It is a stiff-necked people.'
'Sire, bear with me. If I speak in heat, I speak in zeal. You ask me
what I wish: my answer is, a national existence, which we have not. You
ask me what I wish: my answer is, the Land of Promise. You ask me what I
wish: my answer is, Jerusalem. You ask me what I wish: my answer is, the
Temple, all we have forfeited, all we have yearned after, all for
which we have fought, our beauteous country, our holy creed, our simple
manners, and our ancient customs.'
'Manners change with time and circumstances; customs may be observed
everywhere. The ephod on thy breast proves our faith; and, for a
country, is the Tigris less than Siloah, or the Euphrates inferior to
the Jordan?'
'Alas! alas! there was a glorious prime when Israel stood aloof from
other nations, a fair and holy thing that God had hallowed. We were
then a chosen family, a most peculiar people, set apart for God's entire
enjoyment. All about us was solemn, deep, and holy. We shunned the
stranger as an unclean thing that must defile our solitary sanctity,
and, keeping to ourselves and to our God, our lives flowed on in one
great solemn tide of deep religion, making the meanest of our multitude
feel greater than the kings of other lands.
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