say the prophetic vision of your
race has been hopelessly mixed with folly and bigotry; the angel of
progress hag no message for Judaism--it is a half-buried city for the
paid workers to lay open--the waters are rushing by it as a forsaken
field? I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human
choice. The sons of Judah have to choose, that God may again choose
them. The Messianic time is the time when Israel shall will the
planting of the national ensign. The Nile overflowed and rushed onward;
the Egyptian could not choose the overflow, but he chose to work and
make channels for the fructifying waters, and Egypt became the land of
corn. Shall man, whose soul is set in the royalty of discernment and
resolve, deny his rank and say, I am an onlooker, ask no choice or
purpose of me? That is the blasphemy of this time. The divine principle
of our race is action, choice, resolved memory. Let us contradict the
blasphemy, and help to will our own better future and the better future
of the world--not renounce our higher gift and say, 'Let us be as if we
were not among the populations;' but choose our full heritage, claim
the brotherhood of our nation, and carry into it a new brotherhood with
the nations of the Gentiles. The vision is there: it will be
fulfilled."

These words put into the mouth of Mordecai, indicate how thoroughly George
Eliot entered into the spirit of Judaism. She read Hebrew with ease, and
had delved extensively in Jewish literature, besides being familiar with
the monumental works in German devoted to Jewish history and opinions. The
religious customs, the home life, the peculiar social habits of the race,
she carefully studied. The accuracy of her information has been pointed out
by her Jewish critics, by whom the book has been praised with the utmost
enthusiasm. One of these, Prof. David Kaufmann, of Buda-Pesth, in an
excellent notice of _Daniel Deronda_, bears testimony to the author's
learning and to the faithfulness of her Jewish portraitures. He says that,
"led by cordial and loving inclination to the profound study of Jewish
national and family life, she has set herself to create Jewish characters,
and to recognize and give presentment to the influences which Jewish
education is wont to exercise--to prove by types that Judaism is an
intellectual and spiritual force, still misapprehended and readily
overlooked, but n