I only remember that when a little boy, like the other little boys, I
jeered and even struck the little Jews at every opportunity.

"It as little occurs to us to meditate upon our relation to the Jews as
upon that we hold to horses or other cattle. On the contrary, the Bible
inspires every Christian child with an indistinct impression of having
received some personal wrong at the hands of every individual of the
Jewish persuasion. A mysterious abhorrence of them gradually settles
upon the infant mind. I involuntarily regarded every Jew as having some
disease of the skin. A child thus educated will caress an animal, but
never a Jew.

"I am now thrown into frequent intercourse with the Jews. The Jewish
teacher is a man remarkably free from prejudice, and possessed of a
degree of culture such as I have not often met with. He is more
conversant with theology than with the natural sciences. Is that the
case with Jews in general? His method of instruction is highly
intellectual, but a little wanting in system and regularity,--a
disadvantage for children not extraordinarily gifted. A strange
sensation overcame me on my first visit to the synagogue. The Hebrew
words have wandered from the slopes of Lebanon to these German
pine-forests. And yet, is not our religion derived from the same spot?
Again, while ancient Rome could not vanquish the Germans, nor make them
speak the language of the Capitol, modern Rome perfected the
achievement. Every Sunday the Roman language is heard upon these
distant hills.

* * * * *

"Over against the school-house is the so-called Burned Spot, the site
of the house in which a whole Hebrew family--the grandmother,
daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren--fell a victim to the flames.
It is now the favorite resort of children when they wish to play at
hide-and-seek. The old ruins abound in choice hiding-places. The
rosy-cheeked boys clamber up and down the blackened walls, and shout
and yell; just where the flames crawled! Such things occur in the
history of great things also.

* * * * *

"The bel-wether dance has just been held. "These things are no longer
suited to our times: they are a feature of the Middle Ages. Then the
lord of the manor may have looked with complacency from the turret of
his castle upon the follies of his villeins: he had given them the
wether and the ribbon, and probably gave the winning pair pittance o