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    magic arts , and art thou not a blasphemer among m $ yA speaking treasonable things against the chief rulers V Now this man had also been ope of the scholars ' of Akiba and he had been hired to swear these things against him . But Akiba , in no wise shaken , answered with a solemn voice :

    c Behold the malice of the common world , its enyy and crooked - ness of heart ! Is gratitude a hateful thing , ariq doth it make the gall rise to feel it as a debt that is due r Is sympath y the flower of a day ; the insect whose life is bui a sin gle moment or is it a cloak to hide the secret knife of the hypocrite and the

    backbiter ? Lo ! I have taught the ignorant to know God and nature ; I have put strong thoughts into the brain of the idle and the weak , and they have walked uprightly , even as they were sincere of faith . I have changed the reveller into a godly man ; and his children have blessed me for their father ' s sake . Doth

    sorcery or magic do these things ? What if the art of the magi , which boasts of turning the sun into a bloody stream , and the moon into a dark blot ; what if it could change the waters of Jordan into fixed crystal , or the ocean into a solid pearl in his rocky shell ; what if it could harden the gardens of Damascus

    into coloured metals and hanging jewels ; what were it all , but turning the vitality of nature into a petrific beauty , far less wondrous and glorified than the living forms of infinite workmanship and subtle operation ? I value not the retrograding powers of the magi ; I practise them not , neither seek I to know them . I have spoken nought against the rulers , as men , but only for the claim

    of Baroquebas , who caused me to believe that he was entitled to be king of the Jew 3 . Therefore should the chief rulers , being of rightful authority , honour me for my doings , knowing by the same token that I should in like manner have stood forth on their side , had their station been usurped by other men . If Baroquebas was an impostor , then have I been his dupe to the same degree ; which should gain me sorrow and commiseration , rather

    than hatred and punishment . My early years were all passed amidst the innocent fields ; then came I straightway to this city , and . led a secluded life , giving up my soul to the acquirement of learning-. What wonder is it , O judges and rulers , that I should be little versed in the crafty snares of men , the hypocrite or the ambitious ? But hearken unto me now with a serious ear . Have

    ye ever stood alone in a wide space beneath the dome of night t Have ye marked the fixed silence of the stars—the infinitenessthe harmony ? Think of this ! Now turn to the atom before ye , and what boots it that revenge should cast this body back into the dust , a few hours before it is needed ? Suffer me to'leave this city , with Leah the wife of my bosom , and Zahoran her father , and all those who dwell in my house ; and Akiba will trouble ye no more . ' Arid ' I will return to the valley where I , tended , my master ' s herds , and lay my bones there in peace and thankfulness

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    652 Akiba .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 652, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/48/