by the sense
of its superiority, and by the sight of its humiliation.[2]

[Footnote 1: The whole book of Esther breathes a great attachment to
this dynasty.]

[Footnote 2: Apocryphal letter of Baruch, in Fabricius, _Cod. pseud.,
V.T._, ii. p. 147, and following.]

If Israel had possessed the spiritualistic doctrine, which divides man
in two parts--the body and the soul--and finds it quite natural that
while the body decays, the soul should survive, this paroxysm of rage
and of energetic protestation would have had no existence. But such a
doctrine, proceeding from the Grecian philosophy, was not in the
traditions of the Jewish mind. The ancient Hebrew writings contain no
trace of future rewards or punishments. Whilst the idea of the
solidarity of the tribe existed, it was natural that a strict
retribution according to individual merits should not be thought of.
So much the worse for the pious man who happened to live in an epoch
of impiety; he suffered, like the rest, the public misfortunes
consequent on the general irreligion. This doctrine, bequeathed by the
sages of the patriarchal era, constantly produced unsustainable
contradictions. Already at the time of Job it was much shaken; the old
men of Teman who professed it were considered behind the age, and the
young Elihu, who intervened in order to combat them, dared to utter as
his first word this essentially revolutionary sentiment, "Great men
are not always wise; neither do the aged understand judgment."[1]
With the complications which had taken place in the world since the
time of Alexander, the old Temanite and Mosaic principle became still
more intolerable.[2] Never had Israel been more faithful to the Law,
and yet it was subjected to the atrocious persecution of Antiochus.
Only a declaimer, accustomed to repeat old phrases denuded of meaning,
would dare to assert that these evils proceeded from the
unfaithfulness of the people.[3] What! these victims who died for
their faith, these heroic Maccabees, this mother with her seven sons,
will Jehovah forget them eternally? Will he abandon them to the
corruption of the grave?[4] Worldly and incredulous Sadduceeism might
possibly not recoil before such a consequence, and a consummate sage,
like Antigonus of Soco,[5] might indeed maintain that we must not
practise virtue like a slave in expectation of a recompense, that we
must be virtuous without hope. But the mass of the people could not be
contented with that. S