diction. We do, however, regret that Dr. Phillipson so misreads history as to make errors of this kind. This is not a polemic. We refer him for the moment to Graetz, and if he presses the challenge we shall deem it our duty to accept it. Beyond that the Jews have well-defined characteristics which are neither English, nor German, nor French, but characteristically Jewish.
It is when we get half through with this book that we see the author's whole attitude hinges upon the national question. He cannot appreciate Disraeli, and therefore misunderstands him. He tells us, indeed, in reply to Beaconsfield's attitude on the race question, "The great man belongs to the world and he is the result of world influence; only when he is great as a teacher of religion, or in some branch in which religious influences tell, is it due to his birth as Jew or Christian." It would be interesting to know the name of a single great Christian, that is, of any one man who typified his religion and stood aloof from inherited national tendencies and environment. As to Disraeli, perhaps we shall one day do justice to him in these pages. He was a great type of the race, and throughout his life consistently proved himself an exponent of the Jewish nation. What he dreamt of is beyond Dr. Phillipson's vision. So much so that the book "Alroy," which gathers all the sentiments of the man, receives but a few lines in this study. Indeed, the author writes of Disraeli, "He was a man of narrow thought and contracted mental vision." Let it stand. Pygmies may sometimes throw stones at giants.
The study of "Daniel Deronda," far more detailed and sympathetic, betrays our author again. He does not realize that George Eliot was a prophetess, and foreshadowed the current of Jewish history. He tells us that Deronda is "scarcely natural. A point has been strained," because he knows of no prototype. As a matter of fact, it is believed generally that the prototype was no other than a well-known English military officer, one of the stanchest Jewish nationalists of to-day. Mordecai is "nothing short of an inspiration," for George Eliot in some mysterious way gathered more of Jewish life and the Jewish future, more of the reaction that has come to pass, than the average Jewish rabbi. No doubt "Daniel Deronda" is open to artistic criticism; but the letters of the authoress
throw a clear light upon the fact that her book was meant to have a purpose, and that purpose has been in a measure achieved.
Most Jews unfortunately have taken a wrong conception of the attitude of the Jewish novelist, or the novelist who writes about Jews. People are continually discovering types when only individuals are meant. They are continually blaming writers, because they study every detail of the secondary characters and do not gather the goodness and finer qualities attributed to the heroes or heroines. There can be no artistic effort in which the good has not the evil by way of foil. What the realist endeavors is to write life as he sees it. He has not always a great and striking purpose before him. As often he wishes to amuse as to instruct, and it is on the whole mere smiting with bladders to attack men who depict the truth if in telling it they sometimes uncover a fault or a vice. In our opinion, Jewish authors who see these things are quite correct in depicting them, and as long as they depict them truthfully and sincerely we have no right to call their work into question. Those who are stung by pictures of their failings have no claim to be heard in protest. The least that they should do is to so mend their lives as not again to come within the scope of figuring in the miserable scene of the dark side of the Jewish novel.
"Jezebel," by Lafayette McLaws. (Lothrop Pub. Co., Boston, Mass.)
This is yet another novel dealing with the period of the Kings of Israel. Ahab, Jezebel and Isaiah are the three principal figures in this tragedy. At the onset we were inclined to believe that the author wished to do nothing less than whitewash the character of the wicked queen. He casts over her the glamour of a very great love, and until the moment when she begins to arouse interest in the Baal worship we are inclined to see in her the good and true woman worshiping her husband in an intense fashion.
A strong effort is made to depict the mighty Elijah, but we do not grasp him; he fails to make that impression upon us that he made when he stood upon Mount Carmel and challenged the world to witness the power of the Eternal. Perhaps it is the minor plotting in his favor that robs him of his stature. Perhaps it is Jezebel's contempt