The persistency which is a marked ethnological peculiarity of the Jews is at once the cause and the effect of their claim to Divine favor. The more intelligent of that people have never expected the appearance of a personal Messiah. They regard the popular myth of his coming as symbolizing the termination of national exile,--a mere allegorical allusion to the eventual independence and tranquillity which hope, deepening through ages into belief, assured them would one day be the condition of their race. This conviction, founded rather in the knowledge of its justice than in any well-defined prospect of its realization, sustained them through a long series of grievous trials and misfortunes. Accused of crimes such as the utmost ingenuity of malice has never imputed to any other sect, they retaliated by acts of self-sacrifice and generosity. In the midst of the futile solemnities of the Church, the pomp of processions, the intonation of litanies, the muttering of prayers, the smoking of censers, the exhibition of relics, they administered the remedies of scientific medicine to the suffering stricken with the pestilence. During the first visitation of the plague at Venice, in addition to a liberal donation, they lent the government a hundred thousand ducats for the relief of the poor. In time of national peril, their loyalty never faltered, except when their spirit had been exasperated by continued oppression. The funds they advanced were employed to drive the Arabs out of Spain. Moorish domination, established through their instrumentality, was thus indebted to their contributions for its overthrow. The most exacting requirements of retributive justice were certainly satisfied with the penalty exacted by fate for this perfidious act of ingratitude.