Faith has its reward. While the captives bewail their lot, deliverance is close at hand. The star of Cyrus has risen; Babylon the proud falls, and the prophecy concerning the restoration of Israel is fulfilled. But strong as is the sympathy with the fortunes and the spirit of Israel in both these works, neither of them can be legitimately considered as bearing directly on the Jewish question. The Shylock tradition is still powerful in England, for want of a Lessing. It is not ponderous poetasters, like Cumberland and Burgess, nor yet sweet singers like the gentle Goldsmith, who will overthrow a convention hallowed by the genius of a Shakespeare. CHAPTER XX PALINGENESIA THE French Revolution is over. For a while the volcanic forces, which had long groaned in subterranean bondage, broke their prison, burst into the light of day, and brought death and desolation upon the face of the earth. But their task is done. Nemesis has obtained the due and forfeit of her bond, and the Titans have returned to their Tartarean abode, until such time as their services may be needed again. A sentimentalist will, no doubt, find much to lament in the unsparing fury of the avengers. Their hand has struck down everything that stood high--good, evil, and indifferent alike--with elemental impartiality. But the philosopher may, on the whole, see reason to rejoice. At all events, he will, if he happens to be a Jew. For among the ruins of tyranny he will recognise the rusty chains which had for centuries weighed upon the limbs of Israel. They are gone, whatever may have survived. Whatever may be said of the rest, they were an evil. The Jew sees nothing but the hand of God in the desolation wrought by another. For him the Powers of Darkness had broken their prison; for him the proud ones of the earth had been laid low; for him the dreams of freedom dreamt by the poets and thinkers of France had been turned into a reality of despotism. What matter? Cyrus was a despot, and yet a deliverer of Israel; Alexander was another; and Napoleon was doubtless destined to be the third. Strange, indeed, are the ways of the Lord, but His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.