, " The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua,"
London, 1865, p. 176 ; and Wellhausen, " Prolegomena to
the History of Israel," Edinburgh, 1885, p. 321, et seq.

98 Religious Books.
But there is a proviso to be made, lest this
be misunderstood. Literary value does not in
volve attaching significance to its literalness.
In fact nothing is more diametrically opposed
to the pedantic adherence to verbal exactness
than literary effort. An author desires to ren
der his thought. The thought is the prime
aim. He throws the arrows of his words and
phrases at the mark his genius has set. All
literature is tentative, and biblical literature is
no exception.1 In so far as one of the com
ponent parts of the Bible is the product of
individual mind, only an approximate ren
dition of the profound suggestion can be ex
pected. No more. The prophet is profuse in
similes ; he is eloquent in the attempts to do
justice to the sacred truths, he has set himself
to be the oracle of. But though he dwells
in a sphere of high intellectuality, the dicta
of his intuition do not leap out of him in
the full panoply of divineness. It detracts
from the dignity of prophecy to expect the
impossible from it. Let us be grateful for the
abundant suggestiveness of the prophets, and
then we appreciate them the more substantially.
For to him who throws out the seed, so that it
'Matthew Arnold, "Literature and Dogma," London,
1883, p. 31. With respect to the enthusiastic temperament
of the Jew and the consequent vivacity in Jewish writings
and in the conduct of the Jews, see Jellinek, " Der jiidische
Stamm," Wien, 1869, p. 16.

Religious Books. 99
bear fruit, to him who scatters the seed with
full hand, is due the harvest, which we gather.
If we should sum up the data of the history of
culture, we shall find those were the helpers
toward progress who suggested rather than
accomplished. For, in the duties, interests,
and circumstances of mankind, no one is en
dowed adequately, so that he could create the
perfect. With respect to secular as well as
religious literature, it were well to consider
that both are distinguished by this feature of
suggestiveness, the one more, the other less.
The merit in them, on the whole, is the degree
of promise. True, the sacred library, then, be
comes larger ; the " Principia " of Newton and
the " First Principles " of Herbert Spencer are
part of it. So much the better. Our time is
rife with suggestiveness. Attainments of to
day are provisional. As in the industrial, so in
the religious world. The patent issued to-day
is likely to be made valueless. All our grand
machinery may turn out to be antiquated,
through the inventive energies, which never
rest. So in the mental activities, we must
content ourselves with doing no more than
hinting at the new thought. Those that will
be after us will see things better, and there
shall rise from amongst them a better spokes
man in behalf of the better to be striven after,
and he, in his turn, will leave the work of

ioo Religious Books.
regeneration, to his successor, to do it more
efficiently and with better insight. Laplace
cries Eureka ! as he peers into the sky and sees
the myriads of stars coordinate their silent,
eternal movements according to his calcula
tions, and leaves the science to his heirs to
make the best of it. The history of progress
traces the incentives and the origin of all
improving and culturing efforts through a suc
cession of genial hints.
This is the main content of the world's
bibles. So long as they are auspices of the
destinies of mankind, and the teachings of
them are still ideals and hopes, they are sacred.
As soon, however, as they merely mark mile
stones in the history of culture, relating what is
acquired and realized, their worth — that is, their
power for edification, reenforcing the energies
of men and giving import to their work — is lost
to them as in proportion their usefulness is
lost. This is the measure which should be put on
biblical literature. The important question to
be decided is : Does this bible or that bible
teach doctrines which at this stage of our his
tory are confirmed or contradicted by the
present state of knowledge and are these doc
trines no longer or still valid? Not the an
tiquity of the Bible, but the juvenility of
its spirit, is telling. How the better is to

Religious Books. 101
come, and how men will have and will be the
better — that is the doctrine with respect to
which a bible must make declaration. For
this there obtains an undiminishing sanctity.
Reducing the sentiment of veneration to its
elements, we find it to consist of admiration of
the better and the wiser, and of attachment to
the more promising, — an attitude of respectful
expectancy. In so far as the Bible renders the status of
public disposition and is the mirror of popular
mind and of popular morality, we may say it
is a faithful record, and it must be respected
for that. But respect for it ought not to be
limited to this. The narrative of past experi
ences is venerable ; it is valuable only when
the light of other aspects is thrown upon it.
There are supplementary data which must be
taken into consideration. The ethnology and
the archaeology of the people, the industrial,
political facts concerning them must be fixed be
fore an estimate can be formed of that people
and of the intrinsic worth of their writings.
Literature is the word-mirror of the national
spirit, but the national spirit is the product of
many confluent causes.
The Jewish Bible is such a mirror of the
Jewish nation. It is, like every national litera
ture, inspirited with the genius of the nation, i
and depicts it. In this lies no distinctive

102 Religious Books.
merit that would mark the Jewish Bible off
from the others. But in the special instance,
not of national but of individual genius, in
which ambitious ideas are thrown out by pow
erful minds, which even now are a vast hope
and an expectation, — in this the Jewish Bible
is exceptional in the class of sacred literature.
The Jewish Bible presents God not as a dra
matic person, of superlative passions and fan
cies, and of royal conduct, patterned anthropo-
morphically. Even in the sense of being a
book of popular religion, it is of high charac
ter. The Jewish people are reflected in the
history of Judaism. Within Judaism the con
cept God has had modifications. The dis
tinctively Jewish conception of God is that
He is recognizable most illustriously in history.
The Jewish God is identical with Providence.
And in the characterization of religion by the
prophets, God is ceaselessly provident. Re
ligious conduct is striving to do the will of God.
Judaism teaches that morality is the temper
in which we feel ourselves to be identified with
the universal purpose which we know is bene
ficent. Judaism recognizes that the best rend
ering of the thought that God is, lies in the
words that He is Providence. The best con
duct is that which is at union with the conduct
of God as it is manifest in the world.
Hence just as the writing of a history of Ju-

Religious Books. 103
daism involves the bringing into every chapter
of it universal history, so the Jew himself feels
it to be his duty as a Jew to be cosmopolitan,
and to see at all times the finger of God di
recting. The Jew hails as a contribution to
life every thing that comes from the wheel of
providential fortune, and every contribution
is helpful to the working out of life, if not of
the individual, at any rate of mankind.
The history of the Jews will bear this out.
This contemplation and deification of Provi
dence, which will be readily seen is different
from fatalism, peeps out continuously in the
career of the Jews. And here is the grand
distinction of Jewish prophets and thinkers.
In Moses, Maimonides, and Mendelssohn, the
same thought and the same ideal is central.
However much they depart from each other in
the incidental features of religious philosophy
and ritual practice (these being allied with di
versity of age), the same spiritual breath is vi
tal in all three.1 The Biblical and the modern
Jews are children of the same spirit ; and as to
the ancient Bible, the Jew thinks, when the
spirit of it will be permitted to walk in the
¦Exodus, XXXIIL, 13 ff . ; "More Nebuchim," III.,
17 and 51, Engl, translation vol. III., pp. 74 and 288 ; Moses
Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, " Gesammelte Schriften," Band
III., p. 348 ; and more at length, "Sache Gottes oder die
gereltete Vorsehung," in " Ges. Schr.," Bd. IL, p. 413 ff.

104 Religious Books.
light of day without peril of obscuration by
bigotry, and will have secured respect, it will
wed the spirit of the future, as the bright
stars sometimes kiss each other and grow into
one ; then the Bible will be closed.

CHAPTER VII.
THE STANDARD OF MORALITY.
The question was asked in one of the schools
in Babylon x : " What is the position of the
Law toward the sinner?" His penalty is,
was the answer, he shall bring a sacrifice, and
that will procure him remission of his sin.
" What is the position of the prophets towards
sin?" The soul that sinneth, that shall die.
"What is the teaching of natural religion?"
Confession of the sin before God and repentance
of it bring forgiveness. But Rabbi Jose add
ed : "Man is judged every day of his life";
yea, declared Rabbi Nathan, every hour!
This quotation gives us a history of Jewish
ethics. The only feature about it to be re
gretted is that it is in negative form. But it
gives us concisely the various stages of concep
tion which obtained successively in Judaism.
From the biblical sacrificial cult to the
period of rationalism at the close of the
Talmud the position of Judaism as to
moral responsibility is clearly stated. At the
time of the priesthood moral derelictions in-
"' Rosh Hashono," 16, a.
105

106 The Standard of Morality.
volved no more than material consequences,
the yielding up of some desirable property.
God was party to a compact with man, and man,
having infringed upon it, was in duty bound to
make restitution. Or, God must be propitiated,
and so the sacrificial present was sent upward
to conciliate. And the prophetic declaration :
" The soul that sinneth, that shall die," finding
its best type in Ezekiel, Ch. XVIII., is a con
siderable advance. Henceforth sin is not to be
atoned for by the death of animals, but by visi
tation upon the person sinning. There shall
be no placating God by gifts, but reparation
shall be exacted from the man himself. Be
yond this, as an appreciable progress, is that
view of morality which embraces not only the
act and its consequences, and fixes the responsi
bility upon the author, but also the play of
motives in the act, and weighs them in the
balance of a refined conscience. This leads us to
an important phase in the history of morals.
Justice is coming to be noticed as having also a
share in the recompense for good and evil. The
Jew was continually conscious of the Almighty
in the high heavens writing into his book of life.
As to justice, it sometimes was hard to believe
that such an unfailing and irreproachable God
presided over the universe, but the notion ob
tained, and was valid, until it yielded to the con
ception of Providence — Providence that judges

The Standard of Morality. 107
every hour ! She holds all, and weighs all, and
judges all. She is the divine wisdom — and even
justice is only subject to her. You see the
gradation. But, as I say, it is preferable to
deal with positive data in matters of ethics,
and this quotation of ours, however concise a
digest it be of the historical succession, does
not suffice for a good definition of ethics itself.
This is a fault which ethical declarations
generally have, that laws of conduct are nega
tive, for ethics is the practice of religion, and
since perforce it must meddle in the doings
of men or else it forfeits its worth and sinks
into theory and speculation, unrelated to the
vital interests of men's lives, it must assert
itself in the first best way. I do not say that
such negative statements of a moral tendency
as : " What does not please thee, do not to thy
neighbor," l are not lofty and are not apt to con
duce to restraints worthy and commendable.
But it is saying nothing deprecatory of the
maxim, when we advert to the fact that so long
as we rest content with merely restraining, we
have not yet done any thing to induce the
highest moral motives. One, who must be
helped along with warnings and admonitions,
1 " Sabbath," 31, b., cf. Matthew vii., 12. Kant, " Grund-
legung sur Metaphysik der Sitten," p. 68, has shown that in
the light of the categoric imperative this is not valid, as a
universal regulation.

108 The Standard of Morality.
is not yet entirely to be trusted ; but the ob
ject of religion and the merit of a man is that
he can be relied on to do the right and not to
swerve from it. Otherwise he is not yet moral
ly matured and, speaking with reference to the
science of ethics, not yet responsible.
But it is agreed that it is just a condition of
moral worth that in the determination of
actions and in the choice of lines of conduct,
the independent reason and the individuality
of the man are involved. We designate a cer
tain purpose or a certain deed as good or as
bad, and award merit or demerit with respect,
not so much to the act itself, as to the source
whence it was suggested. In fact, we recognize
nothing as indicative of maturing in a child, as
when we notice that he is growing gradually
out of control, and prefers resting upon his
own subjectivity. The difference between
youth and manhood is the marked transition
from the first condition, in which the circum
scription of soul-life was within that of the
parents, into another condition, in which the
interests of the growing man become detached
more and more from the identification with
those of the parents, and gravitate into limits
of their own, which he henceforth superintends
and guards himself. We regard the hortatory
character of moral precepts in the same way.
They are preparatory and valid provisionally,

The Standard of Morality. 1 09
the end being the complete emancipation and
self-assertion of the man. So that if there
shall be mention of sin, it shall be in the sense
of such dereliction or criminality as can be
traced directly, disregarding complicity of
others and surely vicarious extenuation, to the
passions of the man, which he, despite the dic
tates of reason and with perverted will, refused
to curb and constrain into the service of the
good.1 Thus let men's lives be judged. By their
virtues and vices proclaiming whether they are
masters, not only to interfere, but to command.
We hold to this thought of ethics, and esti
mate the status of self-conscious and self-
determining morality as the only legitimate
and healthful instance of conduct. We mean
to imply, to be sure, nothing derogatory to
many estimable careers that are ordered other
wise. They are worthy as far as they go, and
are set into scene within their circumstances,
both intrinsic and extrinsic. Laying the meas
ure of absolute ethics on the doings of man, the
resultant disproportion in which the individual
cases come to be seen is in no way meant as a
disparagement. We are expected to lead an
1 " Sukka," 52, b. " By as much as a man's vices are more
stringent than another man's, by so much he evinces himself
as greater, manifesting by the subduing of them a regnant in
dividuality." So also : " There will be no evil disposition
(»'. e., passions) in the days to come."

1 10 The Standard of Morality.
ideal moral life no more than it is possible to
lead an ideal industrial life. We fall grievously
short of attaining that desirable prosperity for
which in the abstract opportunities are offered,
but in reality never entirely turned to our ben
efit. But we can pass judgment on the system
of morality of the various religions, each of
which claims to inculcate a morality sufficient
for and applicable to the needs of life.1
What shall we say concerning the relation of
morality and religion ? According to received
notions the two are not as intimately con
nected as we might suppose. In fact, religion
being generally conceived as a theory concern
ing God and all deductions from that theory,
it is not always made plain that these have
any bearing on the laws of conduct. On the
contrary, in the case of primitive religion, and
we can safely say also in the case of the poly
theism of the Greeks and Romans, it would
not be just to them to identify their religion
with their morals. For the latter was infi
nitely higher, and in every detail a contradiction
of their theology. Zeus, the passionate, can
not pose, and was not intended by the Greeks
themselves to be understood, as the type after
which the devotees were to pattern their con-
1 " Sabbath," 93. " We forego the contemplation of tran-
scendant matters, and devote ourselves to the consideration of
the affairs of this world."

The Standard of Morality. 1 1 1
duct. The notion that the divine was outside
of the world, entirely distinct from the world,
as the tyrant was apart from the people he
ruled, brought in its train the thought that the
deities were also above all law, and that they
evinced their exalted power by contravening
the usual and regular. The divine enjoyed
unlimited indulgence. Unrestrained power is
in every sense arbitrary, and since the hands of
the gods were bound on no side, but were free
to execute their majestic will and indulge their
passions, there was an unquestioned right vested
in them to do their pleasure. And so it came to
pass that among a highly cultured people like
the Greeks, having a well organized social
status, with laws and enactments that turned
upon delicate points of right and duty, with a
refined public spirit and reverence, a popular re
ligion obtained, which was diametrically hostile
in spirit to the perpetuation of all this. A proof
for the fact that religion and morality were
thought to be essentially distinct.
But we have outgrown both this and also
the perversion of the Middle Ages. The once
current diatribe, " Do not as I do, but do as I
say," has lost its application to any one, except
to the notoriously perverse. We have learned
to know better about morals.
Religion is no longer simply a theory, but it
is a practice. The question is not : what do

i i 2 The Standard of Morality.
you believe ? but : how about your life ?
With much deference for every wise dis
quisition about things to build our faith on,
we are bold to say that speculations concern
ing the deity do not solely determine the
character of our conduct. The considera
tions, which were thought to be the all-
important condition of the quality of our
manhood, have dwindled into their proper
size before the growing conviction that the
paramount concern of our life is what sort of
character we manifest by our deeds and by
the manner we bear ourselves in our dealings
with our fellow men. We go farther. We are
satisfied with the conduct of the man, and are
willing to accept him into our religious fra
ternity, provided his conduct can pass muster.
The character is all-decisive ; the deed is all-
demonstrative. The word, the letter, grows
sere with age, the book becomes antiquated,
the dogma is touched by the acid of criticism
(and a biting, corroding acid it is). But the
spirit is ever young and never fades, and can
live in perennial, youthful vigor. The work
of our hands, let that be firmly established !
We care not so much whether the musket the
soldier raises to his shoulder have a stain, so
long as his shot hit the mark. And we flatter
ourselves to believe that he who aims well,
having sent home his aim safely, will be able,

The Standard of Morality. 113
when the roll is called, to raise his hand in
honor. But though in this expectation of work and
deed, and making the quality of that the
criterion, we may be presumptuous, and
though we claim immunity from blame, nay,
award of merit to all those who, with the
capacities of which they are possessed, strive
to accomplish the best, still we are profoundly
humble. When we think of that ideal purity,
of transcendent loftiness of spirit, which, bet
ter equipped and greater in soul-strength, has
taken hold of the reins of government within,
and does not only restrain desires and pas^
sions, but more heroically goes out in its
spiritual independence to seek virtue and
to practise it, then we know our littleness,
imperfection, and weakness. Then the little
goodness and timorous piety in us dwindle
into puerile attempts, and we understand
what it means when we say that prophets
only move thus in the region of spiritual
ity. So that, while we insist on it that we be
received not ungraciously, because we have
been independent of tradition and theory,- we
assert that we have, let us say, striven honestly
and seriously to adjust our life and our inter
est in order that they fit and are in harmony
with the communal welfare.
Neither tradition nor theoretic religion has

1 14 The Standard of Morality.
a right to brand a peaceable life as immoral,
just because it was not turned out of their
workshop. I will not say that the geniuses
of the world have not allowed themselves to
be trampled, even by consecrated authority.
Since many of them were leaders of religious
movements, this might not be clear. But it is
demonstrable that in the humble man, who
lays no claim to extraordinary gifts, but who
plods along the path of his life in the manner
in which the weight of his body and the
specific gravity of his character permit him,
this is the very virtue of his reticent but harm
less conduct. He has made choice of the good
according to his best information, and persisted
in doing it. When we pick out of this unpre
tentious career these elements, by which the
man manifests that he was conscious of being
above his condition, and by this means declares
it, by an assertion of mastery, how much will
there be cause for admiration, when the more
endowed, or when the rare minds give display
of their power, and throw out their grand soul
upon the scene of their life, darkening every
thing else, and letting the lustre of their indi
viduality shine.

CHAPTER VIII.
THEORIES OF ETHICS.
Abstractions have no material value ; they
may be of consequence in the theory of things,
but have no immediate bearing, and surely no
factitive influence upon the affairs of the day
and hour. In morals, however, we are con
cerned with the aggregation of trifles, which,
though they involve no great consequence
singly, it is our fair opinion, must be duly
regarded. For success is desired, and our
reputation is dear to us. We are callous, com
paratively, as to how we are classed as regards
to our theology; but the reserve of our com-
bativeness is called into requisition, if our in
tegrity is impugned. We draw a line there ;
beyond that no one may go. This marks off
the sanctuary, and we call out to all invaders :
This is holy ground !
Of the distinction between theology and our
moralness we are aware. It is clear. No one
can mistake it. What I believe has only in
direct bearing upon what I do. My fervent
expectation of salvation, or my conviction that
there is none any more to come, but that it
"5

1 1 6 Theories of Ethics.
has been spent already, is a matter almost of
indifference. For such considerations are not
predominantly present in the conflict between
interest and conscience. I must decide my
course of action. These two aspects of reli
gion diverge. By the one we choose the path
to heaven, and in the contemplation of that
blissful event of entering heaven, we are pre
occupied with sentimental devotion ; by the
other we hold fast to the conviction that the
divine need not be searched for, that the work
of life has been portioned out to us by the
hand of God. Transcendental religion, such
as the faith whose centre of gravity lies in a
kingdom of heaven, spurns this earth, and sets
the heart of man upon an everlasting dream.
The religion of practical ethics asserts that this
divinely-wrought earth has not yet been ex
hausted, nor ever will ; that, in fact, man has
been set into life upon it, in order that, by the
innumerable occasions which the labors and
duties offer, he might evince his rationalness
and his latent capacities, and by the experi
ences that come upon him in consequence of
earnest, diligent pursuit of his vocation and
occupation, discipline himself, and grow good
and wise. The history of priestly religion is a
successive alteration in the interpretation of
man's life as a resignation to the will of God.
The history of ethics per se repeats, with

Theories of Ethics. 1 1 7
growing urgency, the demand of reverence for
man. Whatever reformation there was in reli
gion resulted in shifting the dogma that God
is unapproachable. But ethics will have no
compromise. It is peremptory in the assertion
that this earth is as divine as heaven, and that
the duties which are to be fulfilled, wherever
and whenever they are to be fulfilled, call out
our soul, no less than prayer and devotion do.
To give a history of morals, let me say, does
not involve, except in a small degree, the his
tory of sectarian religion. For it is a fact that
good morals obtain in spite of a bad religion,
and bad morals in the face of a good religion.
Even nowadays there is an inexplicable tolera
tion of reprehensible characters by ritualism.
The incongruity between profession and deed
is sometimes painfully noticeable. A conven
tional connivance at foibles, nay faults, even
vices, was and is practised, and there was fre
quently a popular impression that moral flaws
in private affairs are no legitimate obstruction
in church. So much were morals and religion
divorced from each other. The history of sects
is almost similarly distinct from the history of
morals. An unmistakable difference lies in this. In
the history of morals there are no leaders, and
the epochs of it do not group about great men.
It is the history of the people, and deals with

1 1 8 Theories of Ethics.
the current of popular mind. There is no
autocracy, just as there never was a hierarchy,
in morals. The history of morality is demo
cratic. No one man could fix opprobrium
upon one kind of an act or merit upon
another kind; This was done by the voice of
the people, and the frank, undisguised approval
or disapproval of the neighbor, of the fellow-
citizens, the honor, the toleration, the dis
honor of these declared what was right and
what was wrong.
Let me, however, not omit to say that con
science had quite a vote in this question of
right and wrong, of the moral and the im
moral. The common consent was practically
decisive, but the silent voice within us, by its
power of reproof, is not to be left out of
consideration. If any one should suggest here
that a religious element then participates in
practical morality, we shall have to remind
that dogmatist of the fact that conscience
is not a matter of theology. Conscience tells
us what is righteous, and if conscience were
legitimately theological, it must not be im
pugned. If God has put conscience into
man, he put it into him to help him along, and
the Zulu is a brother of ours in the faith.
Poor, perverted, depraved child of the wilds,
how art thou then, and why art thou then
helped along so pitiably, by this parody of a

Theories of Ethics. 1 19
voice of God within thee, to fumble and to
stumble amidst barbarities ! I rather believe,
he would get on better, if God had not given
him that conscience at all. It is a misfor
tune, — this weird whisper lulling him into
satisfaction with his beastly practices.
Conscience has a history, and did not come
ready-made out of the hand of God. God
planted not even the weed into the field in
complete outfit of blade and little blossom ;
he constrains the tender rose to come out
of its snug home in the soil, to quiver and to
blush in the light and air, till it bloom. God
gave the suggestions, and the earth works them
out. He made nothing in full panoply at
once. He thought and the eternities labor to
bring that thought out. So let us not equip
man with a full spiritual uniform at his birth.
Man was immature, and is ripening very
slowly. Conscience is the tardy fruit to come.
Conscience, the pure voice and the sovereign
dictator of right, is the latest acquisition. To
the eventual attainment of it, culture and civili
zation devote their best results; for conscience
is the word of the spirit, of the free spirit, which
speaks from the height of its emancipated
state. It has nobility only when it is paired
with wisdom and goodness. Conscience is not
before, conscience comes after, moral habits.
The thought I wish to emphasize is, that it is the

1 20 Theories of Ethics.
inalienable right and office of the people to
determine morals. In morals neither priests nor
heroes, except they teach by example, have any
say. The history of morals has its counterpart
in the history of the people. I mean here
practical ethics : actual behavior, conduct. To
these abstract morality, inculcations of reli
gious principles are related as the principles of
music and the scale are related to the innocent
song of the child in joyous moments, or to the
magnificent soul-inspiring melodies of Beetho
ven and Mozart. Intuitive judgments as to
right are guesses made within our intel
lectual horizon. Manly determination by
conscious decision and knowledge of actual
merit requires a broad sweep of wisdom and
refinement. This process of moral improve
ment can be helped along, but essentially the
fate of it depends upon ourselves.
There is no chance for arbitrariness in public
opinion. There is an undercurrent of provi
dential wisdom in large movements and in
enduring conditions, and there is no more
glorious instance of the presence of the divini
ty on earth than in this moulding of the souls
of humanity. The destiny of mankind mankind
itself works out, and the spirit of God, ever
since creation, is in it. All the concerns on
earth, weighed down with profound import,
were entrusted to mankind. Who will say that

Theories of Ethics. 1 2 1
they are paltry, when the conviction can be
brought home to us that every human being on
earth is part in it and is made party to it. The
humble being is allied with the majesty of
Providence ; the weak hands of man assisting
the divine work.
So it is with the quality of our deeds. There
is a responsibility we bear, that goes farther
than involving merely our individual welfare.
We are responsible to mankind. With respect to
the question whether we have taken honorable
part in the activity of the human life ; whether
we have enhanced it by our personal con
duct, or degraded it ; whether we have deflected
our course from that of the universal one, that
will be judged. The issue will be : How about
our life? Belief is impotent ; the deed is full
of consequences. The dogma is a pretty asser
tion, but the morals is a prime condition. In
dividuality is the criterion of the worth of our
life, and the voice of the people is the judge of
it. Conscience is the highest synthesis of our
soul-experiences, and the earth is the only
place where the soul gives evidence of its
divinity. Forego the dreams of the future ;
throw yourself with all the energies you possess
upon the present. This earth is divine ; God
is active here, and every day unfolds a divine
thought and throws its beauty out before our
eyes. We are not, however, to content our-

1 2 2 Theories of Ethics.
selves with observing these beauties which God
has wrought, but rather set to recognizing that
which is in them, viz., wisdom, goodness. We
can create, in the form of deeds, motives, senti
ments, something, than which nothing is nobler,
nothing sublimer to turn out of the workshop
of Providence.
Let us not rest in contemplation ; let us give
up ourselves, so that we in turn be beheld, and
so that we offer joy to the beholders. Let us
be evidences of the deity. Ours is the sphere
of the spirit ; in that let us work, not by word,
not by dogma, not by profession, but by work.
Let us identify ourselves with the thought that
was suggested by means of us by the Creator,
when he planted the seeds of purity into us.
The voice of Conscience, then a whisper, dis
torted so long, is growing melodious and
strong, — a voice of manhood, and of manliness,
and of godliness.

CHAPTER IX.
THE PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE.
What is the position of science toward re
ligion, and in what respects has religion any
dealings with science? The question, in this
general form, has been the source of much mis
understanding. I say question, for the matter
has not got much beyond being a question. An
answer is yet a desideratum. We content our
selves with merely broaching the problem.
Our aim is to suggest that, beside the positive-
ness of faith, which devolves on us as a kind of
spiritual inheritance, there is taking place an
accumulation of experimental wisdom. This
secular knowledge, conventionally foreign to
religion, is of practical value as the aggregate
experience and wisdom of mankind. It is, for
the present, sufficient, if we have brought our
selves to appreciate that there is significance
in the profane side of the history of mankind.
Of what value this is with respect to religion is
another question. First it is requisite to
know that facts of universal experience, the
earnings of ages of thrift, are didactic. But
they are more. It is not pastoral cant to say,
123

124 The Progress of Knowledge.
a man is accounted, not for what he has, but
for what he is. So it is with humanity. The
degree of culture is gauged by the intrinsic
worth of it. The outer life of mankind, the
manifold activities and passivities which con
stitute its eventful career, like the spokes of the
wheel to the axle-tree, are irradiations of a cen
tral soul.
There is one feature in the history of man
kind which makes it different from the natural
history of the world. It does not narrate
simply the coming into and the going out of
existence, as the history of animal life, or of
organic life as a whole. Mankind does more
than live and die, and there are more data in
its biography than birth and death. In human
life there is implied a state of soul. This
psychical part marks off the human life from
all other organized existences.
This soul-life suffuses the career of man ;
makes him what he is. The body is the man
tle and the sword of the soul for defence, for
work. The muscles are in its service ; the
fibres and the delicate nerves convey its mes
sages to the world. So the entire world is the
ample garment of the divine spirit, which, in
grace, in beauty, in rhythm, conform to it.
Let us carry the analogy further. The history
of mankind has a creative and sovereign
thought resident within, by the dictates of

The Progress of K?iowledge. 125
which the times of culture and the times of
barbarity come. This is the seed from which
all the fruit ripens.
Man is typical of Providence. It sometimes
seems as if the great and the small of this
universe were patterned after one guiding
thought. That thought is the divine thought
which it were presumptuous to pretend con
ceiving. But it is allowed to say that every
one can see glimpses of it. A central thought
and matter rotating about it is the term com
mon to all parts of the universe. From the
blade of grass, driven out of the ground by a
strange force in the capsular seed, to the or
ganism of the universe, filling the vast space
of the eternities, — through all of these a pro
found thought is realizing itself. Each one is
akin to the great world in this. In the uni
verse God works by quantity, in us by consid
erations of quality. Nature is the symbol of
God's thought in the mass ; the noble man repre
sents the divine ideal in the finest instance. But
the thought of the Creator in man makes him
what he is. The idea emanating from the
exalted spirit is creative through all time.
Morals and the natural sciences confirm each
other. The virtue in a man is a credit to him
only in so far as it is evidence that his charac
ter has willed it. The moral man is the self-
determining man. The world in a similar

1 26 The Progress of Knowledge.
manner is revealing the sovereign God. The
conduct of matter, the Tightness of natural
law, the peace in creation, the inscrutable and
yet signally noticeable purpose to which atom
and individual subserve, the design by which
the singly discordant elements are harmonized,
— are they not an impressive confirmation of
the teaching : The man of love and of under
standing is blest ! The justness of the pious
is like the justice of God ; here again there is
kinship between man and his Creator.
It will not do to teach morality and make it
a separate matter. Long enough has there
been the promulgation of ethics on the author
ity of a man. We want corroboration, proof.
Whatever is declared must be established.
In such a matter as what is best to do, we will
not be satisfied with the dogmatism of one,
even though that one be ever so genial. For
the collective wisdom is greater than his.
Lines of conduct no single person can mark
out for mankind. He knows that he is power
less to prescribe to gross matter. For it has
a mysterious volition of its own. How can
he for the refined soul ! Ethics is the uni
versal law enforced in the miniature world of
man. One who shall benefit us and direct
our energies and thoughts and feelings into
the right, and deflect them from the wrong,
must have found the universal parallax first,
must have an introspection into the mechan-

The Progress of Knowledge. 1 2 7
ism of God's work, understanding the mode
of things and of souls by which they sever
ally and unitedly coordinate themselves. He
must know more of the divine thought
than we do ; he must have gone out into the
arena of the physical life, and there by patient
and prolonged observation and by genial pre
sentiment have learnt the law of right that
God executes there. For there He practises
His ethics. The teacher of morals for us must
know the moral doctrine, as it were, of God.
The moralist must be the scientist. This shall
be his title to teach us justice, if he shall have
seen best the justice of God. He shall draw
for us the limits of our rights and of our
duties, and their extent, according to the mag
nificent prototype which God gives. Of course,
this demands a high grade of scientific attain
ment, and in this sense also it becomes obvi
ous that, while some of our ethical principles
are worthy and safe guides, we can expect
that our ethics will be illumined and purified
with every step of progress in knowledge and
culture. Civilization is the thermometer by
which we can gauge our standards of morality.
The soul in us prescribes our conduct according
to the degree of its emancipation. The intellect
is to be trusted in proportion to its health.1
1 Intellectual perfection and moral perfection belong in
separably together ; the one is inconceivable without the
other. — Maimonides, Introduction to " More Nebuchim,"
and "More Nebuchim," I., 34.

1 2 8 The Progress of Knowledge.
It is indulgent to hold a man pious because
he does the best he is aware of. But he should
know more than he is aware of. It is due from
him to achieve progress, and to be as intelligent
as is possible for him concerning his place in
life. It is almost wrong, by a too finely drawn
tolerance, to indulge a man in ignorance. The
duty of every man is to advance beyond the
condition into which his birth and circum
stances have put him. By as much as he
strives to improve intellectually, by so much
he refines himself morally !
Here we have the recommendation to heed
the sciences. They discipline us into better
men. They bring us acceptable precepts, be
cause they have gathered them out of the
school of the universe. The concepts of
morals are then one department of God's law,
as the concepts of physics are another depart
ment of God's law. Then, as in the realm of
matter, God is present at the movement of each
atom and at the unfolding of every organism,
because by virtue only of the demonstration of
the thought, the thinker is manifest, so in the
realm of morals, at every instance of right-
doing, the personality of a man actually comes
to be.
We are what we do, and we exist only while
we act. We give proof of ourselves by deed,
and we proclaim what we are by the quality of

The Progress of Knowledge. 129
our life. Let us not be moral dreamers, but
doers. Let us not be content with senti
mental professions, but insist on manly en
deavor. The moralness of our deeds throws
our dogmatics into the waste-basket. There
shall not be one jot of our character but what
shall receive its due attention. Let us not, for
the sake of idle comfort, fondle ourselves into
the illusion that, having done what is pre
scribed and guarded ourselves against infrin
ging upon the prohibited, we are righteous.
According to the conventional judgment, we
may be acceptable. But by the dignity of our
humanity, we are not ennobled until we have
achieved the best. We are destined to attain
to a higher individuality. We must not stop.
God never ceases producing, and we might, to
our benefit, imitate the divine assiduity. It
looks almost as if God were Infinite Ambition,
creating every moment new beauties which
he allows to fade, that He might create new
and more glorious beauties. From that noble
yearning let us learn. The present is a precious
gift, but the future, which Providence hides
from us, is more precious. So God, so the
world, so the wisdom of mankind, teach the
insatiable, eternal ambition after the nobler,
the purer, the more divine-like.
The history of art runs parallel with the
history of civilization. Knowing what a man

1 30 The Progress of Knowledge.
calls beautiful, we know much about him. We
can make a guess as to what is his character.
Tell us of the favorite arts of a people, and
you have at once told us of its life, of its
political, its domestic, its religious matters.
For on the surface of a man's conduct lies his
character, and through the diversified activi
ties of a nation we can trace its ideal.
We need not be told what dogmas a sect
teaches, so long as we can see some of its
churches. The sombre walls, the melancholy
atmosphere, in between the columns, and the
dull light, listlessly hovering about the darkened
windows, tell the catechism. Lead me else
where, where the sun has free scope and
the light glows white, and the fresh air is
charged with perfume. Does it require a pro
phetic gift to guess what doctrines obtain
amid such cheer? The castles, skirting the
borders, look down into the valleys from the
tops of well-defended mountains, like so many
barons set to lording over abject vassals, em
blems of oppression ! The hamlets throughout
our land, simple and unadorned, tell by their
artlessness that the time has come for unpre
tentious, conscious freedom. The Buddhists
burrow into the mountains of granite and hol
low out their temple, leaving columns, like
reeds, to hold the massive cupola above, and
thus unwittingly tell us all we need to know

The Progress of Knowledge. 1 3 1
about them. We try to enter into God, they
say thus symbolically, and be swallowed up in
the maw of eternal mystery. There is not a
spire nor steeple but what is emblematic. The
very style in which our city-halls, our houses
of legislature, are built, are records of the
history of the emancipation of the people and
their present republicanism. So the mind, so
the heart, so our most earnest concerns, declare
themselves. The very stones speak.
All this is involuntary and spontaneous. We
can no more prevent this mute revelation of
the soul of mankind, than we can close up the
chinks in the wall of the sky to keep out the
light. The world has its own method, and per
sists in it. There is not a thought, however
much you may keep it secret, but will be known,
and a time may come when in the very market
places this thought will be heard. Let it but
have enlisted a number of adherents who have
grouped their lives around it, and this mental
encampment will be visible to the world.
They cannot conceal it. Every line of the
face will reveal it.
We ought to learn more of this fact — how
public we are. Providence is intolerant of
masks, tears them off, and brings out the con
tour of our character into undeceiving relief.
This is the art of Providence.1
Every period is mirrored. We need not
1 Compare our remarks on page 63.

1 3 2 The Progress of Knowledge.
delve into abstruse study for that. A matter-
of-fact observation of things at hand will do.
It will then appear as if out of the centre of the
universe a spirit were pushing, radiating out
ward into every point ; as if all things were in
fused with it. The multitudinous experiences,
wants, aspirations, are the folds of that sover
eign thought. The world is a statue and there
is a soul in it ; this soul is swelling the muscles
and quickening the blood, and gives a sparkle
to the eyes, and presses out the tears, and puts
a quiver on the lips. That soul lives in every
fibre. Let us have a broader view of Providence.
The world is God's. His thought is at work
everywhere ; all things reveal it. Let us not
speak of religion as if it were nothing but
a matter of belief, and solely stern, legal
practice. It is belief, it is practice ; but it is
more. Religion is the greatest of arts. Re
ligion is another word for how much of the
beautiful there is in the world we have taken
into ourselves and made it our own. I might
be persuaded to dogmatize. He who sees ele
ments of beauty everywhere is nearest to God.
At any rate he is likely to appreciate best
what God has done and is doing in this world.
The divine is superlatively beautiful. What
ever charms by the appeals of melody, by the
bewitching graces of proportion, be it in the

The Progress of Knowledge. 133
massive structures of terrestrial things, be it
in the delicate mold of face or flower, be it in
the sweet inspiration of love, or in the glory
of thought, wherever it be, that partakes
of divinity and has a claim on our religious
life.1 Art and the culture of art are parts of
religious duty. We must promote our talents
in the direction of the beautiful, that thus we
might by refinement of ourselves come to be
more in sympathy with that eternally perfect
ing work of art which God has set upon the
canvas of finite existence.
The first help in pious devotion was the art
of dancing. The future shall see a religion in
which not the gross and sensual delectation,
but all the arts, the delicious, spiritual apti
tudes of our being, shall make for us an harmo
nious spirituality. They will be a source of
beatitude, and shall be creative for us of a
rounded and peaceful and unified life.
1 Maimonides (" More Nebuchim," II., 4) speaks of assthet-
ico-somatic acts, which he terms as equivalent to acts of crea
tion.

CHAPTER X.
THE HISTOR Y OF JUDAISM.
The distinctive feature which marks off the
history of Judaism from the history of any
other religion, leaving out of view considera
tion of the intrinsic character, is that it needs
universal history to make a proper presenta
tion of it possible. The aid of universal his
tory is necessary as a complement to round
off the chapters of Jewish experience. It'
offers also an explanation of the contents
of Jewish mental life. Without it the pecu
liarly religious habit of the Jewish people
would lose significance. The Jewish people,
from the time that their national solidarity was
disintegrated, have had dealings with the world
at large. Since the Diaspora their experiences
are a continuous cycle of passivity. With the
disruption of the Jewish commonwealth and
with the departure from Palestine, the thread
of Jewish history began to seize hold of rela
tion to many individual histories. Though in
some countries the infusion by them had not
effected much, the retroaction upon the Jews
themselves of the new circumstances, which
134

The History of Judaism. 135
conditioned their industrial and mental activi
ties and their religious practices, was in an
important degree appreciable.
It is easy to understand that the exile and
the dispersion were events which the Jews in
the course of years came to estimate in a
melancholy manner. By the gradually more
saddening conditions of life they were led to
feel that while their comfort rested solely in
contemplation and soul-sanctification, the pros
perity of their households and the success in
their occupations were exasperatingly growing
into dependence upon the nations and the
arbitrary boon or withdrawal of tolerance by
those into whose hands their fate had thrown
them. Politically the history of the Jews dur
ing the Talmudic, Gaonic, and Rabbinic period
is to a large degree determined by the chapters
of contemporaneous history of Asia, Africa,
and Europe. I need not cite instances. From
the first kings of the Goths, who as Gratz ' has
it, "enacted the first act of that frightful
drama, which finds its climax in the terrible
decrees of Ferdinand and of Manuel of Portu
gal," until this century, the life of the Jews
is a struggle such as records of history at large
have no duplicate of. It is a phenomenon by
itself. 1 " Die westgothische Gesetzgebung in Betreff der Juden "
(Jahresbericht d. jild. theolog. Seminars), Breslau, 1858, p. 2.

136 The History of Judaism.
We have no mention to make here of the
exceptional fortitude with which the Jews
bore oppressions. Nor is it our intention to
say one word of praise for the steadfastness
in faith nor for the loyal persistence in the
course of law-abiding peacefulness. Knowing
the great provocation, it is both affecting and
a testimony to religious heroism, whose lustre
will not tarnish. I have in view the fact that
to round off the external aspect of Judaism,
we are constrained to keep in view universal
history. We find in this fact an instance of that
staunch morality, of which we spoke before.
We find, finally, in this an exemplification of
a moral habit of life. The Jewish people
were not ascetic in their reticence and seclu
sion, not sentimentally passive, because of a
pious withdrawal from contact with the world,
but aggressively and defensively committed
to active participation in the duties and task of
the passing hours. I wish here, by way of
parenthesis, to remark that I am speaking of
the Jewish people mainly as a religious com
munity, from which, for the purposes in hand,
I divorce its racial feature. When I refer to
the history of the Jewish people I mean that
significance attaches to that history only in so
far as it is the mirror of the Jewish religion and
of the Jewish conception of morality. Of the
consideration concerning the superior vitality of

The History of Judaism. 137
this race among more powerful races, despite
the malevolence and repression on the part of
the domineering nations, and the disparity of
numbers ; of a strange and perplexing calmness
and unwavering spirit of solidarity in that per
secuted little tribe ; of this special, ethnological
matter, except in so far as it is indicative of
moral strength, I do not wish to speak here.
We must content ourselves with merely as
serting that the cause of this racial healthful-
ness were solid faith and solid ethics. These
had inured themselves into the Jewish people,
and had turned organic. Religion, having be
come constitutional, proved a source of vigor,
upon which it was safe to draw for resources in
troublesome and trying times. And I refer to
that constituent of history, which in the form of
persecution, plied restlessly against this strong
hold, if not with the purpose of breaking it
down, at least to vent its spleen and to have
gratification in the aggressive and destructive
effort against it.
The waves roll and heave and swell in the open
sea ; they pursue their wild sport, coming in
with the tide; but I have noticed them often,
as they come near to the shore, they slacken,
and while tossing their white manes, and
throwing themselves down in a shower of
spluttering foam, they seem all at once to feel
they are approaching the unmoved rock, and at

1 38 The History of Judaism.
its feet they grow quiet and smoothen out into
calm undulations. I felt tempted to carry out
the analogy, and I thought in the presence of
the royal conduct of a pious people, steadfast
ly loyal to their faith, — passions and bigotry
would abate. But the events teach a differ
ent lesson. The analogy between matter and
spirit does not hold. The unemancipated, fa
talistic conduct of nature has a way for peace
fulness, to which the spirit cannot easily attain,
despite its transcendent nobility.
Providence seems to have a twofold kind of
government. The realms of the material and
of the spiritual are distinct. But, in reality, be
it here remarked, the two, if we follow them to
their ultimates, flow into each other. If we
distinguish them as separate agents, executing
the design of Providence, in the form of cul
ture, and of physical development, with a two
fold source, and continually interacting, we
shall at some periods in the history of the
world find conflicts, which to our circumscribed
vision appear hindering and harmful. To speak
less abstrusely, let me say that history is com
plicated and it is not always possible for us
to see the drift of it. History is, properly,
not merely a narrative of personal and of
national events, but embraces the entire range
of terrestrial action. I wish to say concerning
this all-encompassing experience of humanity,

The History of Judaism. 139
that, while we are confident it is tending to
ward an aim, which it is bound to attain, and
for which we most frequently have guaranty,
yet sometimes we lack sufficient discretion to
reconcile us to occurrences which seem foreign,
nay, hostile, to the providential plan.
In the special case I have now in hand, the
hostility to Judaism, endless apparently as it
undoubtedly must have appeared to the poor,
down-trodden Jew of the Middle Ages, coupled
with the uselessness of this hostility, and its
failure to move the Jew one jot from his
conviction and practice, seem, at least, a vain
expenditure of energy. And the philosopher
of history, who sees in the phenomena of
history unmistakable evidence of spiritual
dynamics, approaches this chapter of Jewish
history with much hesitation. For here, pre
sumably from their inception, the Jewish people,
endowed with exceptional tenacity, provoke
antagonism. But there is no appreciable re
turn for the prolonged outlay of moral ener
gy. The contest between Judaism and the
world results in a splintering strength, and
accomplishes nothing. No material benefit ac
crues to the Jewish people from their fortitude
and their noble sentimentality, nor to the na
tions of Asia and of Europe for the assertion of
authority over them, and for the indulgence of
passion against them.

140 The History of Judaism.
The remarkable fidelity of the Jews to Juda
ism has redounded certainly, in a certain degree,
to the greater illumination of both Jews and
non-Jews. But Providence does not spend her
energies upon the paltry business of awarding
praise. She desires tangible acquisitions and
a material furtherance of the cause of truth
and the dissemination of it. This shall con
duce ultimately to the transformation of the
knowledge of truth into the faculty for the do
ing of it by men. Now, the question is, in
what respect has Judaism itself grown better
by reason of its struggles, and to what purpose
for the aggregate interests of mankind has
Providence subjected the people of Israel to
buffets and hardships ?
In one way we can see a justification of the
eventful career of the Jews, because, though
it induced the venom of bigoted oppression,
it had eventually disciplinary value for the
nations of Europe. But what justification
of it can we cite, looking at this from the Jew
ish side ? The time is now proper to ask this
question. We are far enough removed from
the scene to presume to behold it in a tout
ensemble. We ask: What was the benefit to
Judaism in all this? It cannot be that the
handful of Jews alone were regarded. That
could have been done with less melancholy
means and with smaller outlay. Nor is it

The History of Judaism. 141
clear, it must be admitted, that the regenera
tion of the Jews was not as illustrious as the
unusual expenditure of effort would justify
one to expect. Besides, large events and a
prolonged tendency in events, we can safely
say, deal not with individuals, nor with com
munities, but with causes and purposes which
transcend single and local interests. Jewish his
tory, embracing the whole vista almost of the
history of mankind, must bear a large signifi
cance and explain a sweeping truth.
The kernel of Jewish history is Judaism.
This is admitted. Whatever prominence the
Jewish people has enjoyed (and that prominence
is growing to-day) attaches to it solely because
of the religious idea, of which it is the exponent.
The history of the Jewish people proves that
it has significance because of its religion.
Says Dr. Wise : " If you ask me why the Jews
are forever the target of the petulant and bar
barous assassins of human happiness, I must
answer with the question, why is genius, why
are the representatives of genius, the target of
the same assassins? The Jew is the represen
tative of eternal and the loftiest genius. Are
we not a century in advance of the world in
our religious conceptions, in our charitable
practices and in our fraternal oneness? . . .
Are we not the perpetual protestation against
the world's superstitions and atheism ? Are we

142 The History of Judaism.
not the loudest voice crying in the wilderness
for toleration, humanity, and the unity of man
kind on the moral and intellectual basis?"1
It will then not be presumptuous to say that
the religious idea was the centre of the history
of the Jews. Only in this sense the mission of
the Jews can be understood. The Jews must
give way to Judaism.2
Now we ask further, seeing that Judaism is
the paramount concern, and the Jews, as it were,
merely the incidentalness of it, in what respect
did its history accrue beneficially to Judaism ?
This brings us to the head of our problem and
suggests superficially as an answer, an alterna
tive. We must determine what is the value of
experience in matters of religion. But we
must ascertain and determine whether religious
teachings need experience at all to corroborate
them. It may be that we are desirous to ob
tain for our religious conception such a degree
of positiveness that it should be as compelling
1 "Genius in History and History of Genius", American
Israelite, March 17, 1882.
2 Dr. Ludwig Philippson says: "Not to Judaism, as it
has been until now, will mankind finally attain, but to the
religious idea, as it has been carried along by Judaism un
changed through all its phases, and partially brought to the
world by Christianity and Mohammedanism." And : " He is
a Jew, who acknowledges the one, eternal God, not as a Jew
in specie, but as devotee of the religious idea, which is con
tained in Judaism." (" Die Entwickelung der religiosen Idee,"
Leipzig, 1874, p. 179.)

The History of Judaism. 1 43
as an axiom. Of course that would be an ex
alted and as yet an uncommon quality of re
ligion. But it is certainly desirable that to
have an implicit conviction in the principles of
Judaism they should have applicative certainty.
Toward such a conception of Judaism experi
ence stands in the same manner as toward all
intuitions. They are true and were considered
to be true, and experimental help does not in
an essential way enhance their validity. It did
not require an exceptional method to bring
home the fact that the multiplication table can
be relied on. The rationalist knows that such
truths come spontaneously and are transfused
with the blood, and are gotten possession of
and transmitted in an organic way.
All this points one way. Jewish history is
an experiment, as the life of each and every
one is an experiment, that is, a trial of what
his theory of life is worth.1 There is thus
1 This larger meaning of individual lives and of their
diversity is admirably defended by John Stuart Mill: "As
it is useful that while mankind are imperfect there should
be different opinions, so it is that there should be different ex
periments of living. . . . Where, not the person's own charac
ter, but the traditions or customs of other people are the rule
of conduct, there is wanting one of the principal ingredients
of human happiness, and quite the chief ingredients of indi
vidual and social progress " (" On Liberty," People's Edition,
London, p. 33). I add that, not only should this individua
lization be furthered by govermental aid, but that, such is
the benefit which accrues to mankind from these multifari-

144 The History of Judaism.
in this world an enactment of myriads of
such trials of theories. The private life is
never so private, but what the content of it
becomes eventually public property. Provi
dence generously leaves the trivialities to us
and respects our little secrets. But our
character, which unifies these trivialities and
systematizes our career, is very important.
For that is one of the delicate experiments
Providence made in the laboratory of the spirit.
Some of these are worthless, and she rejects
them. Some of them, very promising at the
start, she has the grief to see fail and end in
disaster. Over these she weeps. But some are
precious to her. For they boil or cool at the
proper temperature, — expand and contract,
liquefy and grow solid, under given conditions,
Over these she rejoices. Now, contemplating
the history of the Jewish people, its varying
fortunes, its sorrows, its joys, its degradation
and its glory, is it not an experiment, an ex
periment in religion ? Jewish history is a test
of the Jewish religion, and the practice shows
the worth of the theory of Judaism.
Let us claim for Jewish history no miracu
lous intervention.1 I am willing to put it on
ous experiments, that the complexity of human society, in
economics and in religion, is explicable mainly on the lines of
this thought.
1 " In this grand demolition of mythical religion, the noise

The History of Judaism. 145
par with universal history. The survival of
the Jewish people is no wonder, but the natu
ral consequence of the moral life of the Jews.
The fidelity of the Jew to his faith, and his
fortitude are natural complements of clear
religiousness. The genial gifts of Jewish minds,
and the mobility of his sentiments, like the
fine sand thrown on the plate, that shivers and
dances at the touch of the bow, are states of a
soul which has the conviction of the blood-
relationship between man and man, and of the
kinship of man and the entire universe. This
is the reason why Jewish history is universal,
because the Jewish faith teaches the brother
hood of all men in their various walks of life,
and a theory of living which so far has stood
the test best.
of which fills our age, Judaism, such as the centuries have
made it, is the religion which has had the least to suffer and
the least to fear, for its miracles and practices constitute no
integral and essential part, so that, consequently, it does not
crumble with them." J. Darmsteter, "Die Philosophic der
Geschichte des jttdischen Volkes," deutsch von J. Singer,
Wien, 1884, p. 37. Engl, trans, in Hebrew Review, vol. II. ,
1881-82, p. 76.

CHAPTER XI.
FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN fUDAISM.
An important chapter in the history of
foreign influence upon Judaism is the period
immediately after the origin of Christianity. It
seemed as if the Jewish population.in Palestine
was disintegrating into many sects, the like
of which had never been before among the Jew
ish people. It was a time of intoxication, in
the midst of great mental activity. Metaphys
ical doctrines, concealed beneath a mass of
mysticism, grew into a system of dogmatics,
which fairly throttled the rational spirit of
Judaism. Weird and most unwarrantable
speculations acquired unusual potency and
power. For a time it seemed as if the last
few years of Rabbinic influence would be
splintered in useless apologetics. There was
serious work to be done before the land was
to be abandoned, and before the props were
to be knocked off forever from beneath the
tottering and sapless hierarchy. There was
peremptory need for provision against the bad
times coming. But there was no possibility of
a unified effort. 146

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 147
It is a phenomenon in the history of mind
that mysticism has a fatal habit of obtruding
itself upon the scene of legitimate thought just
then, when most hope obtains in rationalism,
and when the acquisition of clear principles is
just about bearing fruit. So also now, the
Rabbis had just begun teaching a conception
of Judaism freed from the legalism of Moses
and from its hierarchical character. But their
much promising rationalism was checked by
the appearance of Gnostic sects.
This is not the place to explain the presence
of Gnosticism at this time. This would lead
to a consideration of the origin of Christianity,
in which it might become evident that Gnos
ticism is a part only of the intellectual effort
which characterizes the entire period. The
origin of Christianity is traceable to asceti
cism, which obtained not only in Palestine,
but through a stretch of Asiatic provinces,
even in Iran and the peninsula of India.
We have to deal here mainly with the fact
that there were Gnostic sects in Palestine, and
that these imported certain teachings and views
into Judaism. Although they did not exert a
lasting influence upon traditional or Rabbinic
Judaism, they have at any rate left noticeable
traces of a struggle between them and the
teaching of the Talmud.
How they succeeded in gaining adherents

148 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
amongst the Jews still admits of some explana
tion. Gnosticism is mainly a sentimentality,
such as perhaps in the main all theosophies are.
Properly speaking, Gnosticism is the knowl
edge, the Gnosis, and considering its source,
it is a Greek importation. It is a preten
sion to a metaphysical speculation concern
ing God and the origin of light, in which the
Deity resides. Apparently then it is a phil
osophy.1 But there is coupled with this ab
stract study a certain exaltation, and this takes
it at once out of the class of mental effort, and
puts it amongst the other kindred ecstasies,
forfeiting along with its rationalism also its
title to being a legitimate science.
Gnosticism is avowedly the vitiation of
Hellenistic philosophy, and it is analogous
to theosophic movements that are traceable
to Asiatic, or to speak more exactly, to
Hindu and to Buddhistic schools of religious
thought. Mysticism is congenite, and though
there are different sources for it, in the end
these produce the same typical Gnostic and
1 On p. 3, note 2, we cited the Talmudic statement that the
aboriginal man was » "Min.'" Gratz thinks, Min means a
Gnostic. Whether such high antiquity can be claimed for
Gnosticism is still a question. We presume that the Talmud
means simply to say that man has a natural liking for the
mysterious. See, however, A. H. Goldfahn in " Ueber den
Ursprung u. d. Bedeutung des Ausdruckes 'Min,' " Frankel's,
" Monatsschrift," Jahrg. 1870, pp. 163-177.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 149
mystic sublimation above the inscrutable final
ities, which hamper our philosophy and re
ligion. It is a phenomenon, common to all
the chapters of rationalism, that the natural
restrictions to our rationalism are set at some
time popularly at naught by a certain icono-
clasm of our impulsive and impatient intellect
ual craving. This bold disregard brings the
exalted sentiments into regions in which logic
and the trusted guides of reason are impotent
and the mind is free to wander without being
held to account. The time of Jesus is espe
cially fruitful of such ecstatic effort. Not
only the much decried Simon Magus, not
merely John the Baptist, the brooding Essene,
but even Jesus himself is suspected. His
occasional mysterious declarations, e.g. con
cerning his intimate relations to his Father,
and his images of a future existence, seem not
to conceal entirely an inclination towards
Gnosticism.1 Not to speak of the Christian
sects of the Nazarites and Ebionites, we can go
farther into Asia to discover analogous theo
sophic movements. We refer merely cursorily
to the Alexandrian school of Neoplatonism,
which is a mixture of Greek idealism, of Hag-
gadic literalism, and of Gnostic imagery. Per
sian dualism, also, while dealing with the ulti
mate causes of good and evil, and holding
1 Gratz, " Gnosticismus und Judenthum," page 3.

150 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
them to be real entities, is still a kind of Gnos
ticism. We shall find this to be more justified
than would at first seem warrantable.
But the threads of mystic influence can be
pursued farther, and we shall not go amiss if
from Semitic Judaism we go in our investiga
tion to Aryan Buddhism, for there has been
more of miscegenation in religion than is ap
parent. In the history of religion there has
been crossing of species, and the mongrel breed
has, in the course of time, so assimilated itself
to the stronger of its parents, that identifica
tion of the foreign co-parents is not easy.
The assertion that an influence was exerted by
Buddhistic esoterism upon the early Jewish
Christian Church is not easily disposed of. As
was said above, our business at hand is not to
offer a theory of the origin of Christianity. We
merely wish to be allowed to believe that in
the Gnostic movement of that time elements
are recognizable which we are bound to call
Buddhistic. We do not intend to maintain that
these elements which we term Buddhistic were,
as a matter of fact, imported bodily from the
Hindu sects either by Pundits who might have
come to Jerusalem, or by Jewish travellers,
who, on returning from their extensive and en
terprising journeys in the East, brought reports
of such teachings into the Talmudic schools.
Such a statement would be extravagant and

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 1 5 1
would require corroboration.1 But it is one thing
to refuse believing actual contact between India
and Palestine, and another to say that a similar
tone of melancholy and hopelessness, whether
in India or in Palestine, produced a similar
mental deterioration. An analogous morbid
ity, depressing the minds of Buddhists and of
Jews, was conducive to a sentimentality,
which, in theological matters became mys
ticism, and in the department of metaphysics
turned into Gnosticism. That -is all I wish to
claim here. The historical allusions I will be
permitted to forego. It is evident that in In
dia provocations for melancholy were apt to
obtain. Is not, in fact, the Buddhistic faith
ascetic and austere ? It is permeated with a
spirit of abstinence, finding contentment in the
practice of mortification and of transcendent
self-conquest. Palestinian Gnosticism, though
appearing only occasionally on Jewish ground
and foreign to Jewish habits, can still be con-
1 Cf., however, Dr. D. Oppenheim, in Frankel, " Monats-
schrift fur Gesch. u. Wissenschaft des Judenthums," 1864,
" fiber den friihzeitigen Gebrauch der indischen Ziffern bei
den Juden," pp. 231 ff, pp. 462 ff ; 1865, pp. 254 ff, pp. 376 ff.
Also Dr. S. Back, in "Ben Chananjah," I., 1858 ; " Inder
und Hebraer," pp. 257 ff, 354 ff, 400 ff, 442 ff, 494 ff. Dr. J.
Perles, " Rabbinische Agada's in IOOI Nacht " ; in Frankel
" Monatsschrift " Jahrg. 1873 ; Dr. S. Back, " Die Fabel in
Talmud u. Midrasch," in Jahrg. 1875, 76, 80. 81, 83, 84, and
Dr. M. Gaster, " Beitrage zur vergleichenden Sagen- und
Marchenkunde," Jahrg. 1880, '81.

1 5 2 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
sidered, like the Buddhistic, a natural conse
quence of similar circumstances, which called
forth a strain of sadness and of mysticism.
The distressing conditions because of which
the pious Jews risked their lives and submit
ted to torture, constrained them to seek for
hope and encouragement within themselves.
That there is a touch of foreign influence in
the post-biblical phase of Judaism will be
more evident upon a better acquaintance with
the sources.1 The very name of one of the
most prominent sects of the Gnostics, the Oph
ites or Naasites, offers a significant hint. The
' For instances of Persian influence in the origin of the Es
senes, vid. Hilgenfeld in his " Zeitschrift," 1867, p. 97 seqq.,
where he seeks to prove that not only Parseeism but also Bud
dhism have exercised material influence upon the formation
of the sect, vid. I. c. 1868, p. 343, seqq., and 1871, p.
50 seqq. In his later publications Hilgenfeld admits only
Persian influence, "Zeitschrift," Jahrg. 1882, p. 299;
" Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums," pp. 141-149. Even
Lightfoot adopts secondary Parsee influence, but with vir
tual Jewish foundation.— " St. Paul's Epistles " (2d ed.) pp.
355-396. Herzfeld explains Esseneism, as a "Judaism of
quite peculiarly blended ultra-Pharisaic and Alexandrinian
views in alliance with Pythagorianism, and with many rites
of Egyptian priests." — " Geschichte des Volkes Israel," Bd.
III., p. 369. That Jews were familiar with Eastern empires
and with Egypt, vid. M. M. Kalisch " Comm. to Leviticus,"
II. , p. 345. A group of proverbs was transfused into the
Hitopadesa. Gratz, "Geschichte den Judn," L, p. 348, vid.
Frankel, " Monatsshrift," Jahrg. 1875, p. 540 ff. Compare
Jahrg. 1867, p. 318. See further p. 172-175.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 153
name is derived from Nachash, and was given
the sect mainly because the serpent played
an important role amongst them. They as
cribed great veneration to the serpent. It is
well-known that the serpent is employed in
the Pentateuch as the originator of sin. It
was, according to the view of very primitive
tribes, the prototype of evil and the disguise
of the devil. The Ophites ascribed great
credit to the serpent for having seduced the
first pair to disobedience against God. For
through this disobedience discretion was awak
ened in the reasoning of man to the everlasting
contest between the spirits of good and evil.
Now the serpent worship is no mean phe
nomenon in the history of religions, and is not
confined to this one mystic sect. As Goldziher
has it, the serpent worship is a residual quantity
of a former mythological aspect of nature. It
is more especially a reminiscence of nomadic
life, but in later forms of religion the serpent is
detached from mythology.1 Aside of the period
of solar significance, the serpent appears so
often that he must be classified not according
to ethnological, but according to historical
stages of civilization.2 We shall find later on
1 " Mythology among the Hebrews," London, 1877, p. 225.
2 Max Miiller, "Origin and Growth of Religion," New
York, 1879, p. 94 and p. 112 ; Lubbock, "Origin of Cilviliza-
tion," p. 264 ff.

154 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
this symbol of the serpent to be more instruc
tive. Here it will suffice to refer to serpent
worship solely in connection with the Gnostic
sect of the Ophites,1 to corroborate merely the
allusion we make of a probable importation
from the far East. For nowhere has the
application of the serpent-symbol found a
larger field than there ; and it is a notorious
fact that the serpent and staff of Hermes is a
Greek variation of the Yoni and Linga proto
type of India.2
Our problem is to pursue the influences ex
erted by dualistic and trinitarian systems upon
the monotheistic faith of the Jews, and we
are speaking of Gnosticism only in so far as it
is part of this problem. Having seen that
there is in the origin of Gnosticism an element
akin to the dualism of the Persians and to the
henotheism of the Hindus, we should suppose
1 Jellinek (" Beitrage zur Geschichte der Kabbala," Erstes
Heft., Leipzig, 1852, p. 46) says the Ophitic sect is of Jew
ish origin. The Leviathan and the Bahamoth are typical.
The " eating of the Leviathan," which is promised the
righteous, means the eventual cessation of sin, which will be
swallowed up by righteousness.
2 The " Buendehesh," chapter 31, says : "Ahura will descend
to the earth, and himself will offer the sacrifices. Ahriman
and the serpent will be beaten by the strength of his songs
and praise, and become helpless and weak. From that heavenly
bridge to which he will run he will fall into the deepest night.
The serpent, corrupt in seed, will perish in the boiling metal."
Cf. G. W. Cox, " Mythology of the Aryan Races," p. 363.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 155
that, if it did find acceptance on the part of
muddled minds, it must have been shunned by
protagonists in religious philosophy such as
Philo and the Jewish Alexandrinian school
were. Before them we have no serious at
tempt at systematic treatment of Judaism.
With Philo a new era begins in Jewish thought,
which, if it did not bring about a change in
Judaism itself, at any rate was influential
enough to alter the position of Judaism tow
ard the new religion. Now there was every
reason for Philo to avoid Gnostic elements ;
for these were precarious for a dogmatizing
Platonist. And still Philo is the very one to
whom the creation of Jewish Gnosticism must
be ascribed. Aside from the immediate serious
consequences, which arose from this unex
pected attitude of Philo another unpleasant
circumstance attaches to it, viz., that later
Kabbalistic teachings found in Philo abundant
justification. How great, however, will be the surprise, if
it will be discovered that they might have
gone to a better and to a less distant source.
In fact, some of the Kabbalists did. But it
was Gratz who called attention to it, that
Gnostic elements are found in the Talmud,
and that the Mishnaic period was not as free
from admixture of theosophy as would be
supposed. He finds that the Rabbis living at

156 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
the time of the Bar Cochba war, in the reign
of Hadrian, expressed themselves distinctly
with respect to Gnosticism.1
Before, however, we proceed to treat of this
aberration in speculation, let us look upon
Talmudic metaphysics in general. The pro
foundest problems are those of Maasse Mer-
kabah and Maasse Bereshith. We might
term the one metaphysics, the other Tal
mudic cosmogony. The subject of the latter,
however, is not only the probable character
and order of creation, but also abstruse
reasoning concerning the primitive substance
itself and concerning the relation of the div
inity to it in the act of creation. These
two studies were carefully guarded, and
looked upon as esoteric, to which but few
could be admitted. They were to be com
municated to few only, and the motto was
the answer of God to Moses : " No man shall
see me and live ! " ' Not that they were es-
1 " Gnosticismus und Judenthum," p. 8. — In his "Ge
schichte der Juden," vol. IV., p. 94 ff, he has toned down his
emphasis of the proposition. See Dr. I. M. Wise, " Origin of
Christianity," Cincinnati, 1868, p. 354, who says : " All the
Talmudical passages, which Dr. Gratz quotes as pointing to the
dualism of the Gnostics point with much more certainty to the
Paul Christians, and to their dualism of Father and Son."
2 " The laws of chastity must not be studied by a company
of three alone, nor the cosmogony by two (as in "Ezekiel,"
I.), nor theophany or metaphysics by one, except he be wise
and discreet." — "Chagiga," 13, a.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 157
sentially different from theology. The two
overlapped each other in purpose. Maimonides
even identified them. The two were gradations.'
The Maasse Bereshith was a source of peril in
the hands of the uninitiated on account of a
possible heresy with regard to the creation of
the world by God ; but did not involve, com
paratively speaking, as profound a quality of
metaphysics as the Maasse Merkabah. It was
in the Maasse Merkabah, where the beaten
track of theology was abandoned. In the
study of it many a Rabbinic theosophist was
deluded and finally constrained to wander
aimlessly, having lost the certainty and the
comfort of his faith.2
1 " Chagiga," I. , " MaSsse Merkabah is a kind of theology "
{usually theosophy).
2 In Preface to "More Nebuchim" Maimonides exhorts
Joseph Ibn Aknin to peruse his work alone. "There are
limits to the human intellect ; he who undertakes to pass over
these is ' one who cuts off the shoots.' . . . The phrase,
' Elisha cut off the shoots,' can be explained in several ways.
One explanation is this: He 'entered Paradise,' means, he
proposed to speculate on divine matters, but not in the proper
manner. His method was neither scientific nor clear, and
therefore resulted in confusion. But, in Rabbinical termi
nology, theology is called Pardes, hence the paraphrase, ' he
cut off the shoots of Pardes.' It implies that he set at nought
the limits of thought, and did not attend to the preparation
proper to such abstruse study. He was ignorant of the pro
paedeutics of theology. His inferences were not tempered by
logical consistency. Hence the lamentable issue." Immanuel,
' ' Commentary to Proverbs," in Dukes, ' ' Blumenlese," Leipzig,
1844, p. 269 ; cf. " Kusari," III., 65. See also further, p. 164.

158 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
The belief in the future world was not en
tirely mystic. It was a hope, and yearning of
the downtrodden people for a better condition.
Roman domination and Greek sensualism had
squandered the wealth of the country and had
reduced the Jews to a state of discomfort and
cheerlessness. The dogma of a future life was
rather a fancy than a metaphysical assertion.
All that religious speculation could do for this
popular sentiment was to bring it within the
scope of moral purity. It was eschatological,
and with it were associated the doctrines of the
resurrection of the dead and the immortality of
the soul ; but these, not having the affection of
the people, were vague and less distinct. All
these conceptions can be traced to the genius
of the Jewish people ; though, of course, it is
not to be inferred from this that these doctrines
are to be attributed solely to Judaism.
But metaphysicians soon had opportunity to
appropriate these doctrines, arising out of the
heart of the people. For, when they are divested
of their sentimentality, these doctrines involve
philosophic difficulties, upon which at any rate
the intellect delights to exercise itself. Aside
from this charm, which attaches to reflection,
there was inducement offered soon to seek an
swer to the perplexing questions of a future life.
The Oriental mind may be more liable than the
Occidental to rest content in the theological

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 159
stage of thought, but there are occasions even
for it to become aware of inconsistencies in
theology. Greek philosophy is the mother of
the science of religion. Science of religion is
the methodic investigation of the character and
is the synthesis of the doctrines of religion.
About the beginning of the present era,
Greek philosophy, through the Eleatic school,
became the property of the world in its two
fold form of Stoicism and Epicureanism.
Though these did not dwell upon the moral
features of the eschatological doctrines, they
found the questions of the beginning and the
end of the world sufficiently important for
investigation. One theme, however, occupied
them preeminently, viz., the question concern
ing the aboriginal substance of the world, just
as we find that same problem in the Talmudic
Maasse Bereshith.1
1 Vid. "Kusari," III. 53; IV. 25 ; cf. Maim., "Jessode
Hathora," III. 11. The intimacy which subsisted between
Rabbi Jehuda Hanassie and Marcus Aurelius leads E. H.
Plumptre to say that " the teaching of the Pharisees was, on
the great question of ethics, all but identical with that of the
Stoics." And Dr. Bodek claims that he can trace a Jewish
influence in the laws ascribed to Aurelius, and a Roman influ
ence in some portions of the Mishna. Consult E. H. Plump
tre, " Marcus Aurelius and the Talmud," in Contemporary
Review, 1869, Vol. X., pp. 81-95, and Dr. Arnold Bodek,
" Romische Kaiser in Jlld. Quellen," Leipzig, 1868. P. B.
Watson, in his life of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus urges that
this alleged intimacy and friendship between Marcus Aurelius
and Rabbi is a fiction of a late date. See Watson's " Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus," New York, 1884, p. 297, Note 2.

160 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
True, Jewish speculations were checked by
the Rabbinical method of deducing theorems
and philosophic principles from the text of
the Bible. In fact so important was this meth
od that it was a prime condition that a verse
must be quoted in corroboration of an opin
ion. An opinion received validity only in so
far as it could offer such biblical authorization
and warrant.1 From this method of exegesis
it could easily occur that rational indepen
dence of speculation was made subservient
to the authority of the Bible. It is easy to
see that forced exegesis would be enlisted in
aid of metaphysics, and a dangerous precedent
given for the interpretation of the Bible.2
1 On the methods of Rabbinic exegesis consult Prof. Dr.
Mielziner's articles on " Talmudic Hermeneutics : Syllogism
and Analogy," in Hebrew Review, 1880-81, pp, 42-53, and
1881-82, pp. 79-94.
' An interesting example of exegetical extravagance is the
following: " Taanith," 25, b, Rabba says : Rediyao appeared
to me, like a calf. His station is between the upper and the
lower Tehomoth. This is identical with the Persian Areduydo-
^ura, the genius of rain, which was probably transcribed
Ardoyoh turoh. In the course of time this was mistaken for
Syriae (tauroh), Chald. (tur), Arab, (turun), = ox. Thus it
turned out to be of the appearance of a calf ! But according to
Agadic practice, this had to be verified by a text, and this was
found in "Shir Hashirim," II. 12, and Rediyao was easily
made biblical. Cf. A. Kohut, " Ueber die jtid. Angelologie
und Damonologie in ihrer Abhangigkeit voiri Parsismus."
Leipzig, 1866 (Abhandlungen, D. M. G.), Bd. IV., No. 3,
p. 47. See, however, "Beth Talmud," von Weiss und Fried-
anann.Wien, 1887, p. 245.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 1 6 1
This gave pretext to Gnostic methods. The
suggestion from foreign sources being at
hand, the objection that there is a disparity
between them and revelation could early be
silenced. Exegesis was a fruitful field, and
there was no one without at least so much
skill as that he could not allegorize, and con
vey into the word of the Bible a meaning
which had to be admitted as a likely and ac
ceptable inference.1
Let us now take an example — a passage of
the Talmud, which has, perhaps, more than any
other, been subject of Haggadic interpretation,
and from which much has been deduced. Mai
monides and Albo and Bachja ibn Pakudah de
vote some attention to it.2 "Chagigah," 14, b,
reports : " Four Rabbis entered Pardes, viz.,
Ben Asai, Ben Soma, Acher, and R. Akiba.
Ben Asai beheld and died ; Ben Soma lost his
reason ; Acher cut down the shoots ; and Rabbi
Akiba came out in peace." The passage is
evidently a report, which, though indefinite,
is founded on a fact of history. It is like
wise evident that reference is made here to
the fact that these four Rabbis turned to
1 Note what the Talmud says, " Megilla," IV., 9 : " He who
employs the symbolical method in commenting upon the pro
hibited -degrees of intermarriage, must be silenced." Kana
means to allegorize or symbolize.
' " More Nebuchim," I., 32 ; IL, 30. Also " Ikkarim, IV.,
33 ; Choboth Haleboboth," VIII., 4.

1 62 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
heterodox and abstruse studies with varying
results. The historical basis of the narrative
and the allusion to extra-biblical studies are
warranted. On the one hand we have other
sources that substantiate a certain independence
of these Rabbis from the conventional mode of
thought ; and on the other we need to remem
ber merely that the infusion of foreign literature
was apt to be no less disastrous to the equa
nimity of traditional teachers than the dissemi
nation of Greek customs was ultimately fatal
to Jewish simplicity in conduct.
Indeed I might be tempted to say that a
certain amount of significance can be attached
to this passage, and if properly investigated
it might furnish interesting data toward a his
tory of dogmatics. It is a fact which will readi
ly be admitted as somewhat warranted, that
dogmatics and its present legitimate character
are understood not simply by the history of
its legitimate phases, but also by the series of
heresies, which dogmatists denounced, i. e. by
hints and allusions of a negative character, such
as, e. g., in this passage of " Chagigah."
These were not mere Haggadic speculations.
It is true the Talmud denied all practical sig
nificance to the Haggada. The Haggada can
never be brought to the aid of the Halacha.'
'An Haggadist cannot give permission or interdiction with
respect to civil or ritual law. He is confined solely to homi-

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 163:
But we wish to make clear that, while the fixed
law was carefully guarded against outside in
fluence, profound significance still was attached
to metaphysics.
Properly speaking, metaphysics is foreign to
biblical Judaism, and it is an evidence of foreign
influence that there occurs any metaphysics in
the Talmud. It is undeniably a proof of the
presence of extraneous teachings, when we see
them gaining ground and ingratiating them
selves into the favor of Talmudic teachers. So
that in dealing with Talmudic speculations as a
part of the history of Jewish thought, we shall
have to eliminate the foreign matter from the:
originally Jewish part of this mysticism.
Let us devote a little attention to the phrase
ology of the passage. Its language is symbolic.
What is meant by " entering into Pardes " is
not clear,1 and it seems strange rhetoric to say
that Ben Soma beheld and died, or Ben Asai
beheld and lost his reason, and, finally, Acher
cut off the shoots. It is an allegorical passage.
letics. Similar is the dispute between Rabba Areka and Sam
uel. Rab. says : ' ' Whoever learns of the Magi, is guilty of death,
i. c. is morally culpable." But Samuel, more favorably in
clined to the Persians, answers : " Scriptures interdict the
practical application merely, not the theoretic consideration
of non-Jewish opinions." — Cf. "Sanhed.," 68; " Aboda
Zara," 18, a ; " Rosh Hashana," 24 ; " Sabbath," 75, a.
'We have seen Immanuel Romi's exegetical remarks on this
phrase, p. 157, note 3, above.

164 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
We may assume the words are intentionally
chosen. The word Pardes has had many ex
planations. It has been identified with Eden.1
Philo says Eden is metonymic of wisdom. The
Gnostics spiritualized the conception of Para
dise ; they had a terrestrial, a spiritual, and an
ethereal Paradise, analogous to the three kinds
of divine beings. Pardes implies a state of
contemplative exaltation, an ecstatic condition
such as theosophy delights especially in at
taining. Theosophy differs from legitimate philosophy
in this very feature. In the former a condition
1 By way of anticipation let us here give space to the follow
ing etymological reference : Paradise does not come from
Sanscrit paradesa. Paradesa means foreign country, an
enemy's country ; nor did the Hebrew pardes (" Song of Sol."
IV., 13) come from Persian, and thus indirectly from para
desa. There is, however, a word in Persian, viz. pairi daiza,
which means circumvallatio, a piece of ground enclosed by
high walls, or a garden, a park. Sancrit root dih or dhih
(Sansc. h = Zend z) to knead ; from this comes Sanscrit dehi,
wall = zoixoi (= wall), in Latin changed to fig., gives figulus
(potter) figura (form), and fingere (to shape). Gothic deigan to
knead, Engl, dough, Germ. Deich. — Greek 7Capddei6o? was
brought back by Xenophon from Persia, vid. "Anabasis," I.
27, and in the Septuagint as name of Garden of Eden, borrowed
a third time from Persian, or taken from Greek and indirectly
from Xenophon." — Max Miiller, "Chips From a German
Workshop," vol. IV., p. 21-23. " Its modern Persian name
is firdausi." — Ibid. As to relation of " Pardes," in the sense
of metaphysics, to the Gnosis, consult Friedlander, "Ben
Dosa und seine Zeit," Prag., 1872, p. 61 ff.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 165
of spiritual clearness is a momentary state, in
the latter a mental equilibrium is a habitual
mode of the philosopher. So also according to
Jewish conception. The four Rabbis did not
meet with their lamentable fate because of this
one venture. The incident has its explanation
in the character of Judaism itself.
We find a quotation of R. Akiba in the com
pilation of Ethical Sayings. Rabbi Akiba is
quoted as laying down this doctrine concerning
Providence: "All is foreseen (fore-ordained),
but free-will is left, and the world is judged in
a good spirit, and the most important considera
tion is the deed" (" Aboth," III., 18). The
meaning is plain. Rabbi Akiba reconciles fate
with free-will, asserts that justice prevails, and
lays down this principle in ethics : All depends
on the spirit and quality of the deed.
It is tempting here to digress, and to speak
more fully of this vexing problem, that a large
part of our soul-life is pre-determined ; of the
limitations, which are inherent in the nature
of our body, and of the conflict which obtains
between the necessities of the latter and our
moral freedom. But it must suffice to notice
that Rabbi Akiba finds it proper to say that
there is a harmony between physics and morals,
that there is nothing contradictory between
the dictatorialness of Providence and the moral
freedom of man.

1 66 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
This, however, has been a favorite theme of
the Talmudists.1 There was no special reason
for Rabbi Akiba to teach it again ; the less
so, when we remember that his time was the
least opportune for such a teaching. The per
secutions of Hadrian were in utter dissonance
with any ideal of ethics. It was a sad time —
most especially for the teachers. These felt
most keenly the rigor of the imperial interdict
of all Rabbinic learning. Though some con
tinued teaching at the risk of their lives, they
could affect no lasting good. The church
disintegrated early into sects, through theologi-
-cal dissensions; misconceptions were created
and these invaded even the peaceful precincts
of the Jewish schools. Apologetics was a new
science, and a busy art. The Rabbis had to
dispute not only with the Christians, but also
with those who had an uncompromising hatred
-of both Pentateuch and Gospels. Incapable
of following out the line of religious thought
with persistent rationalism, they were in-
tolerent of all received notions unless they
could be made to subserve theosophy. New
doctrines made their way with startling
rapidity, and the Rabbis, too, were not free
from the danger of being drawn into the
current. J For instance, the parable of the lame and the blind.
" Midr. Rabba," Leviticus, 4, and " Sanhedrin," 91, b.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 167
Dualism was one of the new doctrines,
which made their appearance, and became a
stumbling block. The twofold nature of our
being, the two kinds of existence — present and
future — , the disparagement of this life to
the glorification of the spiritual life which is
to come were its transcendental grounds.
Dualism in the individual life has its proto
type in the dualistic government of the world.
It was a strange compromise, which allowed
such a departure from the spirit of monotheistic
Judaism. The arbitrary distribution of good
and evil in the world is always a serious objec
tion to the doctrine that there is a moral order
in the world. It is a notorious fact, that in the
Alexandrian school Neoplatonism was wedded
to Judaism, however badly they were matched.
Logos and Demiurgos were forced into
Mosaism, despite the impossibility of ever re
conciling them with the unity of God. Phi-
Ionian philosophy was accepted as Jewish,
though it was based on dualism, and later on
it was developed in Alexandria into a system
of philosophy.
Only because of precedents of former for
eign importations into Judaism, Neoplatonism
could gain a foothold in Judaism. Were it
not that foreign elements had already crept
into Jewish theology this doctrine of the
Logos and the Demiurgos and of Emana-

1 68 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
tions would have been unvarnished heresy.
The allegorization which Philo indulged in
with impunity, became the source of a distinct
movement in religious thought. Its radical
phase is that which has cut the Gordian knot
of theology, by proclaiming the divorcement
of Judaism from the Bible and regarding the
Bible as a simple record, in which historical
tradition mingles with mythical elements.
The main feature of Philonian philosophy
are the oft-mentioned Logos and the Demiur
gos. We shall sketch both in a few words and
try to show that the apologetics of R. Akiba
in "Aboth," III., 18, refer to them. The God
of Philo is so ethereal and so far removed
from relationship with perishable matter, that
it would be a depreciation of his sovereign
dignity to come into contact with it. Not only
at the act of creation, but also in the government
of the world. A series of emanated beings, dei ex
machind, helpedout of this difficulty. Of these,
Logos and Demiurgos are those which interest
us now. The Hyle (v\rf), the lowest of the
three classes of beings, was delegated to be
formed by the Demiurgos. The essential char
acter of finite beings had its efficient cause in
this demiurgic emanation of the infinitely pure
God. Logos is to Philo what the Eternal Ideas
are to Plato ; both have a real spiritual exist
ence, and from both proceeds an eternal efflux

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 1 69
of entities. These realize and embody them
selves in the physical world.
So far the road is smooth. But when once
the separation between God and his em
anation in the Demiurgos becomes so wide
that practically the government of the world
slips out of the hands of God, and is turned
over entirely to the Demiurgos, then, as a mat
ter of logic, the ethical support is withdrawn.
The activity of the world becomes a ceaseless
display of a course of Tightness, in which the
grace of God has no place, and no chance for
manifestation. Added to this, the Free Will,
the most sacred element of the religious life,
is made impossible. For though there be ad
mittedly a higher content in human life, the
pneumatic or soul-life is through its external
constraint so hampered, nay, even predeter
mined, that ethical considerations are pressed
down to brutal necessity.
These difficulties, serious enough to the specu
lator, involved troublesome ones in the sphere
of practical religion. The impressive question
arose, of what source is the Evil, and this ques
tion could not be disposed of easily. To im
pugn the Demiurgos with the evil amounted to
merely inverting the process of ascription. Philo
could not avoid stopping there ; but he saw
the uselessness of it. In this question of
the Origin of Evil, the Demiurgos, being a de-

1 70 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
preciation which God himself brought about in
the interest of Creation, was very serviceable.
Philo landed in an implied dualism, which was
saved from being more heterodox by the de
vice of Emanation. The dualism of the Alex
andrian school was divested, to be sure, of
grossness, but was in the main similar to the
dualism which the Jews in an earlier period had
brought with them from Babylon.
" All is foreseen and free-will obtains." This
is a plain statement against fatalism. As we
proceed we shall find that the last part also
of R. Akiba's maxim, viz., that the criterion
of morality lies in the quality of the deed, is
proper. For our purpose it is not necessary to char
acterize the Alexandrian school more particu
larly. We wish merely to keep in view the
fact that attention might be paid with profit
to innovations, and to the infusion of foreign
elements, which were going on unnoticed in the
schools of the philosophers,1 as well as in the
schools of Sura and Pumbadita.
The social and political condition of the
Jews of Babylon was good. They lived peace
ably and amicably amongst the Babylonians.
They had a representative in the national gov-
1 Philo himself in adducing examples of asceticism mentions
the Persian Magi and the Indian Gymnosophists (Quod omnis
probus liber, § 11, 12, ed. Mangey, II. 456, 457). 'Ev Hip-
6cai nkv re May gov. . . . 'Ev 'IvSoli Sh to LTahaidrivT/
\nai\ 2vpia xaXoxayaQiai ovk ayovoi x.r.X.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 171
ernment, — the Prince of the Exile. It is a
very significant item for us, who are consider
ing the innovation of religious matters, that
there was intimate personal contact between
Jews and Babylonians, for intimacy induces
imitation.1 It is true, when Magian practices
became dominant the toleration ceased and
the Jews were given less freedom in religious
matters. Rabba Bar Bar Chana, when the
fire-priests broke suddenly into his room and
snatched away his lamp, while he was lying
on his sick-bed, exclaimed: "Most merciful
God, if thou dost not take me under Thy pro
tection, grant me at least the protection of the
Romans ! " a They had to endure much oppres
sive treatment ; but it was harassing more
than interdictive, and had its cause more in
the zeal of the Magi to prevent the desecra
tion of the holy element, rather than interfere
with the devotees of other faiths in matters of
conscience, and in no sense to force their con
version to the fire-religion.*
1 Haug maintains even that Ahura Mazda is thought of as
monotheistic. Zoroaster taught a monotheistic religion and
a dualistic philosophy. — " Essays on the Sacred Languages
and Writings of Parsees," p. 300.
' "Gittin," 17, a.
3|Thus the Maubads would rush into Jewish houses and
smother the fire on the hearth, take with them the glimmering
coals to restore the desecrated fire on the common fire-place.
Cf. "Vendidad," Fargard, VIII., 251 ff., transl. by James
Darmsteter, "Sacred Books of the East," Vol. IV., p. 112.

1 72 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
The popular mode of life during the Baby
lonian period exerted a large influence upon
the Jews. This appears clearly in many pas
sages of the Midrash and in the Haggadic
portions of the Talmud, in which mention is
made of mantics and miraculous cures, super
stitions, astrology, etc. Of course the native
disposition toward monotheism asserts itself on
many occasions.1
There are many reminiscences of the Magian
influence on Judaism. The ceremonial of the
fire-worship was elaborate. Their altar was car
ried about, and having placed fire upon it, it was
borne about on poles for public adoration. No
tice our ark and its staves in the rings, carried
by the priests. Two or three Magi watched this
fire day and night, so that it might not be ex-
1 E. g. " Joma," 96, b. " The Jews cried to God." Rab
says : ' ' They cried : ' Woe, woe, is it not Satan (the evil de
sire) who destroyed the temple, burned the sanctuary, killed the
pious ones, and drove the Israelites out of their land, and who
still raves in our midst ! Thou, O Lord, didst give him to us,
so that we should have the reward. We desire not the reward.'
Then a scroll fell from heaven, upon which was inscribed :
' The seal of God is Truth.' Then they fasted. Satan was
put into their power. But the prophet said to them : ' If you
kill him, the world will be destroyed. ' They held him cap
tive for three days ; and there was not a fresh egg to be had
in all Palestine. And so they were in a dilemma : If they kill
him, the permanence of the world is endangered. To implore
the half of evil only (*'. e. of chastity only) was not practicable.
For heaven deals not in halves. They blinded him and let
him go."

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 1 73
tinguished. Notice our Anshe Maamad, and
later on the Ner Tamid. It was considered a
great calamity when that fire was accidentally
extinguished ; and it was purposely extin
guished at the death of the king to exemplify
symbolically the lamentable occurrence. The
festivals were : The New Year's day in the
spring-equinox. The year had 360 days with
five supplementary days. Some believed that
the New Year's day was instituted as a memo
rial of creation. Recollect the discussion con
cerning Nissan and Tishri (" Rosh Hashana " 8,
a ; 10, b ; 27, a). Their laws of family-life were
instituted with a view to keeping the tribe
pure. There are the two kinds of unclean-
liness among the Persians, analogous to the first
and second Rabbinical degrees of uncleanliness.
There obtains even a practice like that of the
water of the Sotah. Ritually many analogous
features occur, down to the offering of a prayer
of praise during the year of mourning, similar
to the Kaddish.
The Sh'ma and the benediction before it were
recited in the temple early in the morning at
the break of day. The first benediction at the
morning prayer was " Yozer Or." At the
break of day it was the duty of the Persians to
recite the " Hos Banim," beginning : Praise to
thee, morning dawn. The beautiful morning
dawn we praise ! — "Yacna," X. : at the begin-

1 74 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
ning of the morning dawn we praise thee.
So also benedictions for food, and at behold
ing exceptional phenomena, are to be found
among the Persians.
A strange phenomenon on Jewish soil is the
peculiar observances with respect to the sun.
Epiphanius informs us that the Ossians united
with the Sampsitse, i. e. adorers of the sun.
Evidently a remark that means that there was
a joint worship of the sun. So also both Jews
and Persians turned toward the sun at prayer,
and even in most private conduct were on their
guard lest they should commit any impropriety
toward the orb of light.1
Gratz and Herzfeld already admitted that
the influence of Parsismus upon Judaism was
considerable.2 The Talmud makes a bold front
of it, saying : " The names of the angels (also
of the months) were brought from Babylon." 3
1 Notice reminiscences of sun-worship in " Sukka," V., 4 ;
" Jalkut Shimeoni," 106 ; " Baba Bathra," 16, b ; "Bereshith
Rabba," 68 ; Ibid., 22 ; "Beth Hammidrasch," ed. Jellinek,
Wien, 1873, V., p. 40. Cf. Goldziher, " Mythology among
the Hebrews," in many places. Compare " Berachoth," 26,
a, and " Tosifta Joma," II., b. Notice especially : Rabbi
Shimeon ben Lakish says: "The Fathers are the 'Merka
bah.' " It is a succinct statement of the solar theory.
2 " Geschichte der Juden," Vol. IL, b, p. 415. " Ge
schichte desVolkes Israel," Braunschweig, 1847, p. 187.
3 " Talm. Jerus. Rosh Hashono," ed. Krotoschin, p. 56, b ;
" Midrash Rabba," Gen. 48, 9. — Vid. Kohut's work, Z. D.
M. G, 1866, vol. IV., No. 3.

Foreign Elements in Judaism. 175
This refers not only to the names, but to the
meaning, and, to a large extent, to the essential
content of demonology. So are also the
eschatological doctrines, especially the doctrine
of resurrection, borrowed from Iranism.1 The
analogy of the Zend Avesta and the Bible and
Talmud is so great that Schorr thought to
deduce almost the entire biblical and Talmudi
cal teachings concerning the Messiah, future
life, etc., from the Zend Avesta.2
This analogy was also noticed by Rabbi
Akiba, and hence his apologetics. He felt
himself called upon to re-assert that Provi
dence is supreme, that there is no struggle
between good and evil, that the world is
governed in a benevolent spirit. There is a
substantial content in human life ; man is not
the helpless victim of fate. " Rabbi Akiba
went out in peace." a Rabbi Akiba inveighs
1 Windischmann, " Zoroastrische Studien," p. 231 ff., and
Spiegel, " Iranische Alterthtiner, p. 158 ff.
a " He-Chaluz," Jahrgang VIII. Frankfurt, a. m, 1869.
8 In "Aboth," III., 17, Akiba says : "Wisdom limits it
self. It knows how and when to keep silent " (literally, the
fence of wisdom is silence). This Jellinek declares to have a
twofold meaning : The one is the practical and ethical, the
other is Ophistic. In the realm of the spirit the first mani
festation, through creation, is silence ; the second, wisdom ;
but the second was encompassed by the first in mystic signs,
such as, for example, the serpent. The sentence has thus a
felicitous turn. See " Beitrage zur Geschichte der Kabbala,"
Erstes Heft, Leipzig, 1852, p. 46 ; also Friedlander, "Ben
Dosa," p. 73.

1 76 Foreign Elements in Judaism.
against the mysticism of his time. " When
you come to the pure spot of marble, say not :
' Water, water ! ' for the lying tongue hath no
enduring ! " Cosmological theories were a
favorite play of the Gnostics. Akiba protests
against the mystic account of creation, and
against the deification of the hylic principle.
The happy mean, to which practical ration
alism always reverts, is also here the refuge
of Rabbi Akiba. It is a credit to his wisdom
that under the burden of the Halacha, and
under the precarious trend toward schisms
within Judaism in his time, he should recom
mend the only course worth recommending :
" The law is like two paths, one of warmth, the
other like ice. Which shall a man choose? If
he prefer the first, it is excessive ; if the latter,
it is also excessive. Calamity threatens from
both sides. Let him choose the mean, and
walk thereon."

ERRATA.
Page 85, note 2, instead of " See the disciple regarding Jesus
as a Hillel" read "See regarding Jesus as a
disciple of Hillel."
" 152, line 3 from bottom, instead of " den Judn " read
" der Juden."
152, line 2 from bottom, instead of " Monatsshrift "
read " Monatsschrift.''
159, note, third line, instead of "Hanassie" read
" Hanassi."
" 160, line 7 from bottom, instead of " Agadic " rairf
" Haggadic."

INDEX.

"Aboth" III. 18, 165, 175.
"Aboth de Rabbi Nathan," 72.
Absolute, God is, 23.
Ahura, 45.
— and the Serpent, 154, note.
— Mazda monotheistic, 171,. note.
"Akedath Jitzchok," quoted, 9, note.
Akiba, 165, ff., 175.
Albo, see " Ikkarim."
Alexandrian school, 149, 167.
Amberly, on Positivism, 55, note.
— on emotion in religion, 71.
" Anshe MaSmad," 173.
Apologetics of the Rabbis, 166.
A priori concepts, 44, note ; 88, note.
Arama, Isaac, vid. " Akedath Jitzchok."
Architecture, 130.
Areduyao-cura, 160, note.
Ark and Persian altar, 172.
Arnold, Matthew, and definition of God, 60, note.
— — on religion and culture, 62, 66, note 2.
— — cited, 98, note.
Art and civilization, 130, 131.
Aryan race, religion of, ace. to Max Miiller, 15, 22.
Asceticism and Christianity, 147.
Asher's translation of " Mibchar Hap'ninim," 48, note.
Aurelius, Marcus, see Marcus. B
Bachja ibn Pakudah, vid. " Choboth."
Back, cited, 151, note.
Baker, Sir. Samuel, quoted, 40.
Beer, Dr. B., 37.
" Ben Chananjah, " cited, 151, note.
177

1 78

Index.

Benedictions, analogous, among Jews and Persians, 173.
" Bereshith Rabba," vid. " Midrashr Rabba."
" Beth Hammidrasch," cited, 174, note 1.
" Beth Talmud," 160, note 1.
Bible, the first, 90.
— criteria of the worth of, 100.
Biblical literature, 66, note 2.
Bodek, on Aurelius and Judaism, 159, note 1.
Brugsch, on Ankh, 60, note I.
Buddha, 45, 83, 95.
Buddhism, 148.
— and Gnosticism, 150.
— characterized, 151.
Buddhists, 151.
"Bundehesh," quoted, 154, note 2.
C
Catechism, 70.
Chagigah I., quoted, 157, note.
— 14, b, quoted, 161, ff.
Chamai Gaon, on intuition, 5, note.
Character the criterion of religion, 112.
"Choboth Haleboboth," cited, l6i, note 2.
Christianity and Judaism, 84, 85, 86.
— origin of, 146, 147.
— mysticism in, 149.
Christian period, early, Palestine during, 146.
Christians, persecutions of, 45, note 1.
— attend pagan and Jewish services, 46.
Church discouraged personal inquiry, 12.
Civilization, 127.
Colenso, cited, 97, note 1.
Comte's Positivism, 55 note.
Conduct, responsibility for, 121, 144.
Conscience, 118, 121.
— history of, 119.
Consensus gentium, 4, note 1. According to Kaufmann,
Wise, Nachmanides, Ibn Gabirol, Abraham ibn Ezra.
Conventional judgments, 128, 129.
Cooperation of man with Providence, 121.
Cosmogony, 156.
Cox, G. W., cited, 154, note.
Creation of man, 26, 27.
Creed and deed, 36.
Culture, 124,
— and religion, 10, 34, 49, 62.
— Thora means, 3, note

Index. 1 79
D
Dancing, art of, 133.
Darmsteter on Judaism, 144.
— Vendidad, 171, note 3.
Deed and creed, 36, 70, 112.
— responsibility for, 121, 128, 129, 144, 170.
Delitzsch, cited, 85, note 2.
Demiurgos, 167, 168, 169.
Devas, 46.
Doctrine, unfailing dissemination of, 131.
Dogmatics, history of, 162.
Dogmatism in religion, 55.
Dramatic character of events, 16, note 2.
Dualism, 167, 170.
— Persian, 149.
— — influence of, 172.
Dukes, cited, 157, note. E
Ebionites, 149.
"Ecclesiastes," vii. 29, 59, note.
Emanations, 168.
Emerson on religion, 42, 63.
" Emunah " defined, 43.
" Emunoth Wedeoth." vid. Saadja.
Epicureanism, 159.
Esoterism in Talmud, 156.
Essenees and Persian influence, 152, note.
Ethics and trancendentalism, no.
— and universal law, 126, 127.
Exegesis and speculation among Rabbis, 160 and note.
Experience, 34, 122.
Evil in religion, 45.
— origin of, 169.
Ezra, Abraham ibn, on intuitions, 4, note I.

Fairbairn on religion as a science, 61, note.
Faith defined, 43, note 2.
— and reason, 48, note.
" Father in Heaven," 31, 32.
Fire-worship, 173.
Frankel, "Monatsschrift," cited, 37, note; 148, note; 151
note.

1 80 Index.

Friedlander, cited, 164, note.
— transl. of "More Nebuchim," cited, 87, note;
88, note.
Ftirst's "Orient," cited, 24.
Future life, 40, 158, 175.

Gabirol, Salomo ibn, on consensus gentium, 4 note I.
— — — on microcosm, 37, note 1.
— — — on intuitions, 48, note.
Gaster, cited, 151, note.
Gazzali, 9, note.
Geiger's Salomo ibn Gabirol, 4, note.
— cited, 85, note 2.
Genius and talent, contrasted, 81, 85.
— and religious leadership, 82.
— and survival of the fittest, 83.
— and prophet, 88, 89.
Gladstone and original sin, 49, 50.
" Glauben " defined, 43, note 2.
Gnostic sects, 147.
— cosmology, 176.
Gnosticism, 147.
— and Buddhism, 151, 152.
— and exegesis, 161.
— and Philo, 155.
— a sentimentality, 148, 151.
God and man, affinity between, 60, note 2.
— as conceived in, Judaism, 24.
— conception of, 68.
— called space, 27, note 2.
— — Father, 31.
— and Providence, 102.
— and law, 60, note.
— and eternal activity, 129.
— is benevolent, 50.
— and soul, 36, note ; 60, note 2.
— manifest in the beauty of the world, 132, 133.
— of history, 102.
— of Philo, 168.
— is absolute, 23.
Goldberg, definition of " Emunah," 43, note 2.
Golden Rule, negative form of, 107.
— — Kant declares, universally invalid, 107, note.
Goldfahn, cited, 148, note, 174, note.
Goldziher, quoted, 153.

Index. 1 8 1

Gratz, quoted, 135.
— on " Min," 148, note.
— on Essenes, 152.
— on Buddhism, 174.
— finds Gnostic elements in Talmud, 155.
— cited, 174, note 3.
Great men and moral doctrines, 126.
Greek philosophy, 159.
Greeks, religion of, no, 111.
Gymnosophists, 170, note. H
Haggada, 162, and note.
— and Halacha, 71.
Halevi, Jehuda, quoted, 2, 56, note.
— — origin of religion, ace. to, 56, note.
" Halichoth Kedem," quotation from, 24, note.
Hamburger, cited, 71, note 2.
Harrison, Frederic, quoted, 36, note.
Haug, quoted, 171, note.
— on Devas, 46.
Heart, seat of individuality, 69, note.
Heresies in history of dogmatics, 162.
Heresy, a charge made by all sectarians, 6.
Hermeneutics of Rabbis, 160.
Hero-worship and religion, 91, 93.
Herzfeld on Esseneism, 152, note.
— on Parseeism, 174.
Hilgenfeld on Parsee and Buddhistic influence, 152, note.
Hillel and Jesus, 85, note 2.
Hindu influence on Judaism, 151, note.
History, complex and of large compass, 138.
— of mankind, 124.
— of religion, 62.
— of morals, 117.
— disciplines, 35.
Homer, 85.
" Hos Banim," 173.
Hyle, 168, 176. I
Ideality in religion, 54.
— and practicality, no.
Ideals of a nation, 129.
— traceable, 130.
"Ikkarim," cited, 9, note; 48, note ; to, note ; 74, note ;
note ; 161, note 2.

1 82 Index.

Immanuel Romi, on metaphysics, 157.
Individuality, 121.
— and prophecy, contrasted, 89.
— and career, 8.
— and religion, 10.
— diversity of interpretations through, 7.
— and genius, 81.
— the test, 84.
Intuitions, 4, 88.
— the primitive revelation, 48.
— and pre-natal existence, ace. to Talmud, 44, note,
— — — — Mendelssohn, 44, note.
— and spontaneity, 25.
Intuitive character of religious truths, 143.
Israel, prophets of, contrasted with those of other nations, 74,
note. J
" Jalkut Shimeoni," quoted, 59, note.
— — cited, 174, note.
Jehuda Halevi, see Halevi.
Jellinek, Adolph, ed. Nachmanides, 4, note.
— — cited, 69, note ; 98, note.
— on Ophites, 154, note.
" Jessod Mora," quoted, 5 note.
" Jessode Hathora," 68, note 3, 159, note.
Jesus, 83, 85.
— and theosophy, 149.
— and Hillel, 85, note, 2.
Jewish principles, tested, 48, note.
— Bible, the best effort, 95, 97, 101, 102.
— conception of God, 102.
— philosophy, no argumentum a consensu gentium in,
4, note.
— temperament, vivacious, 98, note.
— theology and natural religion, 37.
— principles, test of, 48, note.
— people, significant because of Judaism, 136, 141.
— — persecution of, 137, 138.
— — and genius, 141.
— — racial characteristics of, 127.
— history an experiment, 143.
— literature, universal teachings in, 69.
Jews, heroism and fortitude of, 136, 145.
— persecution of, a discipline, 139, 140.
— in Babylon, 171, 172.
John the Baptist, 149.

Index. 183

Judaism and generic religion, 25.
— animism and theology, 37, note.
— and universal history, 94, note, 103.
— and universal religion, 145.
— conception of divine unity in, 23.
— and Neoplatonism, 167.
— and natural religion, 37, note.
— conception of Providence in, 16, note 2.
— and Christianity, 86.
— and philosophy, 72.
— averse to catechismal exactness, 72.
— and universalism, 66.
— contrast between Judaism and philosophy, 55, note.
— history of, 134, 135.
— Darmsteter on history of, 144, note.
— Hindu importations into, 157, note.
— Philippson, on Judaism and the religious idea, 142,
note.
— and inquiry, 48, note. K
Kabbalistic teachings in Philo, 155.
Kalisch, on foreign matters in Judaism, 152, note.
Kant, on Golden Rule, 107, note.
Kaufmann, on consensus gentium among Jews, 4, note.
— quoted, 24, note 2.
Kohut, quoted, 160, note.
— cited, 174, note 3.
Kusari, quoted, 2, 56, note.
— cited, 80, note, 157, 159, note.
Kuttner, on " Anachi," 60, note.

Law, contrast between moral and civil, 39.
— display of, in nature, and religion, 19, 20.
Lecky's " Hist, of Morals," quotation from, 11.
Leibnitz and Mendelssohn, 44, note.
Leviathan and sin, 154, note.
Lightfoot on Parsee influence, 152, note.
Literature and religion, 96.
— is tentative, 98.
— national, and national religion, 94.
— — or genial, 95.
— suggestive more than literal, 99.
Logos, 167, 168.

1 84

Index.

Lowinsohn, Germ, transl. of " Mibchar Hap'ninim," 4, note,
Lubbock, cited, 41, note ; 153, note.
M
" Ma'amar Ho-achduth," 45, note.
MaSsse, Merkabah, 156, ff. ; 174, note 3.
— Bereshith, 156, ff.
Magi, 170.
— fanaticism of, 171.
Magian influence on Judaism, 172, ff.
Magus, Simon, 149.
Mahomet, 84, 95.
Maimonides, on prophecy, 86, 87.
— on revelation, 87.
— • on culture and morals, 127.
— on the embodiment of the beautiful, 133, note.
— on MaSsse Bereshith, 157, note.
— " Iggereth HaRambam," cited, 68, note 3.
— " Jessode Hathora," 68, note 3.
— More Nebuchim, quoted, 87, note, 2 ; 103, note.
— — — cited, 48, note ; 56, note ; 68,
note 3; 88, note 3; 127, note; 130, note;
161, note.
— subjectivity, emphasized by, 68.
Man, the embodiment of a Divine thought, 125.
— is a microcosm, 37, note.
Mandeville and Renan, 10, note.
Manliness, and genius, difference between, 81.
— and mutuality, 92.
Man's kinship with the universe, 27, and note ; 28.
Marcus Aurelius, Plumptre on, 159, note.
— — Bodek on, 159, note.
— — Watson on, 159, note.
Maubads, 171, note.
Mendelssohn, on a priori concepts, 44, note.
— on "Jerusalem," 103.
— on " Sache Gottes," ibid.
— and Leibnitz, 44, note.
" Mean," The, 176.
"Mechilta," quoted, 63, note.
Messianic time, ace. to Jehuda Halevi, 2, note.
— teachings, ibid.
— ace. to Maimonides, 175.
Metaphysics, in Talmud, 155, 160, 163.
— esoteric, 156.
Meyer, J. B., defines talent and genius, 82, note.

Index. 185

Michelangelo, 85.
Microcosm, 37, note.
"Midrash Rabba," Genesis, 13, note; 26, note; 27, note;
66, note ; 68 ; 72, note ; 74, note ; 174,
note.
— — Exodus, 55, note ; 72, note.
— — Leviticus, 60, note 2 ; 166, note.
— — Deuteronomy, 70, note.
— — Ecclesiastes, 71, note 2.
Mielziner, on Talmudic hermeneutics, 160, note.
Mill, J. S., on differentiation of conduct, 143, note.
" Min " and Gnostic, 148.
Miracles in history, 144, 145.
Monotheism, among Semitic races, 16.
— in the Jewish sense, 24.
Morality of Jews instanced, 136.
— and universal law. 126, 165.
— and religion, no, in, 117.
— identification with the universal purpose, 102.
Moral life of Jews, 145.
— precepts, negative, 107, 108, 109.
Morals, a prime condition, 121.
— and character, 125.
— and culture, 127, 128.
— and natural sciences, 125.
— history of, democratic, 117, 118, 120.
Moralness, progress in, and Providence, 120.
— and theology, 115, 116.
More Nebuchim, see Maimonides.
— — Narboni's commentary to, 68, note 3.
Moses, 84, 85, 87, 94.
— deprecated, 83, note.
Miiller, Max, cited, 153, note.
— — ethnical distinctions, 15, 23.
— — quoted, 15, 31, note ; 43, 70, note ; 96, note.
Mysticism and melancholy, 151.
— in early Christian period, 146.
— and rationalism, 147.
— common to many religious movements, 148, 149.
Mythology and serpent worship, 153.
N
Naasites, 152.
Nachmanides, on original concepts, 4, note.
Narboni's commentary to "More Nebuchim" cited, 68,
note 3.

1 86 Index.

Nation's ideals, 130.
Natural religion, 33, 37, 43.
— sciences and morals, 125.
Nature, 125.
— display of law of, and religion, 19, 20.
— suggestive, 29.
Nazarites, 152.
Neoplatonism and Judaism, 167.
Ner Tamid, 173.
New Year's day, 173.
Nissim, Rabbenu, quoted, 13, note 2.
Nissan and Tishri, 173. O
Oppenheim, cited, 151, note.
Origin of religion, in priestly impositions, 10, note.
— — ace. to Jehuda Halevi, 56, note.
Original sin, 49.

Palestine during early Christian period, 146,
Pardes, 157, note ; 161, 163, 164, note.
Parker, Theodore, quoted, 7, note.
Perles, cited, 151, note.
Persecution of Jewish people, 137, 138.
Persian dualism, 149.
— customs, analogy of, and Jewish, 172-173.
— polemics, 46.
Personal conduct, 121, 144.
— religion, 75.
"Pesikta," quoted, 75, note.
Pessimism of primitive man, 50.
Pfleiderer, quoted, 18, note.
Pharisees and Stoics, 159, note.
Philippson, on Judaism and the religious idea, 48, note ; 142,
note.
Philo, 150, 167, ff., 175.
Philosophy and religion, 70.
— and Rabbinism, 71.
Plato, the " Ideas" of, 168.
Plumptre on Pharisees and Stoics, 159, note.
Poetry in religion, 27, 28.
Polemics, sectarian, 45, 46.
Positivism, Amberly on, 55, note.
Practice, 144.
Prayers, analogy of, among Jews and Persians, 173.

Index. 187

Pre-natal existence of soul, 44, note.
Priestly impositions, 10, note.
Priests, representativeness of, 78, note.
— and prophets, their mutual antagonism, 76, 77.
Primitive man, pessimism of, 50.
— — does not speculate, 33.
— — view of future life, 41.
— — religion of, 42.
— — endowed with latent capacities for best, 75,
note.
— — and his ingenuous questions, 11.
— — not servile, 3, note.
— — idealism of, 26.
— — very serious, 30.
— • — personified, 31, 32.
Principles of religion, axiomatic, 143.
Prophecies, the starting-point in sects, 73.
Prophecy, normal event of mentality, 69.
— and character, 113.
— Maimonides on, 86, 87.
— condition of, in Talmud, 87, note.
Prophets, definition of, 78, 79.
— and genius, 88, 89.
— and priests, 76, 77.
— of Israel and of the nations, 74, note.
— Dr. Wise on, 88, note.
Providence and God, 60, note 2 ; 102.
— and progress in moralness, 120.
Providential action twofold, 138.
Psychology in religion, 5, 68.
— in prophecy, 89, note.
Publicity and truth, 63, note. R
Rabba bar bar Chana, 171.
Rabbinism and philosophy, 71.
Racial characteristics of Jewish people explicable, 127.
Raphael, 85.
Rationalism and Mysticism, 147.
Reason and faith, 48, note.
Religion and science, 123.
— and practice, 132.
— and experience, 142.
— an art, 132.
— the final and unified life, 133.
— history of , 33, 150.

1 88 Index.

Religion is the wisdom of history, 61.
— and philosophy, 70.
— psychology in, 5.
— and culture, 62, 63.
— and theology, 58, 59.
— Scholasticism in, 53.
— of savage, 30, 42.
— is optimistic, 53, 54.
— is elementary, 64.
— is independent of prophetic legitimization, 74.
— each accountable for quality of, 1.
— origin of, ace. to Renan, 10.
— origin of, ace. to Mandeville, 10.
— conception of, in correspondence with culture, 10.
— and ritual contrasted, 17.
— impressions of physical and moral laws conjoined
in, 19.
— of primitive man normal, 33, 34.
— defined, 43, note 2.
Religious principles, axiomatic, 143.
— leaders, 94, 95.
Renan, quoted, 10, note; cited, 85, note 2.
Responsibility, 121.
Revelation, 51, 52.
— on Sinai, Maimonides on, 87.
— and sin, 48.
Reville quoted, 20, 22, 52.
Ritual, analogy of, among Jews and Persians, 172, 173.
Romans, morals and religions among the, no.

Saadja's " Emunoth," 48 note.
Sampsitee, 174.
Satan, 172 note.
Schorr, cited, 175.
Science of religion defined, 159.
— — — makes tolerant, 2.
— — — data of, certain, 3.
— — — not sacrilegious, 13, 14.
— — — influence of its study, 128
— — — and theology, 61.
Secular knowledge, 123.
Sectarianism, 6, 65.
Sectarian polemics explicable, 45.
Sects, defined, 40.
— valid, 43.

Index. 189

Sects necessarily polemic, 45, 46.
Semitic religions, ace. to Max Miiller, 15.
— poetry, excellence of, 28 note.
Serpent-worship, 153 ff.
Serpent and Ahura, 154, note.
Sh'ma, 173.
Sinaitic revelation, 87, 88.
Sin and revelation, 48.
Siphri, quoted, 60, note 2.
Sohar, quoted, 68, 85.
Sotah, 173.
Spencer, Herbert, quoted, 40, 41.
Spiegel, cited, 175.
Spiritual independence of man, 60.
Soul, 44, note ; 68, note 3.
St. Cyprian, 53.
Steinthal, quoted, 9, note.
Stoics and Pharisees, 159, note.
— Plumptre on, ibid.
Subjectivity in prophecy, 9, 68, 8g.
Sun-worship in Talmud, 174 note.

Talent, defined by Meyer, 82 note,
— — — Wise, ibid.
Talmud, cited, 3, note; 36, note 2; 41, note ; 44, note; 71,
note 2 ; 72, note ; 83, note ; 87, note ; 88, note ; 89, note ;
105, note; 107, note; 109, note ; no, note; 163, note;
156, note ; 160, note; 161, note; 163, note; 166, note ;
172, note ; 173 ; 174, note I.
Talmud, has no theology, 70.
— philosophy of, practical, 69.
— and Gnostic sects, 147, 155.
Talmudic metaphysics, 156.
— — esoteric, 156, note, 157.
— — foreign, 163.
"Tal Pijoth," quoted, 75, note.
Tanchuma, quoted, 55, note.
Theology and Religion, 58, 59.
— and moralness, 115, 116.
— and science, 61.
— history of, 63.
— and natural religion, 37, note.
Theory and practice, 144.
Theosophy at origin of Christianity, 149.
— and philosophy, 164, 165.

1 90 Index.
Thora means progress in culture, 3, note.
Thought and nature, 125.
Truth, publicity of, 63, note. U
Universal history and Judaism, 134, 145.
Universal religion is no compromise, 12, 13.
— — spontaneity in, 34, 35.
— — systematized and organic, 36.
— — justifies all events, 44.
— — emancipated state of soul in, 67.
— teachings in Jewish literature, 69.
V
Vendidad, cited, 175, note.
Vice and virtue, proportions of, 109, note.
Virtue, 125. W
Watson, on Marcus Aurelius and Rabbi Jehuda, 159, note.
Wellhausen, cited, 97, note.
Windischmann, cited, 175, note.
Wise, I. M., on consensus gentium., 4, note.
— — on religious intuitions, 47.
— — on Gratz's view of Gnosticism, 156, note.
— — on history of Jews, 142.
— — on prophets, 88, note.
Wordsworth, quoted, 44.

Yacna, quoted, 173.
— cited, 46, note.
Yehuda, vid. Jehuda.
" Yessod," vid. " Jessod."
" Yezirah Sepher," 69, note.
Yozer Or, 173.

Zend Avesta, 174.
Zoroaster, 83, 171, note.