hat
uncouth imagery "setting painting and sculpture at defiance"
which Renan remarked in the tradition of Hebrew civilisation.
Nobody can say that a top-hat was among the strange symbolic utensils
dedicated to the obscure service of the Ark; nobody can suppose
that a top-hat descended from heaven among the wings and wheels
of the flying visions of the Prophets. For this wild vision the West
is entirely responsible. Europe has created the Tower of Giotto;
but it has also created the topper. We of the West must bear
the burden, as best we may, both of the responsibility and of the hat.
It is solely the special type and shape of hat that makes the Hebrew
ritual seem ridiculous. Performed in the old original Hebrew
fashion it is not ridiculous, but rather if anything sublime.
For the original fashion was an oriental fashion; and the Jews
are orientals; and the mark of all such orientals is the wearing
of long and loose draperies. To throw those loose draperies
over the head is decidedly a dignified and even poetic gesture.
One can imagine something like justice done to its majesty
and mystery in one of the great dark drawings of William Blake.
It may be true, and personally I think it is true, that the Hebrew
covering of the head signifies a certain stress on the fear of God,
which is the beginning of wisdom, while the Christian uncovering
of the head suggests rather the love of God that is the end of wisdom.
But this has nothing to do with the taste and dignity of the ceremony;
and to do justice to these we must treat the Jew as an oriental;
we must even dress him as an oriental.

I have only taken this as one working example out of many that
would point to the same conclusion. A number of points upon
which the unfortunate alien is blamed would be much improved
if he were, not less of an alien, but rather more of an alien.
They arise from his being too like us, and too little like himself.
It is obviously the case, for instance, touching that vivid vulgarity
in clothes, and especially the colours of clothes, with which a certain
sort of Jews brighten the landscape or seascape at Margate or many
holiday resorts. When we see a foreign gentleman on Brighton Pier
wearing yellow spats, a magenta waistcoat, and an emerald green tie,
we feel that he has somehow missed certain fine shades of social
sensibility and fitness. It might considerably surprise the company
on Brighton Pier, if he were to reply by solemnly unwind