310 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC 



he is a sufficiently perfect hater : whether he 

 really hates in the true spirit set forth so elo- 

 quently in Psalm cix. But as we pass from the 

 Old Testament to the New Testament, we notice 

 a steady falling off in hatred. In classical times, 

 too, people hated strongly and well, and as every 

 reader of Dante recognises " Dante who loved 

 well because he hated " there was little falling 

 off in this emotion during what are called the 

 Middle Ages. Indeed, the Italian genius for 

 hatred is still maintained in the bitter local jea- 

 lousies in neighbouring villages perhaps as well 

 as anywhere else in the world ; but readers of 

 " Wuthering Heights " or of the " Green Graves 

 of Balgowrie " will recognise that the existence 

 of intense and local hatred is not confined to 

 Italian villages. 



Another example of hatred, concentrated, 

 organised, official, religious hatred is the curse 

 formally placed on Spinoza in 1656 in Holland, 

 issued by the Jewish congregation and in the 

 Portuguese tongue : 



" With the judgment of the angels and of the 

 saints we excommunicate, cut off, curse, and 

 anathematise Baruch de Espinoza, with the con- 



