ar and sharp distinctions
between the mental processes of different peoples. One cannot say that a
Hebrew, in virtue of being a Hebrew, would necessarily act and think
thus and thus, while a Greek, in virtue of being a Greek, would
necessarily act and think in some other definite way. Here and there a
fervid or brooding mind among the Greeks, such as that of AEschylus,
might often approach the lines of Hebraism. Here and there some son of
Shem must have been mentally constituted more like the sons of Javan.
None the less, when we survey the history and study the literature of
these two races as a whole, it is impossible not to perceive a clear and
consistent difference between their respective ways of looking at
things, at life and conduct, sentiment and nature and art.

Max Mueller, speaking of the English people, says that we are Jewish in
our religion, Greek in our philosophy, Roman in our politics, and Saxon
in our morality. This ingenious remark is, as such absolute analyses are
apt to be, only partially true. We have, indeed, borrowed from the
Jews, from the Greeks, and from the Romans, in those several
departments. But those departments over-lap and interpenetrate each
other. The fact is that, in us English, with certain Teutonic qualities
ineradically at the bottom of our nature, the modes in which our
religion, philosophy, politics, and morality have developed themselves
have been determined by a blending of all that we have learned from
Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike. In the workings of our intellect and
morals, Athens and Jerusalem in particular have operated upon us far
more than we can now exactly estimate.

Looking at the matter historically, the special quality and type of
Hebraism we must deduce from Hebrew literature, from Hebrew history,
from the characteristics of eminent Hebrews, and from the average of
testimony to Hebrew character supplied to us by reputable authors, Jew
and Gentile, in poetry, drama, fiction, or other forms of literary
creation. The special quality and type of Hellenism we must deduce from
similar material concerning Greeks and things Grecian. And here I must
confess that I am no Hebraist. I am not intimately acquainted with the
heterogeneous compilation called the Talmud, nor with Alexandrine and
mediaeval Jewish literature. Nevertheless no one brought up strictly in a
Christian Church can help becoming in some measure versed in things
Hebraic. To be perpetually exercised from e