Those who were unable to comprehend this distinction, and could not or would not recognize the true nobility of their Jewish nationality, were impelled by a desire to destroy the distinctive characteristics which recalled their origin. They wished to submerge their nationality, glorious in tradition and history, illustrious in its record of heroism, venerable in its antiquity, holy by the inspiration of religion. They failed to see that their people’s history abounded in events and incidents sufficient not only to stamp a nation as glorious, but to confer upon themselves, as men and as citizens in the countries of their birth, greater dignity, more native worth and integrity of purpose. They forgot that assimilation involved the sacrifice of a glorious historical tradition, of a living national sentiment, and, worst of all, of their national genius. However, the pursuit of assimilation did not always extend to a desire for total absorption; its effect was to weaken rather than to destroy. The attitude of assimilation was not adopted in its fulness by the Jews in England. This was due to the influence of the English nation. Jews in England could not fail to see the attachment of Englishmen to time-honoured political observances, sometimes meaningless in themselves, yet full of significance through their symbolism or associations; that strong under-current of traditional feeling which, though held in check by the swifter stream of progress, manifests its presence and power in a dignified reverence for the past. With such fellow-countrymen as the British people, in a land whose greatness is built on the past, on tradition, on the Bible, the Jews had no need to be ashamed of pointing to their own traditions, of dwelling upon their own history and the glory of their own past. The Jews, whose history is an epic, had no need to slur over that chapter of the poem whose scenes are laid in the Holy Land. They knew that the ancient glory of their annals shone brightly on those sacred shores. They knew that that holy soil had been trodden by the prophets, the poets, and the warriors of their race, and that there they had first impressed themselves on their age and on the ages which were to follow. They knew that amid the most splendid states of antiquity or of the modern world no land had produced such brilliant examples of valour, wisdom and virtue; that no land had ever rendered more wonderful services to the world than this Holy Land of theirs; that no land had ever had so great a past. And though the future is wrapped in darkness, national hope sees a glimmer of promise even through the veil of mist.