and
pagan alike. They gave value to the diamond, that in a small stone,
easy of concealment, immense wealth might be hidden. They invented the
bill of exchange, by which they could at pleasure transfer from one
country to another their wealth, and avoid the danger of spoliation
from the hand of power and intolerance. Without political or civil
rights in any but their own country, they were compelled to the
especial pursuit of commerce for centuries, and we now see that
seven-tenths of all Jews born, as naturally turn to trade and commerce
as the infant to the breast. It has become an instinct.

To these persecutions the world is probably indebted for the
developments of commerce--the bringing into communication the nations
of the earth for the exchange of commodities necessary to the use and
comfort of each other, not of the growth or production of each,
enlarging the knowledge of all thus communicating, and teaching that
civilization which is the enlightenment and the blessing of
man--ameliorating the savage natures of all, and teaching that all are
of God, and equally the creatures of His love and protection; and
leading also to that development of mind in the Israelite which makes
him conspicuous to-day above any other race in the great attributes of
mind--directing the policy of European governments--first at the Bar,
first in science, first in commerce, first in wealth--preserving the
great traits of nationality without a nation, and giving tone, talent,
wealth, and power to all.

A few men only are born to think. Their minds expand with education,
and their usefulness is commensurate with it. This few early evince a
proclivity so strong for certain avocations as to enable those who have
the direction of their future to educate them for this pursuit. This
proclivity frequently is so overpowering as to prompt the possessor,
when the early education has been neglected, to educate himself for
this especial idiosyncrasy. This was the case with Newton--with
Stevenson, the inventor of the locomotive-engine, who, at twenty years
of age, was ignorant even of his letters. Arkwright was a barber, and
almost entirely illiterate when he invented the spinning-jenny. Train,
the inventor of the railroad, was, at the time of its invention, a
coal-heaver, and entirely illiterate.

These cases are rare, however. The great mass of mankind are born to
manual labor, and only with capacities suited for it. To attempt to
cultivate s