Page:George Eliot and Judaism.djvu/74

In his inexhaustible devotion for others, it is always he who has been the confidant receiving innumerable confessions and outpourings; he has never had occasion or opportunity to bestow his own confidence upon another. Of the Jews he knows but little, and feels himself repelled rather than attracted bv them, for it seems to him that the cultivated among them appear chiefly anxious to affect cosmopolitanism; but after rescuing Mirah, he is led to a closer study of Judaism and its professors. We must remember how the mystery of his origin haunts him, and further, how he, the benefactor of so many, has never in his life enjoyed the boon of unreservedly expressing himself to a true friend. In this way we can understand his feelings when, in his search for Mirah's lost relatives, he comes in contact with a remarkable Jew, by whom he is entirely captivated. Gone now is the neglect