It appears to be the general law of human nature, that when different
races live together they become, before long, fused with each other.
There may be exceptions, as there are in certain cases; but there is
always some cause to account for it. In India, for example, there is
very little fusion between the English and the Hindoo; but then it must
be remembered that no English ever settle in India as their permanent
home. So in America there is not much fusion between the European races
and the negroes; but there again we must remember that there is the
almost impassable barrier of the difference of colour as well as the
slave curse on Canaan. But in ordinary cases there is always fusion, and
when there is no such barrier the races soon amalgamate. In our own
country, for example, there are Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and
Normans; but who can distinguish them? We are all merged into one race,
and the distinction of our nationality is totally lost. Who could pick
out from any congregation the Roman, the Dane, or the Norman? But the
Jew remains distinct. There is nothing to keep him separate, but
separate he remains. He is rich, and enterprising, and talented, and
often exceedingly handsome; but he does not amalgamate, and he remains to
this day as distinct from us all as he was when he first landed on our
shores.
(4.) _Reproach and persecution_.
Notwithstanding the wealth and great ability of the Jewish nation, they
have always been a people under reproach. In trade, if people wish to
describe any one as covetous, grasping, and avaricious, it is not an
uncommon thing for people to say that he is “a regular Jew,” and thus,
whatever a person may be in himself, the name “Jew” is a term of
opprobrium throughout the world.
But reproach is not all, nor nearly all; for they have had to endure the
most terrible persecutions. They have been treated most barbarously by
the nations amongst whom they have been scattered. It has mattered
little whether they have been living amongst Pagans, Mahommedans, or
spurious Christians, though I fear it must be admitted that the treatment
by spurious Christians has been the worst. But I need not dwell on these
horrible atrocities; for they are fresh in our own memories. We have
only to go back to the newspapers of last year to learn what the poor
Jews endured in Southern Russia. Their property was plundered, their
homes burnt, their daughters—oh, I cannot tell you the horrors!—and their
whole families cast out on a pitiless world to perish from cold, hunger,
and nakedness; and all this in the face of the whole of Europe in this
enlightened nineteenth century.
(5.) _Preservation_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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