These biographical details are interesting in so far as they enhance our appreciation of the activity of this great man, who advocated also the idea of the regeneration of the East, and the resurrection of Palestine by the Jewish people. Dunant was inspired more by political convictions than by religious emotion. He was a champion of humanitarian ideas in the political life of Europe, and he dealt with the problem of the East and the Jews from this point of view. He addressed to the public an “Open Letter,” which, far from repeating the older ideas and suggestions which had been put forth on several occasions in England and France, gave the impression of a fascinating spontaneity and originality (Appendix lxviii). A peculiar feature of so many Zionist writings is the writer’s unfamiliarity with what has been written repeatedly before. There is no reference to earlier suggestions and attempts, no allusion or reminiscence whatever. Every writer begins _ab ovo_; everyone makes new discoveries. Is this due to the fact that there was no literary concentration, no history of Zionist literature, no bibliography? Partly so: but the true reason was, in our opinion, the independence of the idea in all these writings. Every writer was impressed not by what he had read――most of them had not read anything about Zionism――but by the appearance of the problem as it presented itself to him. Everybody discovered the truth in his own way, and all came to the same conclusion quite independently. Henri Dunant planned out and calculated for himself all the details of his great scheme. He had, as we see, a clear political conception of Zionism; his style, too, was lucid and pleasant. He had a wonderful faculty for disposing of difficulties. Moreover, he started political activity, and was in this respect a forerunner of Herzl.