errupt me! Your Ismene scorns to veil her face, and no doubt it is a
very pretty one to look upon--you have trained her mind like that of a
man, and so she seeks to go her own way. That may be all very well for a
Greek woman, but in the house of Ben Akiba the woman must obey her
husband's will, as the ship obeys the helm, and have no will of her own;
her husband's will always coincides with what the law commands, which you
yourself learnt to obey."

"We recognize its excellence," replied Apolloderus, but even if all the
laws which Moses received on Sinai were binding on all mortals alike, the
various ordinances which were wisely laid down for the regulation of the
social life of our fathers, are not universally applicable for the
children of our day. And least of all can we observe them here, where,
though true to our ancient faith, we live as Greeks among Greeks."

"That I perceive," retorted Gamaliel, "for even the language--that
clothing of our thoughts--the language of our fathers and of the
scriptures, you have abandoned for another, sacrificed to another."

"You and your nephew also speak Greek."

"We do it here, because the heathen, because you and yours, no longer
understand the tongue of Moses and the prophets."

"But wherever the Great Alexander bore his arms Greek is spoken; and does
not the Greek version of the scriptures, translated by the seventy
interpreters under the direct guidance of our God, exactly reproduce the
Hebrew text?"

"And would you exchange the stone engraved by Bryasis that you wear on
your finger, and showed me yesterday with so much pride, for a wax
impression of the gem?"

"The language of Plato is not an inferior thing; it is as noble as the
costliest sapphire."

"But ours came to us from the lips of the Most High. What would you think
of a child that, disdaining the tongue Of its father listened only to
that of its neighbors and made use of an interpreter to be able to
understand its parents' commands?"

"You are speaking of parents who have long since left their native land.
The ancestor need not be indignant with his descendants when they use the
language of their new home, so long as they continue to act in accordance
with his spirit."

"We must live not merely in accordance with the spirit, but by the words
of the Most High, for not a syllable proceeds from His lips in vain. The
more exalted the spirit of a discourse is, the more important is every
word and syllable. O