O monks, monks! be modest, as I only true ones, of which we are not perhave already advised you; be moderate,mitted to doubt. These oracles, which if you wish to avoid the calamities impending over you. JEWS. they understand only in the literal sense, have a hundred times foretold to them, that they should be masters of the world; yet they have never possessed anything more than a small corner of land, and that only for a small number of years, and they have not now so much as a village of their own. They must, then, believe, and they do believe, that their pre You order me to draw you a faithful picture of the spirit of the Jews, and of their history, and-without entering into the ineffable ways of Providence, whichdictions will one day be fulfilled, and are not our ways-you seek in the man- that they shall have the empire of the ners of this people the source of the events earth. which that Providence prepared. seen; It is certain that the Jewish nation the most singular that the world has ever and although, in a political view, the most contemptible of all, yet in the eyes of a philosopher, it is, on various accounts, worthy consideration. Among the Mussulmans and the Chrisistians, they are the lowest of all nations, but they think themselves the highest. This pride in their abasement is justified by an unanswerable reason-viz. that they are in reality the fathers of both Christians and Mussulmans. The Christian and the Mussulman religion acknowledge the Jewish as their parent; and by a singular contradiction, they at once hold this parent in reverence and in abhorrence. The Guebres, the Banians, and the Jews, are the only nations which exist dispersed, having no alliance with any people, are perpetuated among foreign nations, and continue apart from the rest of the world. It were foreign to our present purpose to repeat, that continued succession of The Guebres were once infinitely more { prodigies which astonishes the imaginaconsiderable than the Jews, for they aretion and exercises the faith. We have castes of the Persians, who had the Jews under their dominion; but they are now scattered over but one part of the east. here to do only with events purely historical, wholly apart from the divine concurrence and the miracles which God, for so long a time, vouchsafed to work in this people's favour. First, we find in Egypt a family of seventy persons producing, at the end of two hundred and fifteen years, a nation counting six hundred thousand fighting men; which makes, with the women, the children, and the old men, upwards of two millions of souls. There is no example upon earth of so prodigious an increase of population: this people, having come out of Egypt, stayed forty years in the deserts of Stony Arabia, and in that frightful country the people much dimi The Banians, who are descended from the ancient people amongst whom Pythagoras acquired his philosophy, exist only in India and Persia; but the Jews are dispersed over the whole face of the earth, and if they were assembled, would } compose a nation much more numerous than it ever was in the short time that they were masters of Palestine. Almost every people who have written the history of their origin, have chosen to set it off by prodigies; with them all has been miracle; their oracles have predicted nothing but conquest; and such of them as have really become conquerors have hadnished. no difficulty in believing these ancient oracles which were verified by the event. The Jews are distinguished among the nations by this-that their oracles are the What remained of this nation advanced a little northward in those deserts. It appears that they had the same principles which the tribes of Stony and Desert Arabia have since had, of butchering without mercy the inhabitants of little towns over whom they had the advantage, and reserving only the young women. The interests of population have ever been the principal object of both We find, that when the Arabs had conquered Spain, they imposed tributes of marriageable girls; and at this day the Arabs of the desert make no treaty without stipulating for some girls and a few presents. these things, and reverencing in silence the designs of God, who permitted them. It is also asked, what right had strangers like the Jews to the land of Canaan? The answer is, that they had what God gave them. No sooner had they taken Jericho and Laïs, than they had a civil war among themselves, in which the tribe of Benjamin was almost wholly exterminated— men, women, and children; leaving only The Jews arrived in a sandy, moun- six hundred males. The people, unwilltainous country, where there were a fewing that one of the tribes should be annitowns, inhabited by a little people called hilated, bethought themselves of sacking the Midianites. In one Midianite camp a whole city of the tribe of Manasseh, alone, they took six hundred and seventy-killing all the men, old and young, all five thousand sheep, seventy-two thou- the children, all the married women, all sand oxen, sixty-one thousand asses, and the widows, and taking six hundred virthirty-two thousand virgins. All the gins, whom they gave to the six hundred men, all the wives, and all the male chil-survivors of the tribe of Benjamin, to redren, were massacred: the girls and the store that tribe, in order that the number booty were divided between the people of their twelve tribes might still be comand the sacrificers. plete. They then took, in the same country, Meanwhile, the Phenicians, a powerthe town of Jericho; but having devoted {ful people settled in the coasts from time the inhabitants of that place to the anathema, they massacred them all, including the virgins, pardoning none but Ra- } hab a courtezan, who had aided them in { surprising the town. immemorial, being alarmed at the depre{dations and cruelties of these new comers, frequently chastised them; the neighbouring princes united against them; and they were seven times reduced to slavery, for more than two hundred years. The learned have agitated the question, whether the Jews, like so many other At last, they made themselves a king, nations, really sacrificed men to the Di-whom they elected by lot. This king vinity. This is a dispute on words: could not be very mighty; for in the first those whom the people consecrated to the battle which the Jews fought under him, anathema, were not put to death on an against their masters the Philistines, they altar, with religious rites; but they were had, in the whole army, but one sword not the less immolated, without its being and one lance, and not one weapon of permitted to pardon any one of them. steel. But David, their second king, Leviticus (chap. xxvii. 29.) expressly made war with advantage. He took the forbids the redeeming of those who shall city of Salem, afterwards so celebrated have been devoted. Its words are, "They under the name of Jerusalem, and then shall surely be put to death." By virtue the Jews began to make some figure on of this law it was, that Jephtha devoted the borders of Syria. Their government and killed his daughter, that Saul would and their religion took a more august have killed his son, and that the prophet form. Hitherto they had not the means Samuel cut in pieces King Agag, Saul's of raising a temple, though every neighprisoner. It is quite certain that God bouring nation had one or more. Solois the master of the lives of men, and mon built a superb one, and reigned over that it is not for us to examine his laws; this people about forty years. we ought to limit ourselves to believing Not only were the days of Solomon the half tribes of Samaria and Sichem were carried off and dispersed for ever; nor has it been precisely known to what places they were led into slavery. It is but twenty leagues from the town of Samaria to Jerusalem, and their territories joined each other; so that when one of these towns was enslaved by powerful conquerors, the other could not long hold out. Jerusalem was sacked several times; it was tributary to kings Hazael and Razin, enslaved under Teglat-phaelasser, three times taken by Nebuchodo nosor, or Nebuchodon-asser, and at last destroyed. Zedekias, who had been set up as king or governor by this conqueror, was led, with his whole people, into cap most flourishing days of the Jews, but all the kings upon earth together could not exhibit a treasure approaching Solomon's. His father David, whose predecessor bad not even iron, left to Solomon twenty-five thousand six hundred and forty-eight millions of French livres in ready money. His fleets, which went to Ophir, brought him sixty-eight millions per annum in pure gold, without reckoning the silver and jewels. He had forty thousand stables, and the same number of coachhouses, twelve thousand stables for his cavalry, seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines. Yet he had neither wood nor workmen for building his palace and the temple: he borrowed them of Hiram, King of Tyre, who also fur-tivity in Babylonia ; so that the only Jews nished gold; and Solomon gave Hiram wenty towns in payment. The commentators have acknowledged that these things need explanation, and have susped some literal error in the copyists, who alone can have been mistaken. On the death of Solomon, a division took place among the twelve tribes, composing the nation. The kingdom was torn asunder, and separated into two small provinces, one of which was called Judah, the other Israel-nine tribes and a half composing the Israelitish province, and only two and a half that of Judah. Then there was between these two small peoples a hatred, the more implacable as they were kinsmen and neighbours, and as they had different religions; for at Sichem and at Samaria they worshipped 'Baal,'-giving to God a Sidonian name; while at Jerusalem they worshipped 'Adonaï.' At Sichem were consecrated two calves; at Jerusalem, two cherubim -which were two winged animals with double heads, placed in the sanctuary. So, each faction having its kings, its gods, its worship, and its prophets, they made a bloody war upon each other. While this war was carried on, the kings of Assyria, who conquered the greater part of Asia, fell upon the Jews; as an eagle pounces upon two lizards while they are fighting. The nine and a left in Palestine were a few enslaved peasants, to sow the ground. As for the little country of Samaria and Sichem, more fertile than that of Jerusalem, it was re-peopled by foreign colonies, sent there by Assyrian kings, who took the name of Samaritans. The The two and a half tribes that were slaves in Babylonia and the neighbouring towns for seventy years, had time to adopt the usages of their masters, and enriched their own tongue by mixing with it the Chaldean: this is incontestible. historian Josephus tells us, that he wrote first in Chaldean, which is the language of his country. It appears that the Jews acquired but little of the science of the magi: they turned brokers, moneychangers, and old-clothes men; by which they made themselves necessary, as they still do, and grew rich. Their gains enabled them to obtain, (under Cyrus, the liberty of rebuilding Jerusalem; but when they were to return into their own country, those who had grown rich at Babylon, would not quit so fine a country for the mountains of Colesyria, nor the fruitful banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, for the torrent of Cedron. Only the meanest part of the nation returned with Zorobabel. The Jews of Babylon contributed only their {alms to the rebuilding of the city and the temple; nor was the collection a large one; for Esdras relates, that no more than seventy thousand crowns could be raised for the erection of this temple, which was to be that of all the earth. The Jews still remained subject to the Persians; they were likewise subject to Alexander; and when that great man, the most excusable of all conquerors, had, in the early years of his victorious career, begun to raise Alexandria, and make it the centre of the commerce of the world, the Jews flocked there to exercise their trade of brokers: and there it was that their rabbis at length learned something of the sciences of the Greeks. The Greek tongue became absolutely necessary to all trading Jews. After Alexander's death, this people continued subject in Jerusalem to the kings of Syria, and in Alexandria to the kings of Egypt; and when these kings were at war, this people always shared the fate of their subjects, and belonged to the conqueror. From the time of their captivity at Babylon, the Jews never had particular governors taking the title of king. The pontiffs had the internal administration, and these pontiffs were appointed by their masters: they sometimes paid very high for this dignity, as the Greek patriarch at Constantinople pays for his at present. Under Antiochus Epiphanes they revolted: the city was once more pillaged, and the walls demolished. After a succession of similar disasters, they at length obtained, for the first time, about a hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, permission to coin money, which permission was granted them by Antiochus Sidetes. They then had chiefs, who took the name of kings, and even wore a diadem. Antigonus was the first who was decorated with this ornament, which, without the power, confers but little honour. At that time the Romans were beginning to become formidable to the kings of Syria, masters of the Jews; and the latter gained over the Roman senate by presents and acts of submission. It seemed that the wars in Asia Minor would, for a time at least, give some relief to this unfortunate people; but Jerusalem no sooner enjoyed some shadow of liberty than it was torn by civil wars, which rendered its condition under its phantoms of kings much more pitiable than it had ever been in so long and various a succession of bondages. In their intestine troubles, they made the Romans their judges. Already most of the kingdoms of Asia Minor, Southern Africa, and three-fourths of Europe, acknowledged the Romans as their arbiters and masters. Pompey came into Syria to judge the nation and to depose several petty tyrants. Being deceived by Aristobulus, who disputed the royalty of Jerusalem, he revenged himself upon him and his party. He took the city; had some of the seditious, either priests or pharisees, crucified; and, not long after, condemned Aristobulus, King of the Jews, to execution. The Jews, ever unfortunate, ever enslaved, and ever revolting, again brought upon them the Roman arms. Crassus and Cassius punished them; and Metellus Scipio had a son of King Aristobulus, named Alexander, the author of all the troubles, crucified. Under the great Cæsar, they were entirely subject and peaceable. Herod, famed among them and among us, for a long time was merely tetrarch, but obtained from Antony the crown of Judea, for which he paid dearly; but Jerusalem would not recognise this new king, because he was descended from Esau, and not from Jacob, and was merely an Idumæan. The very circumstance of his being a foreigner caused him to be chosen by the Romans, the better to keep this people in check. The Romans protected the king of their nomination with an army; and Jerusalem was again taken by assault, sacked, and pillaged. Herod, afterwards protected by Au Having assembled many of these wretched people under his banners, which they believed to be sacred, he perished with all his followers. It was the last struggle of this nation, which has never lifted its head again. Its constant opinion, that barrenness is a reproach, has preserved it : the Jews has ever considered as their two first duties, to get money and children. gustus, became one of the most powerful sovereigns among the petty kings of Arabia. He restored Jerusalem, repaired the fortifications that surrounded the temple, so dear to the Jews, and rebuilt the temple itself; but he could not finish it, for he wanted money and workmen. This proves that, after all, Herod was not rich; and the Jews, though fond of their temple, were still fonder of their money. From this short summary it results, that The name of king was nothing more the Hebrews have ever been vagrants, or than a favour granted by the Romans; it robbers, or slaves, or seditious. They was not a title of succession. Soon after still are vagabonds upon the earth, and Herod's death, Judea was governed as a abhorred by men, yet affirming that heaven subordinate Roman province, by the pro-and earth and all mankind were created consul of Syria, although from time to for them alone. time the title of king was granted, some- It is evident, from the situation of Jutimes to one Jew, sometimes to another,dea, and the genius of this people, that for a considerable sum of money, as un- they could not but be continually der the Emperor Claudius, when it was subjugated. It was surrounded by granted to the Jew Agrippa. powerful and warlike nations, for which A daughter of Agrippa was that Bere-it had an aversion; so that it could neinice, celebrated for having been beloved by one of the best emperors Rome can boast. She it was who, by the injustice she experienced from her countrymen, drew down the vengeance of the Romans upon Jerusalem. She asked for justice, and the factions of the town refused it. The seditious spirit of the people impelled them to fresh excesses. Their character at all times was to be cruel; and their fate, to be punished. ther be in alliance with them, nor protected by them. It was impossible for it to maintain itself by its marine; for it soon lost the port which in Solomon's time it had on the Red Sea; and Solomon himself always employed Tyrians to build and to steer his vessels, as well as to erect his palace and his temple. It is then manifest, that the Hebrews had neither trade nor manufactures, and that they could not compose a flourishing people They never had an army always ready for the field, like the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, the Syrians, and the Romans. The labourers and artisans took up arms only as occasion required, and This memorable siege, which ended in the destruction of the city, was carried on by Vespasian and Titus. The exaggerating Josephus pretends, that in this short war more than a million of Jews were slaughtered. It is not to be won-consequently could not form well-discipdered at, that an author who puts fifteen thousand men in each village, should slay a million. What remained, were exposed in the public markets; and each Jew was sold at about the same price as the unclean animal of which they dare not eat. In this last disperson they again hoped for a deliverer; and under Adrian, whom they curse in their prayers, there arose one Barcochebas, who called himself a second Moses -a Shiloh-a Christ. lined troops. Their mountains, or rather their rocks, are neither high enough, nor sufficiently contiguous, to have afforded an effectual barrier against invasion. The most numerous part of the nation, transported to Babylon, Persia, and to India, or settled in Alexandria, were too much occupied with their traffic and their bro{kerage, to think of war. Their civil government, sometimes republican, sometimes pontifical, sometimes monarchical, and very often reduced to anarchy, seems |