et the lesson of his history
to me is, that if Truth is not great enough to prevail alone, she
shall not prevail by aid of cunning. For finally there will come men
who will manifest the cunning without the Truth. So at least it has
been here. First the Baal Shem, the pure Zaddik, then Rabbi Baer, the
worldly Zaddik, and then a host of Zaddikim, many of them having only
the outward show of Sainthood. For since our otherwise great sect is
split up into a thousand little sects, each boasting its own
Zaddik--superior to all the others, the only true Intermediary
between God and Man, the sole source of blessing and fount of
Grace--and each lodging him in a palace (to which they make
pilgrimages at the Festivals as of yore to the Temple) and paying him
tribute of gold and treasure; it is palpable that these sorry Saints
have themselves brought about these divisions for their greater glory
and profit. And I weep the more over this spoliation of my Chassidim,
because there is so much perverted goodness among them, so much
self-sacrifice for one another in distress, and such faithful
obedience to the Zaddik, who everywhere monopolizes the service and
the worship which should be given to God. Alas! that a movement which
began with such pure aspiration, which was to the souls of me and so
many other young students as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land, that a doctrine which opened out to young Israel such spiritual
vistas and transcendent splendors of the Godhead, should end in such
delusions and distortions.

Woe is me! Is it always to be thus with Israel? Are we to struggle out
of one slough only to sink into another? But these doubts dishonor the
Master. Let me be humbler in judging others, cheerfuller in looking
out upon the future, more enkindling towards the young men who are
growing up around me, and who may yet pass on the torch of the Master.
For them let me recall the many souls he touched to purer flame; let
me tell them of those who gave up posts and dignities to spread his
gospel and endured hunger and scorn. And let me not forget to mention
Rabbi Lemuel, the lover of justice, who once when his wife set out for
the Judgment House in a cause against her maidservant set out with her
too.

"I need you not to speak for me," she said, in ill-humor; "I can plead
my own cause."

"Nay, it is not for thee I go to speak," he answered mildly; "it is
the cause of thy servant I go to plead--she who hath none to defend