further than a play. "Look at
_Uncle Tom's Cabin_."

He returned to his former plan of a Jewish novel which he had
abandoned when he was called to his assignment on the _Neue Freie
Presse_ in Paris. His friend Kana, the suicide, was no longer to be
the central figure. He was instead to be "the weaker one, the beloved
friend of the hero," and would take his own life after a series of
misfortunes, while the Promised Land was being discovered or rather
founded. When the hero aboard the ship which was taking him to the
Promised Land would receive the moving farewell letter of his friend,
his first reaction after his horror would be one of rage: "Idiot!
Fool! Miserable hopeless weakling! A life lost which belonged to us!"

We can see the Zionist idea arising. Its outlines are still
indefinite, but the decisive idea is clearly visible; only by
migration can this upright human type be given its chance to emerge.
In _The New Ghetto_ Jacob Samuel is a hero because he knows how to
choose an honorable death. Now the death of a useful man is criminally
wasteful. For there are great tasks to be undertaken.

In essence it is the Act and not the Word that confronts us. What last
impulse it was that actually carried Herzl from the Word to the Act it
will be difficult to tell--he himself could not have given the answer.
Little things may play a dramatic role not less effectively than great
ones when a man is so charged with purpose as Herzl then was.

In the early days of May, Herzl addressed to Baron de Hirsch (the
sponsor of Jewish colonization in Argentina), the letter which opens
his Jewish political career. His request for an interview was granted.
Herzl prepared an outline of his position in notes, lest he omit
something important during their conversation.

In these notes he writes: "If the Jews are to be transformed into men
of character in a reasonable period of time, say ten or twenty years,
or even forty--the interval needed by Moses--it cannot be done without
migration. Who is going to decide whether conditions are bad enough
today to warrant our migration? And whether the situation is hopeless?
And the Congress which you (i.e. Hirsch) have convened for the first
of August in a hotel in Switzerland? You will preside over this
Congress of notables. Your call will be heard and answered in every
part of the world.

"And what will be the message given to the men assembled 'You are
pariahs! You must forever tremble at the