aces
from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we
like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. And he made his grave with the
wicked. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand."

[Footnote 1: Isa. lii. 13, and following, and liii. entirely.]

Important modifications were made at the same time in the _Thora_. New
texts, pretending to represent the true law of Moses, such as
Deuteronomy, were produced, and inaugurated in reality a very
different spirit from that of the old nomads. A marked fanaticism was
the dominant feature of this spirit. Furious believers unceasingly
instigated violence against all who wandered from the worship of
Jehovah--they succeeded in establishing a code of blood, making death
the penalty for religious faults. Piety brings, almost always,
singular contradictions of vehemence and mildness. This zeal, unknown
to the coarser simplicity of the time of the Judges, inspired tones of
moving prophecy and tender unction, which the world had never heard
till then. A strong tendency toward social questions already made
itself felt; Utopias, dreams of a perfect society, took a place in the
code. The Pentateuch, a mixture of patriarchal morality and ardent
devotion, primitive intuitions and pious subtleties, like those which
filled the souls of Hezekiah, of Josiah, and of Jeremiah, was thus
fixed in the form in which we now see it, and became for ages the
absolute rule of the national mind.

This great book once created, the history of the Jewish people
unfolded itself with an irresistible force. The great empires which
followed each other in Western Asia, in destroying its hope of a
terrestrial kingdom, threw it into religious dreams, which it
cherished with a kind of sombre passion. Caring little for the
national dynasty or political independence