The transformation was rapid for the reason that it was natural, seeing
that it had been Europe only that, like a Circe, had bewitched them into
beastial shapes, “sharks”, and “bulls”, and “bears”, mediæval Jews, for
example, having been debarred from every pursuit save commerce: so that
Shylock was obliged to turn into a Venetian; and, in ceasing to be a
Hebrew, became more Venetian than the Venetians, for the reason that he
had more brains, ready to beat them at any game they cared to mention;
but the genuine self of Shylock was a vine-dresser or sandal-maker, as
Hillel was a wood-chopper, David a shepherd, Amos a fig-gatherer, Saul
an ass-driver, Rabbi Ben Zakkai a sail-maker, Paul a tent-maker: so that
the return to simplicity and honesty was quickly accomplished.
And now, that done, behold a wonder: at the whirling of a wand the swine
of Circe converted back to biped man; whereupon without fail whatsoever
he does it shall astonishingly prosper: that succession of wits, seers,
savants, Heines, Einsteins, inspired mouths, pens of iridium, brushes
from the archangel's plumage, discoveries, new Americas, elations,
sensations--in therapeutics--in aero-nautics-beyond-the-atmosphere--in
the powers involved in sub-atoms--in the powers, latent till now,
involved in soul...for now each of millions was free to think, free
to manifest his own particular luck and knack in discovery, having
a country, foothold, not hovering like Noah's dove, urging still the
purposeless wing not to pitch into nowhere: for the promise says: “Ye
shall not sow and another reap, ye shall not plant and another garner”,
but in a land of gentlemen ye shall live, as it were to swellings of
music, while a noble height grows upon your smooth foreheads, and the
sum-total of the blending movements of your bodies and brains shall, as
seen from heaven, appear the minuet of a people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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