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Cedars of Lebanon: The Hebrews Among the Nations
- Abstract
In Philosophical Questions and scholastic debates, once arguments and counter—arguments have been marshaled and exhausted, it is customary to resort to the arms of inexorable and sometimes invincible authority. Hence, it occurs to me that some, unable to meet the arguments above advanced, may seek to combat us with a martial array of example and authority, saying that if it be true that Hebrews contribute such and such advantages, wherefore is it that the Hebrew Nation is excluded by Prudent Princes and Wise States, as hath come to pass in Spain, France, England, many cities of Germany, and even in Italy not a few? To which instances it is answered that in Political matters it is of little moment to argue from the ground of Example; and just as it is a vain flourish to adduce authority in Mathematics, which are an exact science, so is it absurd in Political matters, by reason of their contingency and diversity of individual accidents. Each domain and City has its own particular circumstances and properties which are not assimilable to the others.
There is no City in Europe, which, in the province of civil and criminal jurisprudence, has not its particular and local laws; nor does any one point a moral and set an example for the others. Were that the case, the Most Excellent Venetian Senate, in having embraced the Hebrew Nation, should point the moral to all the other States and serve as a Criterion for the admission of Hebrews into their lands; and there can be no doubt that all Sovereigns, as well-wishers of their Populations and as men desirous of incomes and revenues, would also open their gates. But the antagonistic bent and disposition of their Peoples occasion that these Princes yield to them and suit themselves to their caprices, not wanting (nor finding it expedient) to turn to forceful measures. Even the Most Serene Republic [Venice], though allowing the Hebrews domicile in its own City, the Capital of its Dominion, does not do so in Erescia, Bergamo, and several other Cities of the State, this by reason of the wariness and hostility of the Peoples toward the [Hebrew] Nation.
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