That
the solution she suggests is a noble one, few who carefully consider the
subject will, we think, deny. The establishment of a Jewish polity, in
the true sense of the word a theocracy, where the Infinite Holiness is
supreme, and in its supremacy is included a reign of justice, purity, and
love;--the establishment of such a polity locally between the
materialistic proclivities of the West and the psychological subtleties
of the East, mediative between them, communicating from each to each of
those essentials to human life in which the other is deficient, is a
conception worthy of her genius.
Another minor and very trivial objection to the presence of this Jewish
element need be no more than adverted to. It is the presence of such
different types as the mean-souled scoundrel Lapidoth; the shrewd self-
approving trader Cohen, with the inimitable picture of a home-life so
pleasant and kindly; the vague intense enthusiasm, the ardent aspirations
and fervent hopes of Mordecai; the absorbing Judaism of the Physician;
the fierce revulsion of his daughter against her race and name; the meek,
delicate, ethereal purity of Mirah; the innate Jewish yearnings and
aspirations of Deronda, expanded by all the breadth that could be given
by the highest Anglo-Saxon culture and training.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142