contrary, I have had nothing but
disappointment and bad luck." Despite his baptism, his enemies called
him "the Jew," and at heart he never did become a Christian.

At Hamburg, in those days, Heine was repeatedly drawn into the conflict
between reform and orthodoxy, between the Temple and the synagogue. His
uncle Solomon Heine was a warm supporter of the Temple, but Heine, with
characteristic inconsistency, admired the old rigorous rabbinical system
more than the modern reform movement, which often called forth his
ridicule. Yet, at bottom, his interest in the latter was strong, as it
continued to be also in the Berlin educational society, and its "Journal
for the Science of Judaism," of which, however, only three numbers were
issued. He once wrote from Hamburg to his friend Moser: "Last Saturday I
was at the Temple, and had the pleasure with my own ears to hear Dr.
Salomon rail against baptized Jews, and insinuate that they are tempted
to become faithless to the religion of their fathers only by the hope of
preferment. I assure you, the sermon was good, and some day I intend to
call upon the man. Cohen is doing the generous thing by me. I take my
_Shabbes_ dinner with him; he heaps fiery _Kugel_ upon my head, and
contritely I eat the sacred national dish, which has done more for the
preservation of Judaism than all three numbers of the Journal. To be
sure, it has had a better sale. If I had time, I would write a pretty
little Jewish letter to Mrs. Zunz. I am getting to be a thoroughbred
Christian; I am sponging on the rich Jews."

They who find nothing but jest in this letter, do not understand Heine.
A bitter strain of disgust, of unsparing self-denunciation, runs through
it--the feelings that dictate the jests and accusations of his
_Reisebilder_. This was the period of Heine's best creations: for as
such his "Book of Songs," _Buch der Lieder_, and his _Reisebilder_ must
be considered. With a sudden bound he leapt into greatness and
popularity.

The reader may ask me to point out in these works the features to be
taken as the expression of the genius of the Jewish race. To understand
our poet, we must keep in mind that _Heinrich Heine was a Jew born in
the days of romanticism in a town on the Rhine_. His intellect and his
sensuousness, of Jewish origin, were wedded with Rhenish fancy and
blitheness, and over these qualities the pale moonshine of romanticism
shed its glamour.

The most noteworthy characteristic o