with soap, or to refuse to drink wine made by gentiles of which a libation might have been made to idols. At the same time, the Hebrew education, so long an integral part of Jewish life, has been completely revolutionized from the unsystematic private or charity instruction of Russia to the large, well organized schools for daily Hebrew instruction at the close of the public school day, whose method is largely copied from that of the American public school.[121] We are witnessing before our eyes a group adjustment on a large scale to modern thought, to American customs, to the non-Jewish group. Some of this adjustment is systematic, based on a theory of Jewish life as a distinct religion among Americans of other religions. Some of it is economic and social, either without theory or directly against the orthodox theory of the adjusters themselves. At the same time, we are witnessing orthodoxy fighting for group solidarity; Zionism establishing a Jewish group in a distant land; the assimilationists who escape as individuals from the burden and the odium of being Jews. Each theory is today being tried out in practice, and the results of each will in time be demonstrated. At the same time, each theory of Jewish life implies a corresponding conception of America and of human groups as a whole. CHAPTER IX. THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN MIND 1. The ideal of most social thinkers has been that of uniformity, absence of parties and swallowing of groups in a common loyalty. Then none was for a party; Then all were for the state; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great; Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold; The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old.[122] Uniformity and unity within, hostility and spoils from without—this is the old ideal of the happy society, founded on the patriotism of the little Greek cities in their petty isolation. But now this point of view of the state, appropriate in its origin, is applied uncritically to a great modern nation, with a hundred cities larger than any one of ancient Greece, with its inhabitants drawn from the ends of the earth—such a nation shall also present a uniformity of blood, speech and loyalty. What is the method by which such an end can be achieved? What is the theory by which such an end can be justified?