SHEMITIC CIVILIZATION. 135 



If Judaism had been nothing but Phari- 

 saism, it would have had no future. But 

 this race possessed in itself a religious ac- 

 tivity truly extraordinary. Moreover, like 

 all great races, it nurtured opposite tenden- 

 cies : it knew how to re-act against itself, 

 and to acquire, where needed, qualities the 

 most opposed to its defects. In the very 

 midst of the tumultuous fermentation in 

 which the Jewish nation was plunged, 

 under the last Aramean princes, the most 

 extraordinary moral event recorded in his- 

 tory came to pass in Galilee. 



A man, to be compared with none other 

 so great indeed that, although every thing 

 in these studies and in this place, should 

 be viewed only by the light of Positive 

 Science, I should be unwilling to contra- 

 dict those who, struck by the exceptional 

 character of his work, call him God 

 worked out a reform of Judaism, a reform 

 of such depth, so individualized (si indi- 

 viduelle), that it was in truth a new crea- 

 tion in all its parts. Having attained a 



