box 3/2
ins Frei
Der
Ne
23 „14 neeenenceee
OCroßER 2, 1908.
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE.
and many a Jew or Turk whois ready to beshot down for thesake of his tradi¬
1—
A.
tions would have remained perfectly indifferent to the actual miracle itself.)
erte


Should the world still endure an innumerable term of years, the universal
religion will be a refined Spinozism. Reason, when left to itself, could not
UXe
possibly lead to anything else.“ What is very rare seldom remains long
222
Aa
—(and) BCDKHEN
unexplained. What is inexplicable is usually no longer rare, and has, per¬
haps, never been so.“ Parallel with this is another reflection of the author’s:

“ The commonest opinions and the things that everybody takes for granted

often the most deserve examination.''—“ Isaid to myself, I cannot possibly
believe that; and as I did so 1 perceived that I had already believed it a
second time.'—" The hour-glass is a reminder not only of Time's quick flight,
Notes on New Publications.
but concurrently also of the dust to which we shall at last return.'—“ The
The artistic beauty of the“ Merchant of Venice“ in the Lamb Shakes¬
term' divine service' ought to be applied no longer to church-going but
peare has already been mentioned here (Chatto and Windus, price 1s. 6d. or
It is a golden rule that oneshould never judge
exclusively to good deeds.“¬
28. 6d., according to binding). The type, the pictures, the music, make it
men by their opinions, but rather by what these opinions lead themto be.'—
the daintiest conceivable of books for children. Its literary method is based
„ We read so many essays on genius nowadays, that everyone thinks that he
on Lamb, but it is a great improvement on its namesake. Professor Israel
is one.'—“ Doubt everything at least once—even down to the proposition—.
Gollancz tells the tale in simple prose, but though he uses Lamb he corrects
twice two are four.' Better still is the maxim I have read somewhere else:
him, and what is more, cleverly introduces into the prose framework quite a
It is not always wise to say twice two are four; it is sometimes safer to
large part of the play itself, the most interesting scenes and all the famous
I. A.
say: twice two are five less one.“
speeches. The preface is a courageous piece of work." For the story of
Shylock, Shakespeare took an old legend which had not the least truth in it,
The Road to Freedom.
for no such Jew as Shylock ever existed. No Jew, even though maddened as
[From Dur Vienna Correspondent.]
Shylock was by hatred and misery, ever really acted as Shylock is made to
Arthur Schnitzler's new novel,“ Der Weg ins Freie,' has, within a short
do.“ That is well said. It was time that Christian children who read the
time after publication, already gone through ten editions. The Neue Freie
play should be told in plain terms that its plot is false and impossible.
Presse called ita“ Viennese novel,' and completely left out of acconnt its
Professor Gollancz has done a real act of piety, piety to his people, piety to
Jewish interest. The Social Democratic organ, the Arbeiterzeitung, disposed
the truth.
of it with the contemptuous description Judenroman and deplored the
It is remarkable how successful Mr. W. L. Courtney's“ Literary Man’s
palpable degeneration of the poet. These two incidents show that the spoilt
Bible'’ has proved. Four editions have been called for within a year; it can
poet of the so-called Progressives, most modern amung the moderns, Arthur
now be bought for 3s. 6d. net (London, Chapman and Hall). Mr. Courtney's
Schnitzler, was not lacking in courage when he surrounded the real hero of
purpose is to serve“ those interested in the higher planes of literature, who
his latest novel, the genuinely Aryan Baron Georg von Wergenthin with a
desire to see the Bible treated as a work of supreme literary value.“ There
Viennese Jewish milien. It is true“ Der Weg ins Freie' is a novel of
can be no just reason why anyone should find such a treatment of the Bible
Viennese life, a novel of the middle-class of Viennese society, and such a
abhorrent. Even people“ who desire to regard the Bible not as a Book
book, if it was not merely to be the product of poetical fantasy without any
among books, but as something so different in kind from everything else as to
application to real life, was bound to cede a place to the Jewish question.
be viewed with uncritical reverence,“ are not blind to its literary beauty.
Even if the book had not been written by the Jew, Arthur Schnitzler, but by
Mr. Courtney certainly succeeds in collecting“passages of supreme literary
a Christian Socialist or a National anti-Semite, the Jewish question would of
value, exhibiting the highest artistic and intellectual characteristics of the
necessity have had to be treated, because it is af 6that all differentiations
Hebrews. It was worth doing and is well done. The Bible may be
in Viennese, and indeed in the whole of Austri., ociety, are due to the
approached from many sides; Mr. Courtney’s is not the least interesting or
various modes in which the Jewish question is appeoe ued. Every Austrian
important. His use of the Authorised Version is not, however, completely
party has a Jewish plank in its platform. And when. artnur Schnitzler, the
justilied. It is true that the Revised Version is less beautiful, and Mr.
author of" Lieutenant Gustl,' that delightfully greenns votire on the
Courtney was right not to use it as his text. But he might have corrected
tackled
Austrian military system, which cost him a medical post###ebe
clear mistakes. These are not, for the most part, confined to smaller
most
this problem one could only expect an equally courageous,
points.“ Mistranslations in the ten commandments; such misrenderings as
tthe tabernagle of the congregation?’; the blunder in Esther vi., 8, with
oet
In" Der Weg ins Freie,“ a.s in all the other works of Schnitzt#
regard to the crown (which was put on the horse’s head, not the king's),
is influenced by the Physician. And the poet-physician performs wi
might have been corrected without any loss whatever of its literary ch#em.
accessories of the latest poetical art and medical science, an operatich et
Mr. Courtney does sometimes adopt the Revised Version (e.g., in Genesis
vivisection on weil-known and favourite characters indifferent to the fact
iv., 23). On the other hand, there was every reason for preferri the
that the subject on his operating-table screams out at every cut and stab
Authorised Version as the groundwork of a literary treatment of the Bible.
that is inflieted on its living frame, and also careless whether that hypo¬
Mr. Courtney’s brok fully deserves its great success.
critica' unreliable lady called Vienna society is furions because the artist
With regard to the literary study of the Bible, it may interest some
exposes othe gaping world all her outward illnesses and internal debilities.
readers to have again a few remarks made bythe late Rev. S. Singer on the
Thus we get the salon of the rich Jewish export merchant, Salamon
subject. The opening sentences of his sermon on“ Micah’s Ideal, delivered
Ehrenberg, who, at the instance of his wife, calls himself merely S. Ehrenberg,
in 1895, run thus:—
always feels unwell in his own house, and is infected with Zionism. He
Itris-the growing hahit of our time to select the gems from ancient literatures,
takes advantage of a business jonrney to the East to inspect Palestine.
and to set them in ornaments wilich mav still be worn. Ourage is eclective; and“
“ Perhaps,“ he says,“ it is only because Tam getting older, perhaps because 1
there is an honourable aspect to this modern catholicity. We are determined to lose
read so much about Zionism and all that; but Icant helpit, I would like to
nothing worth holding ofthe heritage of the past.
see Jerusalem before 1 die.'
Even in the case of the Bible. where selection is hardest, the process is becoming
In this house, where the vain mother and daughter, with their leanings
popular. Books of selection are appearing, sometimes the basis of choice being
to the Christians, have the upper hand, grew up the son of the house, Oskar
literary beauty, sometimes religious import. The two qualities, however, are not
Ehrenberg, Lieutenant of Reserve, a revolting Jewish snob, who, for fear of
separate. Excellence of style and dignity of contents frequently go hand-in-hand in
the Scriptures. Hence it is that we welcome so cordially the new-born zeal for the
being disinherited, will not get baptised, but ostentatiously takes off his hat
literary study of the Bible. What we want is that the Bible should be admired and
in front of every Catholic Church, and, on one occasion, gets a box on the
loved. Let men enjoy its poetry, praise its eloquence, realise its artistic merits.
ears from his father for the offence. This house, too, is visited by the Jewish
Literary appreciation must carry with it moral appreciation; its style cannet be
author, Heinrich Bermann, a splendidly depicted type of that self-centred,
admired without its contents becoming an inspiration.
uncertain Jewish poet-mind which is always uneasy,“ because it always
This passage may be found in the first of the three volumes of“ The Literary
finds itself on hostile soil.“ This perpetually brooding, painfully doubting
Remains of the Rev. Simeon Singer,' p. 163.
man, gives expression to his feelings in words which will find an echo in
The American Jewish Year Book is edited this year by Dr. Herbert
every intelligent Jewish heart. Speaking to his friend, Baron Georg, he says;
Friedenwald, Secretary of the American Jewish Committee. The volume is
Do yon believe that there is a Christian on earth, no matter how noble, just and
issued by the Jewish Publication Society of America.
true he may be, who would not, in a moment oftemper, ill-humour or anger, turn, at
In dialogue form Dr. A. Flesch has published“ Der Jude.“ The author is
any rate inwardly, against even his best friend, against his wife, if they should be
Rabbi in the Hungarian congregation of Mohacs, and the parties to the
Jewsor of Jewish origin? There is not one, Tassure yon. You can, morcover, make
dialogue are an old-fashioned pietist and a modernised child of Judaism and
another test. Read, for example, the letters of any celebrated, otherwise quite clever
and excellent man, and notice the passages containing hostile and ironical
the world. The latter gets the best of the argument; that was the author’s
references to contemporaries. In ninety-nine cases the individual will be referredto
purpose, of course. It is noticeable that there has been of late a revival in
withont any mention of his origin or religion, but in the hundredth case where the
the liberal camp on the continent. The party has now its organ, a monthly
offending person has the misfortune to be a Jew, the author will certainly not forget
called Liberales Judentum, which is edited by Dr. Seligmann in Frankfort¬
to mention the fact. It is so, and lcan't help it.
on-the-Main. It is published by the“ Vereinigung für das liberale Judentum
In the course of the subsequent conversation Bermann expresses the
in Deutschland.'
view that there can be no combined solution of the Jewish question, but that
The new number of Freimann’s Hebrdische Bibliographie has a good
each individual must solve the problem for himself.
account by Dr. S. Poznanski of the Book-lists found in the Cambridge Geniza.
In our days there will be no solution; that is absolutely certain. At least no
In the same number, Dr. Porges (of Leipzig), in a discussion of the term
general solution. Rather will there be a hundred thousand different solutions,
Mumar (Wolr) as a term for renegade, connects this word with Marrano,
because it is really a matter that for the present each must settle for himself in the
thus offering a new etymology for the latter. Dr. Poznanski, by the way, is
best way he can. Each must see for himself how he can be extricated from his
to edit the publications of the revived Societyof“ Mekitze Nirdamim,'’ whose
distress, his despair, his miserv. wherever he can onco more breathe freely. Perhaps
London representative is to be Dr. Büchler. This is one ofthe best results
there are really people who will have to goto Jernsalem. Ponly fearthat many
when they have arrived at this common goal will lind that they have made a grievous
of the Copenhagen Congress.
mistake, 1 do not for a moment believe that such pilgrimages to freedom can be made
The Reflections of Lichtenberg“ is not a new novel by Elinor Glyn.
in consort, for the roads thither do not lead out into the land but lie within us. It is
It is a selection of thoughts (published at half-a-crown by Swan Sonnen¬
fereveryone thento lind his inner road. It is, therefore, necessary to look as clearly
schein) by George C. Lichtenberg, who was born at Darmstadt in 1742 and
as possible into his own being, to illuminate his most hidden corners, to have the
died in his fiftv-seventh year. Ascientist and satirist, and a sceptic to boot,
courage of his own nature, not to be deceived. Yes, that must be the daily prayer of
he said (speaking in the third person, in a self-character-sketch):“ t is not
every respectable man: Let me not be deceived!“
Georg thought:" What is theimatter with him? In his way he is as ill as his
beyond him to pray with fervour, and he has never been able to read the