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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
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 .
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Citation
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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/
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