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 



