wind-sown seeds to fertilize its waste places. To be a nation
without a fatherland, yet with a mother-tongue, Hebrew--there is the
spiritual originality, the miracle of history. Such has been the real
kingdom of Israel in the past--we have been 'sons of the Law' as other
men have been sons of France, of Italy, of Germany. Such may our
fatherland continue, with 'the higher life' substituted for 'the law'--a
kingdom not of space, not measured by the vulgar meteyard of an
Alexander, but a great spiritual Republic, as devoid of material form as
Israel's God, and congruous with his conception of the Divine. And the
conquest of this kingdom needs no violent movement--if Jews only
practised what they preach, it would be achieved to-morrow; for all
expressions of Judaism, even to the lowest, have common sublimities. And
this kingdom--as it has no space, so it has no limits; it must grow till
all mankind, are its subjects. The brotherhood of Israel will be the
nucleus of the brotherhood of man."

"It is magnificent," said Raphael; "but it is not Judaism. If the Jews
have the future you dream of, the future will have no Jews. America is
already decimating them with Sunday-Sabbaths and English Prayer-Books.
Your Judaism is as eviscerated as the Christianity I found in vogue when
I was at Oxford, which might be summed up: There is no God, but Jesus
Christ is His Son. George Eliot was right. Men are men, not pure spirit.
A fatherland focusses a people. Without it we are but the gypsies of
religion. All over the world, at every prayer, every Jew turns towards
Jerusalem. We must not give up the dream. The countries we live in can
never be more than 'step-fatherlands' to us. Why, if your visions were
realized, the prophecy of Genesis, already practically fulfilled, 'Thou
shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to
the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the
earth be blessed,' would be so remarkably consummated that we might
reasonably hope to come to our own again according to the promises."

"Well, well," said Strelitski, good-humoredly, "so long as you admit it
is not within the range of practical politics now."

"It is your own dream that is premature," retorted Raphael; "at any
rate, the cosmic part of it. You are thinking of throwing open the
citizenship of your Republic to the world. But to-day's task is to make
its citizens by blood worthier of their privilege."

"You wil