high and holy name of God has been in all ages the watchword
of the most unsparing massacres, the sanction of the most
atrocious perfidies."

Of the treatment Judaism, the foster mother of Christianity, received
at the poet's hands, I will now recite two examples. To Moses, the
Jehovah of the Hebrews is thus made to speak:

"From an eternity of idleness
I, God, awoke; in seven days' toil made earth
From nothing; rested, and created man;
I placed him in a paradise, and there
Planted the tree of evil, so that he
Might eat and perish, and my soul procure
Wherewith to sate its malice, and to turn
Even like a heartless conqueror of the earth,
All misery to my fame. The race of men
Chosen to my honor, with impunity
May sate the lusts _I_ planted in their hearts.
Here I command thee hence to lead them on,
Until, with harden'd feet, their conquering troops
Wade on the promised soil through woman's blood.
And make my name be dreaded through the land,
Yet ever-burning flame and ceaseless woe
Shall be the doom of their eternal souls,
With every soul on this ungrateful earth,
Virtuous or vicious, weak or strong--even all
Shall perish to fulfill the blind revenge
(Which you to men call justice) of their God."