The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-06-26
GEORGE ELIOT on THE JEWS.
Their Characteristics and Their DESTINY
Some Interesting Extracts from the Grcn
NOyciiEt's New HOok.

| some iPtertstlig Extracts from the Grcnt
| NoycliE's New Book.
George Eliot's new book, "Impressions
OF Thcophrastus Such" contains strong
paper called "The Modern Hep, Hen!
Hepw which i. u vigorous plea for the
modern Jew. Ii says.
The eminencc, the nobleness, Of pco.
pie, depends OH its cnpability Of being
stirred by memories and Of striving for
what we call spiritual cnds-cnds which
consist not i'll immediate material pos
session, but in the satisfaction of "A great
feeling that animates the collective body
with one soul. a people having the
seed of worthiness in it must feel an an.
fwerlng thrill when it is aAljured by the
doaihs of its heroes who died TO preserve
its national existence; when il is remin.
ded of its small beginnings and gradual
growth through past labors and strug-
/, 'es, such as arc still demanded of it in or
der that the freedom and ll-bcing thus
inherited may be transmitted unmpaired
10 children and children's children, when
an appeal against the permission of in
justice is made TO great prccedcnts in its
history and to tho breathing in its insti-
tutions. 1t is this living force Of scnti.
me,'' in common which makes nation
n. consciousness. Nations 80 moved will
resist conquests with the very breasts of
their women, will pay their millions and
their blood to abolish slavery, will share
privatiOns in famine and all calamity,
will produce poets to sing some great
theories will bear the test of action. An
individual man, to be harmoniously
great, must belong to nation of this
order, If not in actual existence, yet ex-
listing in the past, in memory, as depar-
ted, invisible, beloved ideal, once real
ity and perhaps TO be restored. A COM
mon humanity is not yet enough to feed
the rich blood OF various activity which
make complete man.
AS to the future Of the Jews as ma
ton, George Eliot holds certain positive
views which are worthy of being set
forth fully and i'm which there is much
food for meditation:
And this is the usual level of thinking
in polite society concerning the Jews
Apart from theological purposes, it
seems to be held surprising that anybody
should take an interest in the history of
n people whose literature has furnished
all our devotional language and if any
reference is made to their past or future
dcstinics some hearer is sure to state as
relevant fact which may assist our
Judgment that she, for her part, is not
fond of them, having known Mr.. Jacob.
son who was very unpleasant; or that
he, for his part, thinks mcanly Of them
as race, though on inquiry you find
that he is 90 little acquainted with their
characteristics that he is astonished to
learn how many persons whom lie has
blndly admired and applauded are Jews
to the backbone. Again, men who con-
slider themselves in the very van of fmodeln
advancement, knowing history and the
latest phiiosophics of history, indicate
their contemptuous surprise that any
one should entertain the destiny of the
Jews as worthy subject, by referring to
Molcch and their own agreement With
the theory that the religion of Jehovah
was merely transformed Moloch wor-
ship, while in the same breath they are
gloritying civilization" rs transformed
tribal existence Of which some linea-
ments are traccable in grim marriage
customs OF the native Australians. Are
these erudite persons prepared to insist
the name "Father" should no longer
have any s6nctity for us, because in their
view of likelihood our Aryan ancestors
were mere imprOyers on state of things
in which nobody knew his own father {?
For less theoretic men, ambitious to
be regarded N practical politicians, the
value OF the Hebrew race has been meas
ured by their unfavorable opinion of O
primo minister who il Jew by lineage.
But it is SO possible to form very ugly
opinion rs to the scrupulousness of Wal
pole or of Chatham, and in every case
| think Englishmen would refuse to ac-
cept the character and dongs of those
eighteen century statesmen Us the stan
dard value for the English people and
the part they have to play in the for
tunes of mankind.
Ii we are to consider the future of the
jews at all, it seems reasonable to
take as n preliminary question: Are
they destined to complete fusion with the
peoples among whom they are dispersed,
losing every remnant of q distinctive con-
sciousness US Jews, or are there in the
breadth and intensity with which the
feeling of separatcdness. or what we may
call the organized memory of q national
seriousness, actually exists in the
worldwide Jewish communicable
seven millions scattered from east to
wesI-and again, are there in the polit-
cal relations of the world, the conditions
present or approaching for the restora-
tion OF jewish State planted on the old
| ground as centre of national feeling, a
source ofdignifying protection, n special
channel for special energies which may
contribute some added form of national
genius and an added voice in the council
| of the world.
They are among us everywhere; it is
| useless to say we are not fond of them.
Perhaps We are not fond of proletaries
and their tendency to form unions, but
the world is not therefore TO be rid of
| them. IT we wish to free ourselves from
| the inconvenience that we have to COM
plain of, whether in proleraries or in
Jews, our best course is to encourage all
means of imp rowing these noighbors who
elbow us in q thickening crowd, and of
sending their inoommodious energies
into beneficent channels. Why are we
so eager for the dignity of populations
of whom perhaps we Lave never seen a
single specimen, and of whose history
legend or literature we have been con-
tentedly ignorant for ages, while we
sneer Mt the notion of renovated ma.
tional dignity for the Jews, whose ways
of thinking and whose very verbal forms
are on our lips in every prayer which we
end with an Amen? Some of us consider
this question dismissed when they have
said that the wealthiest Jews have no de.
| sire TO forsake their European palaces
and go to live in Jerusalem. But in q
return from exile, in the restoration of n