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methods of sacrifice ? Or is religion only a, pre- tence, and do men hate one another simply to hate, just as they love to love ? On which side is the guilt in this animosity ? I cannot here refrain from giving as an answer to this question an extract from a private letter, which also justi- fies the foes of Shy lock : l "I do not condemn the hatred with which tin common people persecute the Jews, I condemn the unfortunate errors which caused that hatred. The people are always in the right ; in their hate as in their love there is always at bottom a perfectly correct instinct, but they do not know how to put emotions properly into shape, and so, instead of the proper subject, their grudge falls on the innocent scapegoat of the disorders and dissensions of time or place. The mob is in want, it lacks the means to enjoy life, and though the high priest of the religion of state assures it that man is here on earth to endure and suffer, and to obey the authorities in spite of hunger and thirst, still the people have secret yearnings for what gratifies their senses, and they hate those in 1 Our author here appears to have quite forgotten that he has already perfectly and very piously accounted for all the persecution of the Jews, by informing us that it was due to "a mysterious dispensation of Providence." Die Vorschung aus gehcimnissvollen Grunden. Surely after this it was hardly consistent to attempt to explain it like a mere irreligious rationalist !