the fervour of an imagination exceedingly high-wrought and enthusiastic.
His own gorgeous vanity intoxicated him: and, if it be an historical
truth that the kings of the ancient world, blinded by their own power,
had moments in which they believed themselves more than men, it is not
incredible that sages, elevated even above kings, should conceive a
frenzy as weak, or, it may be, as sublime: and imagine that they did not
claim in vain the awful dignity with which the faith of the multitude
invested their faculties and gifts.

But, though the accident of birth, which excluded him from all field for
energy and ambition, had thus directed the powerful mind of Almamen to
contemplation and study, nature had never intended passions so fierce for
the calm, though visionary, pursuits to which he was addicted. Amidst
scrolls and seers, he had pined for action and glory; and, baffled in all
wholesome egress, by the universal exclusion which, in every land, and
from every faith, met the religion he belonged to, the faculties within
him ran riot, producing gigantic but baseless schemes, which, as one
after the other crumbled away, left behind feelings of dark misanthropy
and intense revenge.

Perhaps, had his religion been prosperous and powerful, he might have
been a sceptic; persecution and affliction made him a fanatic. Yet, true
to that prominent characteristic of the old Hebrew race, which made them
look to a Messiah only as a warrior and a prince, and which taught them
to associate all their hopes and schemes with worldly victories and
power, Almamen desired rather to advance, than to obey, his religion.
He cared little for its precepts, he thought little of its doctrines;
but, night and day, he revolved his schemes for its earthly restoration
and triumph.