JUDAISM A RACE OR A RELIGION.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1682, 17 April 1883, Page 4

JUDAISM A RACE OR A RELIGION.

\pvkt from their importance to that l\istoiy of religion VhicilHWas been the stmly'of his life, the Jews have always • linl n peculiar interust iifbrf<M.iß'eiiitrii li-i is fonfl of throwing dffj <a« ! it wove*, 1 irt' Ins; spare moments,/ "slio»tj etudes" pii( •by-points in their ehauicteivor.fortunos.* Ina lecture which he has ju^t (Jelivered ilicfom :i Historical -Society,, and' iw^ich displays to the full botli his wist loamlhg ami Ins rare giftH of style, M. Rcnan i)as piomulgated ,i somewhat new view of tlic extent to which Jnflaisin' ' lins been a proselytizing religion. Tlic question is of great impoitancc. as' being, 1 m fact, the (jrnoijl pjoint in the eternal controversy^ A-lictlVor 'Judaism' ifi' a laeial'of a ; <uni-,] vt-rsal religion. If Judaism isr. anything ihoic th.in .1 tribal religion, why does it not prosolytizo ?"< It Has^ proselytized, "Mi Ui'iian u-plies. far more th.in you have ,Jny 'idea. ' The ncti'vity of •Judaism 'in* 1 ' this rHpuctuiuping tho centuries immediately proceeding tho birth of Christianity is familiar to eveiy one. It' is generally iji'cosinisi'd, too, nowadays, that this movement continued 1 unabated in the dai'ly contiu ica of onr era. In tho dark records of those days the progiess of Judaism and that of Christianity are at this distance' of time hard to distinguish, as, they were ,by contemporary pagail 'writers continually confused. But' M. Kenan discovers' 'si proselytizing activity on $he part of the former religion at a much later date, and, hi quftfteYb not gencially suspected. "He cices the authonty of Gicgory of Tours for the number of Jews in France at the time of the Mciovingians, and argues tliafc the majotity of these Jews cannot have been Hebiewa by iace, but nul&t have been conveited ftanls. '" Oiegory 'of Tours speaks of the Jews as of a particular kind of heretics, not as a separate race. In ' a general sense the Jewish colonies of Germany and England come from Gaul. One sees how improper it is under these conditions to speak of a Jewish race, at least in our West." Arabia and Abyssinia were for many centuries after the commencement of the Christian era the scene of n vigorous Jewish proselytism, and so was Soutli-eastcrn Kttropc. As late as the eight century the conversion of the Khozars led to the establishment of a Jewish-Taitar kingdom between the Caspian and the Crimea. "Among the numerous Jews of Southern Russia and of tlic .Slavonic countries, there is perhaps but a very small proportion of Palestinian elements." If, then, the Jews of to-day ore to a far loss extent than is commonly supposed the descendants of a particular i ace, how are we to explain the Jewish t\pe? In the first place, replies M. Runan, there are several Jewish types. In the next place, the long community of lite and manners among a persecuted sect explains the development of sharply marked types distinguishing them from their neighbours. "There is a psychology, so to speak, of religious' minorities, and that psychology is independent of race. The consequences of« a constrained life, full of piohibitions, are the same at all times and in all places. As to the si'iiilaiity of spiiit in the bosom of the .same sect, it is sufficiently explained by similaiity of education and of religious piactiees." The Syriac-speaking villages noi th of Damascus which have been converted to Mahommedanism exactly resemble the Mahommedans of a different race among whom they dwell, and differ profoundly in character and habits from tho bulk of the Christian Syrians, te whom they are by race closely allied. For the rest, M. Renan rejoices that tbesp discussions, interesting as they may be from a hif»torioHl' point of view, have no longor, in France at any rate, any political importance. "The work of the nineteenth century is to break down the barriers of all tho 'Ghettos, We have nr sympathy with those who think they car serve their natioHnl idea by raising thest barriers anew. We judge man by whal he is worth, not by the creed that hu ancestors professed or the blood thai flows in his veins." There are perhaps not si few .Tows who prefer thnt M. Renar .should attack their religion rather thar undermine the belief ' in the pcouliai purity of their race. Whatever rnaj have been the cape in the past, it is hit nice to which the Jew who is still oithodox most clings, and man y a J°w, too, -who is no longer orthodox. Hit religion is nothing more- than thebulwarl of tho racial distinctness. By a strange but not uncommon irony of fate the mc;nis sind the end have unconsciously changed places. Purity of race w«! once clirrishod to onsuro purity of creed It is still worshipped for its own sak( oven when all creed is gone. — Pall Mali Gazette. _______________ '

That woman who neglccls her husband sliirt-fiont is no longer the wife of his liosom. Thk Cow Thee. — Sir Jo«eph Hooker, in his.report on Kew Gat dens, {lives a sketch of a .tuosfc interesting botanical curiosity tho Palo lie vaca or cow tree. , This tree glows in forests at the foofcof c< rt*'nmountain ranges in Venezuela, and attain? a height of 100 feet, and frequently the trunk reaches to 70 feet without a branch. The remarkable characteristic nf the tree is the milk which exudes from tho trunk when an incision it> made. The flavour is ot sweet cream, with a slightly balsamic taste, but it is very wholesome and. nouusliiujf, the composition being said to approach vory near the vi ilk of the cow. Fiom the fact that the milk is somewhat glutinous it would, hcem that the tree it of tho caoutchouc order. Seeds which have boon sent to Bombay and the colonies are said to be thriving well. It is noteworthy, as an example of the lai,v of compensation tiaceable in nature gen,eially, that this cow tree seems originally to have been <i native of the country wheio milk-giving animals were foimerly totally unknown. Tin, following somewhat curious advertisement appeared in an English country louinal : "Wanted immediately, to leave the house which I have for these last five years inhabited, in the same plight and conditiqn in which I found it, .")00 live rats, for which I will gladly pay the sum of £5 sterling ; and, as I cannot leave the farm, attached thereto in the same oider in which I got it, without at least five millions of docks and dockens (weeds) I do hereby promise a further sum of £5 for said number of dockens v N.B. — The rats must be full grown, and no cripples." ' Tiij; dying words of Commander Raw.son to Sir Garnet after the* victory of Tel-el Kebir deserve to live in history as illustrative of the fact that duty to Queen and country is with English officers their first and last consideration. 1 His last words were : "General, did I lead them straight-?" The Highland Brigade are not likely to forget the gallant officer who steered their course by the stars ■ during that memorable night march ; and the Queen, in becoming godmother to the posthumous child of the* naval nicle-de* camp on Sic Garnet's staff, whom Her Maje3ty had known as a clever and popular lieutenant in the Royal yacht, has paid a just as well as a generous compliment to his memory. — Home 2Vf<<A., A Loxbbx .Society paper 1 says :--Shice the Belt trial everybody asks who ( Mr Lalves is.' : By way of stating what he ! is, we may state when at Cambridge he was a boating • man, 1 and one of the founders ■of the Ama'tuei- Athletic 1 ' Oub. He is now sonu'thing of a dilcllanic in' sculpture, ancl his better 'Half is f qne of the prettiest fly-fishery in'the-krngdbni I . 'Heis 1 the only fon'of S(? JohrVßennefcLawes, Wyothamstead Park, the'first Baronet! of the name, '.who mode, his fortune as, p}' cHeniical ''manure inaWfachu'er.,' Ho; has sold his business, or leather iturned it into a limited ■liability company, wlncll paid him' £30, '000 f,or AU tan/dche iis still >a latfge /shai'e£ / holder. If all that is 'said' <be .true, we shall hear nothing more of the Belt case. An anangement has been talked' Oft froM tho- first. , i Mr Belt's, 'wisest »plan,i it'/ wap) ifeaid, wouVl be>/ to iCQutenti himself /wjth, half,, the. „inoiiey fawai'dedito/hinx-by-thei I jury>ia*iid op apiitp such tetun.sjAti.is Wat&k tljat b, conipromiße may be made, ,!■ i v