University of Virginia Library

LETTER LIII.

From the date of this letter you see that I am at last
in the London of the New World. From Havana to
this city, we had a delightful run; the genii of the weather
being in the best of humors, and Neptune so fast
asleep that we only knew that he was alive by the regular,
deep pulsations of his broad oceanic heart.

To my surprise, I learned that when the sea is perfectly
calm, and its surface glitters with the polished glaciery
of a mirror, the outline of its surface is never at
rest. So far as waves are concerned, there are at such
times none; but there is a vast, grand heaving of the
sea, as if a mighty, living heart were regularly moving
and lifting it from beneath. The whole ocean seems to
breathe! and its limitless bosom to rise and fall like that
of a sleeping man. And this motion of life has been
from “the beginning!” Six thousand years it has moved
thus in its mighty pulsations, and its heart will continue
to move and beat thus after the pulses of the millions
that now live will be silent! What an emblem of eternity—a
life of six thousand years!

On our voyage, we passed a great number of white-sailed
vessels, some going, as we were, northwardly, and
others steering towards the warm South; while others

met us transversly, coming out of Baltimore and Philadelphia,
bound oceanward, or else from Europe, seeking
those ports. We also saw three ocean steamers, whose
black hulls and trailing clouds of murky smoke, made
them seem, as they moved among the vessels with snowy
sails, like a sort of demons, saucily intruding into the
company of good angels.

It is very pleasant on the sea, nevertheless, in one of
these same “diabolical” looking steamers. Our cabins
were magnificent, and we enjoyed every shore luxury.
They are “Irving Houses” afloat; and we live pretty
much as persons do at “springs” in a rainy day that
keeps everybody within doors. There are books in variety
for the literary, pens and ink for the epistolarian,
cards for the play-loving, chess for the quiet, back-gammon
for the noisy, sandwiches and ale for the hungry, a
smoking-room for the smoky, sofas and lounges for the
idle and lazily disposed, couches for the sleepy, promenades
for the restless, and good dinner and plenty of
champagne for everybody.

Our passengers consisted of about forty people, who
represented no less than nine nations: a Chinese, a Pole,
a Mexican, several Englishmen, several Americans, three
Cuban ladies and one Cuban gentleman, four Frenchmen,
a Spaniard, and a German traveler with a red moustache,
who was called by his valet “Baron.” There was also
a handsome young man who was a Jew!

Has the Jew a nation?—if so, then we had ten nations
represented in our cabin. How extraordinary that one
can always tell a Jew! or rather, let me call them “Israelites,”
which is the honorable name conferred upon
them by Jehovah, and by which they like to be distinguished

term “Jew” being quite as repulsive to them
as “Yankee” to the New Englander. That this wonderful
people bear the impress of their Oriental origin to
this day, after seventeen hundred years of exile and dispersion,
is a continued miracle. The Jew of Chatham
street, in this city, is, in every lineament, the Jew of
Jerusalem of to-day, and of the Jews of the days of Jesus.
In what this peculiarity consists, it is difficult to determine
precisely, though an artist, who studies closely the
characteristics of feature, might be able to explain.

It is chiefly in the style and expression of the eyes I
think. It is not because the eye is black—for thousands
of Americans have black eyes, which are wholly different
in expression from the peculiar Jewish eye. The Israelite
eye is very slightly almond-shaped, the upper lid
droops over about one-seventh of the iris of the eye, and
gives an indescribable expression; while the lashes curve
backwards, and have the effect of a fringe, more than any
other lashes of any other people's eyes. The expression
of the whole eye is sad, yet sparkling—dewy, yet brilliant
—a sort of April-sky eye. Dear me! how difficult it is to
put ideas into words—to find the words that exactly
paint that which we are endeavoring to describe. Words
are very important dresses for thoughts. But if you
have ever observed the eye of the Children of Israel, you
will be able to understand the peculiarity I would describe.

How wonderful the presence of this people among us
and other nations! A people, yet without a country! a
religion, yet without altar, priest, or temple! a God, yet
punished by Him with a dispersion of one thousand seven
hundred years! Their present state is a living testimony

to the truth of the Bible, wherein it is predicted, as well
also, their future restoration to their own country!

Perhaps, in connection with them, the fact that their
number is still, 3,000,000 of souls, will be deemed not
the least extraordinary. This number came out of
Egypt with Moses—this number conquered the land of
Canaan—this number constituted the nation when David
and Solomon were its kings—this number was carried
captive to Babylon—and the same number restored again
to their land at the re-building of the temple,—the same
number were taxed by the Roman conquerors when they
brought Judea into subjection—and the same number
paid tribute to Cæsar—the same number, subtracting the
million which perished at the taking of Jerusalem, were
cast out among the nations at the destruction of their
city by Titus, in the first century, when commenced
“the dispersion among the nations of the earth,” which
still continues in so remarkable a manner; and the late
census of their people shows that their number is still
3,000,000. This, then, is a nation in itself, though a
broken one, separated by continents and oceans, fragment
from fragment—yet one in feature, one in language, one
in religion, one in pursuit, one in all things that have
ever given them individuality as a nation. Their number
is equal to that of the population of the Thirteen
Colonies at the Declaration of our Independence—a number
large enough, as our history and the testimony of
the world shows, to lay the foundation of a mighty empire!

For what is this remarkable and careful preservation
of the Isaraelite? Ever dwelling among the Gentiles—
yet never commingling with them, they never lose their

nationality. For what reason this preservation of their
original numbers? Without question to be ready to obey
the command that shall one day fall upon their awaiting
ears: “Up, Israel, and go into thine own land, for I
will make of thee a great nation. The glory of Jerusalem
shall fill the whole earth, and the kings of the earth shall
bring their glory and honor into it, and I will make thy
name glorious among the nations.”

And what a spectacle will be presented when they arise
as one man to obey the voice of Jehovah! It will be a
second march, like that forth from Egypt. Every land,
every city, every town, almost every hamlet, where men
trade and do commerce with men, will give up this people
among them—and this “nation of merchants,” laden
with gold and silver, the spoils of the Gentiles, shall
direct their way towards Jerusalem, the city of their love
and pride. From every sea-port will sail ships laden
with the sons of Israel, steering for Palestina, and from
every inland town go forth wealthy caravans taking the
road towards the City of David. The present exodus to
California and Australia, for gold of the Gentiles, in a
thousand ships, will give a faint idea only of the mighty
movement that shall draw the eyes of the world when
Israel shall arise in her numbers, and elevating the
standard of the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” gather
her outcasts beneath its shadow for the march.

And when the land of Canaan shall once more shake
with the tread of returning Israel—when the thousand
cities of her green vales shall be rebuilt—when Jerusalem
shall lift up her head from the dust of centuries, and
dazzle the world's eye with her regenerated splendor—
when the ports of Tyre, Jaffa, Sidon, and Cesarea shall

once more extend their marble piers into the sea to embrace
the commerce of the world—then will the Israelite
take his true place among the nations, and, from his
geographical position, command the avenues of the earth's
commerce. At her feet, on the east, the Gulf of Persia
and the Euphrates will pour the wealth of India into her
lap—on the west, the Mediterranean will enrich her with
a thousand fleets—on the north, from the Baltic and
Caspian, she will receive the tributes of merchandise—
and from the south, from Egypt and the Red Sea, she
will lay her hand upon the wealth of Ethiopia and
Australia. She will sit enthroned in the true commercial
centre of the earth, and, from the vast wealth that her
people will carry to her from the nations wherein they
have been dispersed, they will be able to control the
commercial empire of the whole globe; and this same
wealth will enable them to make Judea a land of cities
that will rival all those of other lands, and render their
country the very heart of luxury, and of the splendor
and power of the earth.

And this is no visionary speculation. It is to come
to pass in the years that are before us, for prophecy
hath spoken the word. It is from many hours' conversation
with the youthful Israelite, our fellow-passenger,
that I have become so interested in his nation—hence
my enthusiasm in the foregoing pages.