Rabbi Shemuel says advantage may be taken of the mistakes of a Gentile. He once bought a gold plate as a copper of a Gentile for four zouzim, and then cheated him out of one zouz in the bargain. Rabbi Cahana says that he swindled a Gentile, while the Gentile assured him that he confidently trusted to his honesty. (v) It is also expressly urged (Bava Kama, fol. 113, col. 1 ), to resort to false and adroit pretexts to secure the acquittal of a guilty Jew. Compare this from the "people of God" with the following from a Pagan Poet: = ``` _If ever called ```To give thy witness in a dubious case, ```Though Phalaris himself should bid thee lie ```On pain of torture in his flaming bull, ```Disdain to barter innocence for life,_ ```To which life owes its luster and its worth.(vi)= * Talmud, Bava Kame, fol. 38, col. 1. ** Bava Metzia, fol. 24, col. 1. *** Sanhédrin, fol. 78, col. 2. **** Bava Kama, fol. 38, col. 1. v Bava Kama, fol. 118, col. 2. vi Juvenal, Sat. 8,1,80. Doctor Edersheim quotes the following from the Talmud: _The best of the Gentiles kill; the best among serpents, crush its head._ Now this is the book which is to the orthodox Jew in Poland and Russia what the Pope is to the Italian and Spanish peasantry. That it is binding upon the conscience of every believing Jew may be inferred from the following: _Whosoever transgresses any of the sayings of the scribes is guilty of death._ * The Talmud with its twelve large folio volumes, represents the national literature of the Jews for a long period of time. What its worth is, aside from the few scattered passages quoted above, may be seen from the following estimate: _But yet I venture to say that it would be impossible to find less wisdom, less eloquence and less high morality, imbedded in a vaster bulk of what is utterly valueless to mankind--to say nothing of those parts of it which are indelicate and even obscene--than in any other national literature of the same extent._ ** * Eiruvin, fol. 21, col. 2. ** Dean Farrar, in A Talmudic Miscellany. But what Canon Farrar says of the Talmud could with equal truth be said of the bulk of the bible. The Jews could ask for no better illustration of the baneful influence of the bible upon their national literature for long centuries than the worthless character of the Talmudic writings. It would have been a real miracle for the Jews to have developed a great literature, or to have created a great civilization like that of the Hellens or the Latins, with an infallible bible, and its offspring, the Talmud, blocking their progress on every side. It is interesting to note that the only races of antiquity which blossomed morally, as well as intellectually, are those which had no _revelation_ to hamper their free movements or to stunt their growth. The unfortunate Jews went through life carrying the burden of Jehovah. The Greeks made sport of their gods; Jehovah made sport of the Jews.