As already noted by the author in the introduction to this work, it was in December, 1891, that another of the numberless public vilifications of the Jewish people which have appeared from time to time had demanded a no less public refutation of its falsities. It has furthermore been noted that this refutation was dictated not by anything specially remarkable in the nature of the slander itself, nor of its source, inasmuch as the former was commonplace and the latter obscure, but that the reply had been called forth wholly by reason of the extraordinary condition of the public mind with regard to the subject at that particular juncture. It was the time and the occasion that gave the slander prominence, rather than any peculiarity of its own.
It has been so for a long time past. From the time, nearly 1900 years ago, when Philo of Alexandria appeared before Caligula in defence of his people, down along the centuries to the date of Menasseh ben Israel's appeal to Cromwell in 1656, there were repeated occasions for such defenses and appeals, and there have been many since. These contingencies have repeatedly arisen in the course of the slow process of popular enlightenment which makes up the history of Man, and as that process is yet far from accomplishment it is not at all unlikely that they may be repeated in the future.
It is, however, more than passingly remarkable that in the closing decade of the 19th Century, when "the thoughts of men have widened with the process of the suns," an occasion of this nature should have arisen. That such exigencies occur but rarely in the midst of our Western civilization, and that rare as they are, their occurrence is always traceable to foreign impulses, only renders more apparent the liberalizing influences of our free American institutions, while on the other hand further emphasizing the lessons taught us by the spectacle of Monarchic Europe. There the remnants of the mediæval system, political, ecclesiastic and social, that remained as historic debris after the cataclysm of the French Revolution, still clog the advance of true enlightenment. In Germany and in Austria a considerable portion of the populace is still affected by a taint of monkish fanaticism, and in Russia only a comparatively few individuals appear to be free from it. Schools are numerous in Austria and universities flourish in Germany, but the prejudices which form the obverse side of folly find still some teachers in the schools and preachers in the pulpit.
"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers,"
and the dictates of reason, the teachings of political and economic science, the lessons of history, will have to be yet more than once repeated before that umbra of the Dark Ages, the so-called "anti-Semitism" of Slavic and Teutonic Europe, and its penumbra in America, will have been lost in historic space.
These lessons have been learned and these teachings taught by the foremost minds of every epoch and latterly of every generation. From the time of Reuchlin's defense of the Talmud and Jewish literature generally against the fanatics of his day, a defense which caused a religious and political agitation that became the prelude to the Reformation, down to our present time, there have not been wanting Christian men of learning and of understanding who strove successfully in the defense of Jewish polity against the prejudices of ignorance. The great Renaissance of German letters in the latter half of the 18th century afforded numerous instances of men of this character, among whom need but be cited Lessing, Herder, Schiller, and Goethe. These writers and thinkers carried on their polemics in the domain of idealism, in poetry and philosophy, and their thoughts were soon re-echoed in the out-givings of the succeeding generation of scientists, students and statesmen. We will not attempt here to adduce all the great array of leading minds who have been impelled to express themselves on this theme, but will limit our citations to a few of the most authoritative thinkers and a quotation of the most positive utterances on the subject.
In marked contrast with the accusation of the passing school of anti-Semitic writers against Judaism as materialistic in its tendencies, there may be cited an expression by the great German and cosmopolitan philosopher, ALEXANDER von HUMBOLDT. In a letter to a Jewish friend regarding the natural idealism expressed in Hebrew literature, he refers him to the following passage in his Cosmos (Vol. III, p. 44), and closes his letter as below.
"It is a characteristic sign of the natural poetry of the Hebrews, that, as a reflex of Monotheism, it always comprises the whole of the universe in its unity, both life on earth and the bright realms on high. It seldom dwells upon single phenomena, but rejoices in the contemplation of great masses. Nature is not described as self-existent, or glorified by a beauty of her own; to the Hebrew singer she always appears in connection with an over-ruling spiritual power. Nature to him is ever a thing created and ordained, the living utterance of God's Omnipresence in the works of the world of matter. Therefore, the lyrical poetry of the Hebrews, by reason of its subject, is grand and grave in its solemnity."
"Stand fast by your brethren who have accomplished so remarkable a course of martyrdom through centuries and now stand on the threshold of their liberation; devote all the energies of your intellect to the spiritual labor wherewith your millennial history is instinct; success cannot, will not fail you and the rich results that you, my young friend, will obtain from the mines of science, will calm and comfort you in many a sad experience in the dull and cloudy present, that is but the precursor of the bright dawn of the day of liberty."