x.] INFLUENCE OF JEWISH LITERATURE. 239 



by it has been notably assisted by the foundation of 

 our own Royal Society. Its causes I will not enter 

 into ; they are so inextricably mixed, I hold, with 

 theological questions, that they cannot be discussed 

 here. I will only point out to you these facts : that, 

 from the latter part of the seventeenth century, the 

 noblest heads and the noblest hearts of Europe con- 

 centrated themselves more and more on the brave and 

 patient investigation of physical facts, as the source 

 of priceless future blessings to mankind ; that the 

 eighteenth century which it has been the fashion of 

 late to depreciate, did more for the welfare of mankind, 

 in every conceivable direction, than the whole fifteen 

 centuries before it ; that it did this good work by 

 boldly observing and analysing facts ; that this bold- 

 ness towards facts increased in proportion as Europe 

 became indoctrinated with the Jewish literature ; and 

 that, notably, such men as Kepler, Newton, Berkeley, 

 Spinoza, Leibnitz, Descartes, in whatsoever else they 

 differed, agreed in this, that their attitude towards 

 Nature was derived from the teaching of the Jewish 

 sages. I believe that we are not yet fully aware how 

 much we owe to the Jewish mind, in the gradual eman- 

 cipation of the human intellect. The connection may 

 not, of course, be one of cause and effect; it may be a 

 mere coincidence. I believe it to be a cause ; one of 

 course of very many causes : but still an integral cause. 

 At least the coincidence is too remarkable a fact not to 

 be worthy of investigation. 



I said, just now The emancipation of the human 

 intellect. I did not say Of science or of the scientific 

 intellect ; and for this reason : 



That the emancipation of science is the emancipation 



