its Dark Ages are still lingering on in England.  It must become cosmic, universal.  Judaism is too timid, too apologetic, too deferential.  Doubtless this is the result of persecution, but it does not tend to diminish persecution.  We may as well try the other attitude.  It is the world the Jewish preacher should address, not a Kensington congregation.  Perhaps, when the Kensington congregation sees the world is listening, it will listen, too,” he said, with a touch of bitterness.

“But it listens to you now,” said Raphael.

“A pleasing illusion which has kept me too long in my false position.  With all its love and reverence, do you think it forgets I am its hireling?  I may perhaps have a little more prestige than the bulk of my fellows—­though even that is partly due to my congregants being rich and fashionable—­but at bottom everybody knows I am taken like a house—­on a three years’ agreement.  And I dare not speak, I cannot, while I wear the badge of office; it would be disloyal; my own congregation would take alarm.  The position of a minister is like that of a judicious editor—­which, by the way, you are not; he is led, rather than leads.  He has to feel his way, to let in light wherever he sees a chink, a cranny.  But let them get another man to preach to them the echo of their own voices; there will be no lack of candidates for the salary.  For my part, I am sick of this petty jesuitry; in vain I tell myself it is spiritual statesmanship like that of so many Christian clergymen who are silently bringing Christianity back to Judaism.”

“But it is spiritual statesmanship,” asserted Raphael.

“Perhaps.  You are wiser, deeper, calmer than I. You are an Englishman, I am a Russian.  I am all for action, action, action!  In Russia I should have been a Nihilist, not a philosopher.  I can only go by my feelings, and I feel choking.  When I first came to England, before the horror of Russia wore off, I used to go about breathing in deep breaths of air, exulting in the sense of freedom.  Now I am stifling again.  Do you not understand?  Have you never guessed it?  And yet I have often said things to you that should have opened your eyes.  I must escape from the house of bondage—­must be master of myself, of my word and thought.  Oh, the world is so wide, so wide—­and we are so narrow!  Only gradually did the web mesh itself about me.  At first my fetters were flowery bands, for I believed all I taught and could teach all I believed.  Insensibly the flowers changed to iron chains, because I was changing as I probed deeper into life and thought, and saw my dreams of influencing English Judaism fading in the harsh daylight of fact.  And yet at moments the iron links would soften to flowers again.  Do you think there is no sweetness in adulation, in prosperity—­no subtle cajolery that soothes the conscience and coaxes the soul to take its pleasure in a world of make-believe?  Spiritual statesmanship, forsooth!” He made a