THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 207 



years from 500 to 1500 a. d., and is still affirmed by those who adhere 

 to the mediaeval view of things there even the idea of justice must 

 appear as a damnable illusion. Such justice, we mean, as enables us 

 to judge of men according to their education, inclination, and preju- 

 dices ; as leads us to enter into the circle of their thoughts and sympa- 

 thies, and to treat them accordingly ; as leads us to excuse and bear 

 with their departure from the lines of our own thinking, believing, and 

 doing, and to respect their independence. The Christian religion has 

 comprehended this justice in the command to love our neighbor as we 

 love ourselves ; but, by the rulers as well as the masses, by the teach- 

 ers as well as the taught, by the educated as well as the ignorant, this 

 supreme command has been misunderstood, ignored, and transgressed 

 to an almost immeasurable extent. 



As to the present condition of affairs in this regard I do not pro- 

 pose to speak. It is, however, easy to see that the civilization of a 

 nation ranks the higher, the greater the number of those in it who are 

 permeated by this higher spirit of justice, and the more calculated its 

 institutions are to protect and manifest it. Where the relations of 

 men to one another touch the religious field, we are accustomed to call 

 the lack of this virtue fanaticism ; and there have been times when 

 even the best men and the noblest characters have thought and acted 

 in a fanatical spirit. And so it has come about that, in judging of the 

 past, we, on our part, are now called upon to display this justice to 

 just those who were untrue to it in life, and denied it to their fellow- 

 men. 



Already, before the destruction of their capital and national sanc- 

 tuary, the Jews were the most wide-spread of all peoples, and, when 

 Strabo said that there could not be found one place in the world 

 which did not harbor Jews, he spoke of a world comprising all the 

 lands about the Mediterranean, and extending, in Asia, as far as into 

 the Perso-Parthian Empire. By reason of transportations en masse, of 

 half -free, half-compulsory colonization, of wars, and commerce in 

 slaves, and gradually also because their spirit of enterprise took the 

 direction more and more of commercial pursuits, they had become a 

 diaspora, which, while numerous particularly in the sea-towns, using 

 for the most part the Greek language, and influenced on many sides 

 by Greek culture, still everywhere held firmly together, and preserved^ 

 its existence as a distinct community. Like other inhabitants of the 

 empire, they enjoyed the benefit of the protection of the Roman law. 

 In general, they were esteemed and even given preferment, rather than 

 mistreated, by the emperors. Their elders, indeed, received certain 

 immunities ; firmly holding together, and helping and advancing one 

 another, they were successful competitors in all branches of industry, 

 therefore hated. And if their rite of circumcision, their celebration 

 of the Sabbath, their laws respecting food, and their shy habits of 

 seclusion, excited much derision and contempt, there was still in their 



