All these ups and downs which we have experienced ever since we have lived dispersed warrant a certain reserve in our judgment on phenomena in life, even when these phenomena be of the most revolutionary nature. Too much optimism and too much overstating of matters must subsequently lead to disappointment, to despair, even to ruin. Our age as a people, our historical and general intellectual experience, do not warrant too much optimism even at present. The Jews are a force in history. The other historical forces must take an attitude to and judgment from Judaism. This attitude and judgment are likely to change. The change that is necessary to take place from time to time is not always a product of malice, but a product of certain factors which the individual, be he even the most powerful, is often unable to control. If an oppressed people is set free, all the suppressed energies in it begin to pour out suddenly; this may lead to the reaction against the Jews. The people sheltering us may often need a scapegoat and it will without fail take the Jews for that purpose. National as well as international crises may often affect the attitude of a people to the Jews or the attitude of the dominating class to the Jews. In this case we will always be the sufferers. Because of the hostile encounter between clericalism and liberalism in France the Jews had to suffer. The Dreyfus affair is still in the memory of every contemporary. When the liberal forces in France finally emerged victors from the struggle, another Jewish group--the Hungarian--felt the effects of this struggle in a very unpleasant way. The Clericals not being in a position to do any more harm to the French Jews began to awaken the anti-Semitic instincts of the Hungarians, and set about to create an anti-Semitic movement in Hungary. Even the Polish Jews had to suffer because of the victory of liberalism in France, for the Clericals in Poland took revenge on the Jews for their defeat in France. As to the future of the Jews in Russia, it is hard to predict whether or not it will be a happy one. The mind of the Russian people is still a blank. The Russian people have been kept in ignorance; their will is not domesticated and their mind not trained. The Russians themselves, or, to be correct, the Great Russians do not know the Jews. They have never lived together. On account of the emancipation the Jews of the Pale will emigrate to the interior of Russia and will settle in the midst of the Great Russians, and they will become active in various spheres and fields.