Jacob, admonished by Mann, bantered by Henri, lectured by his former guardian, and opposed by Bartold, had, nevertheless, commenced his apostleship. He essayed to group around him the youth of Israel, for the old men were against all reform.

The most polished and the best educated did not like to recall their origin, nor to hear of the religion of their fathers. This was grievous. The disciples did not appear; all minds were absorbed in the revolutionary movement. Jacob's activity became more and more circumscribed. His co-religionists avoided him; but in spite of this abandonment, in spite of his isolation, he still clung to his ideas. He hoped to convince by his example, and to gain followers when calm should succeed the present political agitation and society regain its normal condition.

He was sadly afflicted to see the irreligion of the youth of Israel, irreligion much more widespread than he had at first supposed. In the desert around him any mark of sympathy would naturally move him, touch him, and console him, and Muse profited by these circumstances.

She put herself in possession of Jacob's ideas, procured the books recommended, and reading the ones he lent her, learned some things, guessed more, and thus armed, went forth to combat with fair chances of victory. Madame Wtorkowska had adroitly seized the opportunity of drawing nearer him whom she already called, to herself, her son-in-law. She took possession of the first story of a house of which the Jew occupied the second. As there was nothing easier to ascertain than when the recluse was at home, they sent to his rooms under pretext of returning books or to ask the loan of new ones. Then they begged him to come down to them. They also met him often on the stairs.

Emusia became a fervent and intelligent disciple, and the apostle felt more and more flattered by this adhesion.

"Would you believe it," said she one evening to her mother, "the fool imagines that I am nearly ready to embrace Judaism, while in reality his Bible and his Talmud, with all their silly old legends and their stupid stories, weary me dreadfully."

"Do you believe that the idea of marriage has entered his head?"

"Bah! I will put it there when I wish."

"In that case you had better do it as soon as possible."

"I am awaiting a favourable opportunity. With this man it is not the senses, but the heart, on which we must count, and we must not be in haste. Be tranquil, I lie in wait for the moment."

"How do you watch for it? Flirting with Henri? God knows that if you were only safely married to Jacob I would not care how much you saw of Henri; but as you are not, I think these badinages are very ill-timed and take your mind off the principal business."

"I know what I am doing, mamma; the best tactics with Jacob are to proceed slowly. If we try to hasten matters we may lose all."

"Well, work it your own way."

This phrase always terminated the altercations between Muse and her mother.

The young girl's calculation was not destitute of judgment. Jacob did not love her, but he was becoming accustomed to her. As for the thought of marriage, it had never entered his head. His heart was filled with Mathilde, this fading flower that charmed him more each day. One thing only drew him to Emusia; it was the fervour that she manifested for the Bible and the Hebrew traditions, nothing more.

The mother did not altogether approve her daughter's plans, and shrugged her shoulders, saying:--

"If he escapes we are lost."

"Oh, no! It is not my Waterloo. I have not staked all on him. I have still the stage," said she laughing; and she continued to simulate an ardent admiration for the Jew and his doctrines, while at the bottom she detested them all. With Henri, on the contrary, full of familiarity and enjoyment, she was in her element.

The better to insinuate herself in Jacob's good graces, she flattered his mania by suggesting to him the thought of giving lectures on Judaism. He fell into the trap with enthusiasm, in spite of the obstacles which he knew he would encounter. His friends, under one pretext or another, refused to give their houses for this edifying purpose. At last Bartold, against his will, but for friendship's sake, put his at the Jew's disposition.

Israelites alone were invited. The only exceptions were Madame Wtorkowska and her daughter, as was very natural. Many Jews, for fear of being accused of superstition and ridicule, excused themselves at the last moment, feigning indisposition.

The room was large and commodious. It had no Jewish features, for the master of the house lived in European style, although without luxury. Ostentation was nowhere to be seen in the dwelling of this descendant of Levi, who, with all his boasting of his biblical nobility, was really an honest and a modest man and a good Polish citizen.

That evening Madame Bartold had put her children to bed at an early hour. She was dressed in good taste, and took great care that nothing should be wanting in any direction.

The ladies were in the minority,--Madame Wtorkowska, Emusia, Mathilde, and two others. Among the men were missing Mann and Mathilde's father, who thought all this Hebrew nonsense the issue of a diseased imagination. Kruder was there, for he desired admittance to all reunions. Ivas also, and Wilk, who sought everywhere converts to the revolutionary cause. Henri had come, ostensibly to escort his wife, but really to converse freely with Muse. He often visited her; but her mother was always present, and she frequently took advantage of his attentions to her daughter to borrow money of the gallant visitor, whose passion disposed him to pecuniary sacrifices.

At nine o'clock the room was full. Madame Bartold, crimson with fatigue, and redder still with timidity, sought to give every one a seat.

On a table loaded with books was a carafe of water, a glass, and some sugar. All awaited the lecturer.

They commenced by serving tea to the company; then Jacob appeared. A solemn silence indicated that his audience was prepared to listen attentively. Not being accustomed to speaking in public, he looked around him, and commenced in a weak and hesitating voice, which gradually grew stronger.

"Ladies and Gentlemen: It is not without apprehension that as a Jew I present myself before Jews, many of whom blush for their origin; before Jews who know the history of France and England better than their own history; before Jews who know more of Sanscrit literature than of the Bible. From all sides we have been reproached for our spirit of retirement and of separation. We have been constrained to it, and the fault was not with us. How much more justly could men to-day make the merited reproach of our having ceased to be ourselves, and of losing our own identity without identifying ourselves with others. We are here in continual antagonism with the country we inhabit, to which many ties should unite us. It appears that even that does not suffice us, and we have divorced ourselves from our own past.

"It is this past, with its poetry, that I would recall to you; for the time has come to appreciate it, and I wish to show you some of its characteristic beauties.

"Without culling here and there detached fragments of this treasure, I prefer to relate to you the entire life of a man who holds a place in sacred and legendary history. My hero is the celebrated Akiba.

"Akiba was so poor in his youth that he served as a shepherd for the wealthy Kalba Chaboua. He became enamoured of his master's daughter, and this love was the source of his wisdom. The young girl responded to the tender sentiment, but she made it the spur of an intelligence of which she had divined the value and the extent.

"'If you wish me to marry you,' said she, 'you must promise to devote your life to science.'

"Akiba promised, and they were married clandestinely. Kalba Chaboua discovered the secret, disowned his daughter, and drove them from his house. They wandered a long time without shelter, sleeping at night under the open sky. For a bed they had only a small bundle of straw, and tradition relates that one morning the beautiful black hair of the young woman was full of straws. Akiba drew them out gently, and lamented their hard fate.

"'Dearest,' said he tenderly, 'if I could I would give thee rich garments, and I would hang on thy neck a golden Jerusalem,'--an ornament which represented the city of Jerusalem, and which was much worn among the Jewish women.

"As he said the words he was accosted by a beggar clothed in rags.

"'Have pity on me,' cried he, 'and give me a handful of straw to put under my wife's head. She is sick, and lying over there on the cold ground.'

"Akiba gave the poor man what he demanded.

"'Behold,' said he, 'an unfortunate still more wretched than ourselves!'

"Akiba, in order to keep his promise to his wife, decided, in spite of his repugnance, to enter the school of Nakhum Gamsu. He was obliged to leave his wife, who entered service, and never ceased during the twelve years that separated them to write her husband encouraging letters, completely forgetting her own discomforts.

"One day, pensive and sad, Akiba followed a solitary path. A little brook attracted his attention. The water had pierced a rock by gradual dropping, and flowed gently through.

"'If drops of water,' remarked the future sage, 'have such power, what force will not then the human will have.'

"He presented himself before his teachers without weakness and without false shame. He commenced with the letters of the alphabet, and in his free moments he gathered wood and sold the fagots in the market-place. Half of his earnings fed him, the other half clothed and lodged him.

"Akiba soon astonished his masters. From a scholar he became an eminent professor. Thousands of disciples grouped around him.

"During this time his wife waited. A wicked neighbour insinuated that he had abandoned her and would never return.

"'It was I,' replied the wife, 'twelve years ago, who begged him to leave me and devote himself to science. If he prolong his studies twelve years longer, it will be well.'

"Akiba heard of this advice, given indirectly, and profited by it. After the lapse of this time he returned to his native place. His renown had preceded him. All the population turned out to see him, and his wife was in the crowd. The wicked neighbour asked her how she dared present herself in rags before such an illustrious man.

"'My husband knows my heart,' replied she simply. Before she was perceived, she ran out and threw herself at his feet. The pupils of Akiba would have repulsed her, but he said:--

"'Let her come to me. She is my wife, and it is to her that you and I owe much.'

"Kalba Chaboua at last forgave his daughter and his son-in-law, and received them into his house.

"Akiba had two remarkable teachers,--Eliezer and Nahum. The former was called the sealed vase, for he never lost a drop of acquired science. The latter, subtle and penetrating, shone by the fineness of his analysis. Their pupil united to the erudition of the one the critical spirit of the other.

"When he commenced his teaching the Jews had many traditions accumulated for ages and transmitted orally. He collected and wrote them down, accompanying them with commentaries intended to reconcile the legends with the sacred writings. He founded a school which attracted universal admiration.

"At the epoch when he lived religious spirit fermented; by the side of the philosophical sects of Greece, Christianity developed; Gnosticism grafted its poetical reveries on monotheism, and differences multiplied.

"Many Jews were converted to the gospel under one form or another. Akiba remained faithful to the Mosaic belief. He was so profoundly absorbed in the mystery of the divine essence, that the angels wished to chastise him for his presumption in wishing to know all, to penetrate all. God restrained the wrath of these messengers, and said to them:--

"'He is worthy of meditating on my grandeur.'

"Devout as was Akiba, he excelled in modern science. He destroyed by his criticisms many things which his contemporaries called miraculous, rejected the prodigious pretensions credited by superstition, and was pleased to demonstrate the immutability of the laws of nature.

* * * * *

"Contrary to the other rabbis, he rejected the belief in eternal punishment. One day, when travelling, having with him a cock and an ass, he arrived at a village, and went in vain from door to door asking hospitality.

"'God doeth all things well,' said he. This was his favourite saying. Then he entered a deep forest, where he sought by the light of his lantern a place to repose. The wind put out his light, and he lay down repeating, 'God doeth all things well.' Just then a wild-cat strangled his cock and a wolf came and tore his ass in pieces; still Akiba repeated 'God doeth all things well.'

"In reality, though he had met these misfortunes he had saved his life, which had been surely lost had he slept in the village. His humility and confidence in God were his chief characteristics.

"Once Akiba appeared in great spirits at the bedside of a dying man who lamented his approaching end, and whose friends were weeping around his bed. When asked the cause of his gayety,--

"'There is no man without sin,' said he, 'and I am rejoiced that this one has expiated his during his life.'

"Another time it was a wise man who was tortured with frightful pains. Three old savants, his friends, came to console him, and spoke in praise of his wisdom.

"'Science,' said the first, 'is more useful to Israel than the dew to the earth. The dew gives the earth temporary life, wisdom prepares the soul for eternal life.'

"'Wisdom,' continued the second, 'is more necessary than the light of the sun. The one guides us here below, the other conducts us to heaven.'

"Then the third spoke thus:--

"'You have been to Israel more than a father and a mother. Our parents give us earthly life; you, the life celestial.'

"When Akiba's turn came to speak, he said simply:--

"'It is sweet to suffer here below.'

"'Raise me up,' cried the dying man; 'I wish to hear the second time these words, for they comfort me.'

"Akiba deemed suffering salutary for individuals and for nations. He compared Israel, stained with blood by Vespasian and his successors, to a white horse adorned with purple reins. He was not over-scrupulous in religious observances. His prayers were short. He wore his usual simple garments on holy days, notwithstanding the biblical command to array one's self with particular care.

"'God,' said he, 'will more readily pardon sins committed against himself than evil done a neighbour. The Israelite owes justice not only to the Israelites, but to the pagans.'

"He loved to discuss morals under anecdotal form. Here is a specimen of his method:--

"Two men were in the midst of a desert. They had only water enough for one. What ought they to do? To share the water was certain death to both. 'That is not the solution of the dilemma,' added Akiba; 'one must sacrifice himself for the other, that one, at least, should live.'

"In advance of his times, the sage had a profound respect for human life, and he was one of the first opponents of the death penalty.

"Having become rich, thanks to his father-in-law, he was a benefactor to the poor and a promoter of all charitable associations.

"'Whoever,' he used to say, 'does not relieve a sick person, when it is in his power to do so, is an assassin.'

"The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple did not weaken Akiba's faith in divine justice. While Israel wept over the smoking ruins of the holy city, he smiled and predicted a brighter future. He always taught resignation to the divine will. But incessant persecutions aroused in him a violent irritation against the Romans, and a thirst for martyrdom. He lived in an epoch when the Jews were most unfortunate. Domitian continued the horrors of Vespasian and of Titus. They struck blows on all sides, and sought particularly a descendant of David, of whom popular rumour proclaimed the existence, and who intended, it was said, to avenge Israel's woes.

"Akiba converted many Romans to the Hebrew monotheism, Flavius Clemens, a relative of the emperor, was put to death for having embraced this doctrine, and his wife was, for the same reason, condemned to exile. After the death of this CÆsar, Israel breathed again during the two years' reign of Nerva and during the first ten years of the reign of Trajan; but they paid dearly for this short respite. The Jews of Syria, of Mesopotamia, of Armenia and Persia, took arms in favour of the Parthians, and drew on themselves the wrath of Rome, whose soldiers massacred them in great numbers. They soon took up arms again upon the Euphrates, and revolted at Cyprus and in Egypt. New persecutions and repressions followed under the reign of Adrian.

"Akiba, a man of science, was changed by these troubles into a man of action. He travelled over the different parts of the empire to prepare a general uprising. He entered into relations with Simon, or Bar Kokhba, called the child of destiny when he was in the height of his prosperity, the child of lies after he had lost his fortune.

"This Simon, intrepid, daring, and of attractive manner, had with his majestic height all the qualities required for the leader of an insurrection. He pleased Akiba, who proclaimed him Messiah. The title attracted thousands of volunteers, for the idea of a deliverer sent by God was attached to the name of Messiah. Simon admitted to the ranks of his army only the strong and vigorous, many of whom were able to tear a large tree from the earth with their hands. Full of a confidence which he communicated to others, Bar Kokhba often addressed to God this strange prayer:--

"'If thou dost not wish to come to my aid, at least do not favour my foes; for if thou dost not support them I will vanquish them.'

"To excessive presumption he owed his ultimate defeat after many brilliant triumphs. The Roman governor of Palestine was completely routed. Fifty cities or towns and nine hundred and eighty-five villages fell into the power of the insurgents. Established at Bitar, Bar Kokhba made that city his capital, fortified it, and coined money in his own name. Adrian was troubled. The Jews everywhere refused to pay taxes. He sent to Britain for one of his most able lieutenants, Julius Severus. Severus advised patience; he attacked the Jews by detachments, and finished by surrounding Bitar, whose inhabitants he reduced to famine. Bar Kokhba defended his city until death.

"It is sad to remember that this valiant chief soiled his life by an unpardonable act. During the siege, the wise Eliezer, Akiba's teacher, gave himself up to fasting and prayer. This contemplative life in the midst of general activity was called treasonable; the Messiah ordered him put to death, and the devout scholar was killed. It is estimated that a half-million of Israelites lost their lives in this formidable revolt. After the combat the fugitives were pitilessly pursued. Many died of hunger in the forests and caverns, the survivors nourished themselves on the corpses of their brothers, and those who fell into the power of the Romans were massacred or sold as slaves. Adrian renewed the edict of Trajan, forbidding the Jews to perform their religious rites or to teach their faith. All literature that might maintain or propagate the national sentiments was suppressed. Jerusalem was peopled with Romans, and on the site of the Temple of Solomon arose a temple to Jupiter, adorned with his statue. They even changed the name of the violated city, calling it Œlia Capitolina, from the name Œlius. The Jews were forbidden to stay there, or even to enter. At the gate which led to Bethlehem the head of a pig was exposed as a permanent insult.

"After the peace, Akiba was not immediately molested in spite of his participation in the insurrection,--a moral participation, perhaps, but very efficacious. He continued, contrary to the imperial edict, to explain the holy books. He was soon arrested, on the order of that same Rufus who had conquered the 'child of destiny,' and who was the new governor of Judea. The old man was shut up in a dark dungeon, and his only nourishment was bread and water. Instead of drinking this water he used it for the ablutions prescribed by the law. He was condemned to torture and to death. In the midst of the most excruciating sufferings, when the hour of prayer, called Chema, arrived, he began to recite in a loud voice. The executioner was astonished, and asked him if he had charms to banish his pains.

"'I have no charms,' replied he calmly; 'but I have always desired to offer God the sacrifice of my life. My wish is granted, and I rejoice.'

"He continued his prayer, and reaching the words, 'There is but one God,' gave up the ghost."