Within this sacred volume lies The mystery of all mysteries. Oh! happy he of human race To whom our God hath given grace―― To read, to learn, to watch, to pray, To lift the latch, to force the way. But better he had ne’er been born Who reads to doubt, who reads to scorn. ² _Shelley_ (1792‒1822) _and Lord Beaconsfield_, by Richard Garnett (1835‒1906). London: Printed For Private Circulation Only. 8º. _pp._ 22. 1887, _p._ 9. ³ Adonais ... By Percy B. Shelley ... MDCCCXXI. Stanza xxx., line 3. The genius of pure imagination is usually apt to evade the actual facts of political and social life, and to wing its way into an ideal world of abstractions. But some there are who derive their material from the realities of social and national life, and transmute into poetry the prevailing ideas of the actual world. The Pilgrim Poet belonged to the latter category. He re-echoed the aspirations of his time. Thorough understanding of and sincere compassion for the sorrows of _Israel_ found eloquent expression in the English writings of that epoch. At that time English writers were keen students of Jewish history, and since the time of Vespasian (9‒79) Jewish history has recorded only sorrowful scenes: it tells mainly of fugitives banished to all quarters of the world, where they have sought asylum and have been compelled to realize the unanimity of the desire to annihilate them. “The Jews were a prey to innumerable calamities, and their existence was little else than a protracted agony.” “The numberless banishments, oppressions, exactions, persecutions, massacres and miseries of all kinds, which they have undergone in almost every age and nation from their first dispersion down to these latter times――the various causes which have concurred to wipe off the very name and memorial of them from the face of the earth ... are indescribable.” This was what Byron read in the English literature of his time, and what he realized in his wanderings. A homeless nation――that was the fact which impressed itself most forcibly upon his mind.