sacred feelings openly outraged by their own rulers. Thus, the Asmonean princess, Alexandra,

the mother-in-law of Herod, could so far forget the traditions of her house, as to send portraits

of her son and daughter to Mark Antony for infamous purposes, in hope of thereby winning him

for her ambitious plans.28 One would be curious to know who painted these pictures, for, when

the statue of Caligula was to be made for the Temple at Jerusalem, no native artist could be

found, and the work was entrusted to Phoenicians. It must have been these foreigners also who

made the `figures,' with which Herod adorned his palace at Jerusalem, and `the brazen statues'

in the gardens `through which the water ran out,'29 as well as the colossal statues at Cæsarea,

and those of the three daughters of Agrippa, which after his death30 were so shamefully abused

by the soldiery at Sebaste and Cæsarea.31

This abhorrence of all connected with idolatry, and the contempt entertained for all that was

non-Jewish, will in great measure explain the code of legislation intended to keep the Jew and

Gentile apart. If Judæa had to submit to the power of Rome, it could at least avenge itself in the

Academies of its sages. Almost innumerable stories are told in which Jewish sages, always

easily, confute Roman and Greek philosophers; and others, in which even a certain Emperor

(Antoninus) is represented as constantly in the most menial relation of self-abasement before a

Rabbi.32 Rome, which was the fourth beast of Daniel,33 would in the age to come,34 when

Jerusalem would be the metropolis of all lands,35 be the first to excuse herself on false though

vain pleas for her wrongs to Israel.36 But on wordly grounds also, Rome was contemptible,

having derived her language and writing from the Greeks, and not possessing even a hereditary

succession in her empire.37 If such was the estimate of dreaded Rome, it may be imagined in

what contempt other nations were held. Well might `the earth tremble,'38 for, if Israel had not

accepted the Law at Sinai, the whole world would have been destroyed, while it once more

`was still' when that39 happy event took place, although God in a manner forced Israel to it.

And so Israel was purified at Mount Sinai from the impurity which clung to our race in

consequence of the unclean union between Eve and the serpent, and which still adhered to all

other nations!40