for several centuries.

We are accustomed, and not without reason, to think with some contempt
of these old Rabbis. Rabbinism, Cabbalism, are become by-words in the
mouths of men. It may be instructive for us--it is certainly necessary
for us, if we wish to understand Alexandria--to examine a little how
they became so fallen.

Their philosophy took its stand, as you all know, on certain ancient
books of their people; histories, laws, poems, philosophical treatises,
which all have one element peculiar to themselves, namely, the assertion
of a living personal Ruler and Teacher, not merely of the Jewish race,
but of all the nations of the earth. After the return of their race
from Babylon, their own records give abundant evidence that this strange
people became the most exclusive and sectarian which the world ever saw.
Into the causes of that exclusiveness I will not now enter; suffice it
to say, that it was pardonable enough in a people asserting Monotheism
in the midst of idolatrous nations, and who knew, from experience even
more bitter than that which taught Plato and Socrates, how directly all
those popular idolatries led to every form of baseness and immorality.
But we may trace in them, from the date of their return from Babylon,
especially from their settlement in Alexandria, a singular change of
opinion. In proportion as they began to deny that their unseen personal
Ruler had anything to do with the Gentiles--the nations of the earth, as
they called them--in proportion as they considered themselves as His
only subjects--or rather, Him and His guidance as their own private
property--exactly in that proportion they began to lose all living or
practical belief that He did guide them. He became a being of the past;
one who had taught and governed their forefathers in old times: not one
who was teaching and governing them now. I beg you to pay attention to