years from 500 to 1500 a. d., and is still affirmed by those who adhere to the mediæval 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 prejudices; as leads us to enter into the circle of their thoughts and sympathies, 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 asses, by the teachers 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 propose 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 sanctuary, 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
