idealisms, its unconquerable faith in the victory
of good over evil, in the possibility of happiness on earth.

The Jews--mankind's old, strong leaven,--have always exalted its
spirit, bringing into the world restless, noble ideas, goading men to
embark on a search for finer values.

All men are equal; the soil--is no one's, it is God's; man has the
right and the power to resist his fate, and we may stand up even
against God,--all this is written in the Jewish Bible, one of the
world's best books. And the commandment of love for one's neighbour is
also an ancient Jewish commandment, just as are all the rest, "thou
shalt not kill" among them.

In 1885 the German-Jewish Union in Germany published "The Principles
of the Jewish Moral Doctrine." Here is one of these principles:
"Judaism teaches: 'Love thy neighbour as thyself' and announces this
commandment of love for all mankind to be the fundamental principle of
Jewish religion. It, therefore, forbids all kinds of hostility, envy,
ill-will, and unkindly treatment of any one, without distinction of
race, nationality and religion."

These principles were ratified by 350 rabbis, and published just at
the time of the anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia.

"Judaism teaches respect for the life, the health, the forces and the
property of one's neighbour."

I am a Russian. When, alone with myself, I calmly scrutinise my merits
and demerits,--it seems to me that I am intensely Russian. And I am
deeply convinced that there is much that we Russians can and ought to
learn from the Jews.

For instance, the seventh paragraph of the "Principles of the Jewish
Moral Doctrine" says: "Judaism commands us to respect work, to take
part by either physical or mental labour in the communal work, to seek
for life's goods in constant productive and creative work. Judaism,
therefore, teaches us to take care of our powers and abilities, to
perfect them and apply them actively. It, therefore, forbids all idle
pleasure not based on labour, all idleness which hopes for the help of
others."

This is beautiful and wise, and this is just what we Russians lack.
Oh, if we could educate our unusual powers and abilities, if we had
the will to apply them actively in our chaotic, untidy existence,
which is terribly blocked up with all kinds of idle clack and
home-spun philosophy, and which gets more and more saturated with
silly arrogance and puerile bragging. Somewhere deep in the Russian
soul--no matter