GEORGE ELIOT _London Stereoscopic Co._ JAMES FINN LAURENCE OLIPHANT Laurence Oliphant continued to take an interest in the question until his death on December 23rd, 1888. Among English writers who have understood the idea in all its depth and breadth, the place of honour belongs unquestionably to George Eliot (1819‒1880).¹ She chose the Zionist idea for the theme of an imaginative creation, wherein she displayed unequalled depth of comprehension and breadth of conception. In “Daniel Deronda”² (1874‒1876) the Jew demands the rights pertaining to his race, and claims admittance into the community of nations as one of its legitimate members. He demands real emancipation, real equality. The blood of the prophets surges in his veins, the voice of God calls to him, and he becomes conscious, and emphatically declares that he has a distinct nationality; the days of levelling are over. Where calumny and obtuseness see nothing but _disjecta membra_, the eye of the English poetess perceives a complete national entity destined to begin life afresh, full of strength and vigour. ¹ Mary Ann (Marian) Cross, _née_ Evans. ²‏ דָּנִיֵּאל דּרוֹנְדָה ספור כתוב אנגלית ביד ”גארג“ עליוט ונעתק לעברית על ידי דוד .פרישמאנן ... ווארשא ... שנת תרנ״ג לפ״ק ... 1893 (8º. 1 _l._ + 774 _pp._, in printed wrapper as issued. ([B. M.]) דזארזש עליאט דניאל דיראנדה ראמאן ... ווארשא, תרע״ד.. ווארשא, תרע״ד (8º. 308 _pp._ [B. M.]) It is a memorable book, written by an author devoted to humanity and to the deeper realities of English national life. Its atmosphere is far removed from the conception of a materialistic world. Yet it is practical in a higher sense. It preaches a great idea. The Jewish nationality is represented as it actually is: not as an artificial combination, but as an ethnological group which possessed the glory of independence in the happier past and has been kept alive to hope for the future by a deep historical consciousness and a lofty devotion to humanity. This is a Zionist message indeed.