of Russian citizens of Jewish nationality. But destiny was pleased to put off the moment of the "third emancipation" and to smooth the road for the "third reaction," for the triumph of the Black Hundreds and of Judæophobe Russia, which together suffocated—for the time being, be it understood—all the elements in the country that make for freedom.
Still, the internal crisis fulfilled itself. The influence of the Jewish West on the East gave place toward the end of the epoch to the reverse influence of the East on the West; the cultural-assimilative tendency is gradually yielding to the cultural-national; the first was typical of the nineteenth century, the second promises to be typical of the twentieth.
Vision Song
I
The storm-clouds lie across my sky, And wild the wintry winds are driving, The night has gripped and ruthlessly nipped The tender growth of all my striving. Gleam, Vision, gleam! Oh darken not thy glowing, And pierce the pitchy gloom, oh, growing, growing, growing.
2.
When labors spent and sorrows bent,Then wouldst thou come my care bequiling,And through the frays of bitter days,Thou stoodst by me serenely smiling.Gleam, Vision, gleam! Preserve for me thy glowing,And light my stormy sea, oh, flowing, flowing, flowing,
3.
My Star! I see thine eyes on me,Aglow with sweet and gentle beaming,And through my heart the rays they dartSet waves of life in torrents streaming.Gleam, Vision, gleam! My life is but thy glowing;Dispel the gloomy night, yea! going, going, going!