But the Jews live, and fulfill the glorious mission for which they have
been scattered throughout the world. The people chosen by the Eternal
Jehovah to be His priest people cannot die. The people that has seen
the tidal waves of Babylon, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Rome roll over it
and instead of engulfing it has lived to see them engulfed; the people
that live after a thousand struggles, after deeds of heroic courage
that Rome, and Athens, and Sparta, and Carthage have never equaled,
outliving them all; the people that still lives, after eighteen
centuries of persecution, and still is united, though scattered the
wide world over, and though not held together by the ties of any
fatherland, was never destined to be annihilated by any Church or by
any race of men. The Jew is older than both, and will outlive them
both. Time and death wield no power over him. Emerson spoke truly:
"This is he who, felled by foes,
Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows:
He to captivity was sold,
But him no prison bars would hold;
Though they sealed him in a rock,
Mountain chains he can unlock;
Thrown to lions for their meat,
The crouching lion kissed his feet;
Bound to the stake, no flames appalled,
But arched o'er him an honoring vault."
Such is the Jew. He is as indestructible as his religion, and as
eternal as his God.
[Illustration]
FAREWELL TO SPAIN.
Schoenes Land der Jugend Traeume!
Habe endlich dich durchzogen,
Ueberall nur Freude findend,
Herzlich war ich aufgenommen.
Schoen bist du und lachend woelbt sich
Ueber dir der blaue Himmel,
Dich umrauschen Meereswellen
Und dir ragen Bergesgipfel.
Auf den Feldern blueht der Weinstock,
Feigenbaeume decken Huetten,
Purpurn glaenzen die Granaten,
Und der Oelbaum strotzt in Fuelle.
Allzeit duften dir die Rosen
Und die Myrthen in dem Garten,
Gleich Orangen und Citronen
Bilden Waelder dir die Palmen.
Schoenes Land, das frohen Menschen
Steigert den Gesang zum Jauchzen,
Land des Weines und der Taenze
Und der anmuthsvollen Frauen.
Land der Dichter und der Ritter,
Und der muntren Volkessitten,
Land fuer Hohes sich begeisternd,
Und gefuehrt vom Edelsinne.
Einst, ja einst, da sangen mit euch,
Judas Soehne, euch zum Ruhme,
Waren eng mit euch vereinet,
Gleicher Sinn hat euch verbunden.
Sie auch stellten manchen Denker,
Der noch heut' im Volke lebet,
Und ihr habt von eurem Namen
Vieles ihnen zu verdanken.
Sie auch stellten manchen Dichter,
Der in urer schoenen Sprachen
Liedere sang in allen Toenen,
Wie sie nur Iberien athmet.
Trefflich waret ihr gebildet,
Die Natur hat euch geschmuecket.
Doch, es waren boese Maechte,
Die euch falsche Wege fuehrten.
Jene boesen Maechte sind es,
Die euch das Verderben brachten,
Despotismus war die eine,
Fanatismus war die andre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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