victims of a tyrannic power hardly less than they of Rome.

I replied, "that where the head of a great empire was such a one as Tiberius, it was a natural consequence that all in society like him should float upon the surface. They would crawl forth from the hiding places of their vices, and grow great in the sunshine of their mighty example and patron. Men like your governor are common enough now in Rome, though not always are they fortunate enough to rise into place. For though the Emperor himself chooses to play the tyrant, he is not so ready as one might suppose to multiply himself in his subordinates."

"Is it not singular, then," said Anna, “that he persists in retaining Pilate in his office, notwithstanding his cruelties, and the enmity of the people?"

"He may do that," I answered, "in agreement with a sentiment he has been heard to utter, that to change a cruel or rapacious governor of a province, is but to send a new and hungry robber to take the place of one who has already gorged himself, and is likely to rest and sleep, as it is the nature of an animal to do when he has filled himself; just as the poor wretch covered with sores begged that the flies already feeding might not be driven away,

since it would only make room for a hungrier swarm."

"That," said the young Jewess, "is indeed the sentiment of a heartless tyrant of one who is not only indifferent to the misery he occasions, but can make a jest of it. If Rome bears patiently with the greater monster, I trust that Judea will not with the lesser."

"Take heed, my daughter," said the widow, "how your righteous indignation finds too loud and warm an expression. There is some truth in the saying of Tiberius. We may drive away Pilate only to be cursed with a worse man."

"That were impossible," cried the daughter. "Were you ever in Rome? said I. "No," replied the young girl. "I thought as much. Believe worse men in Rome than Pilate. in the city

me, there are

I know those

men, too, of note who, were they here, would put to open shame the deeds of your present governor. Tiberius has proved already a rare schoolmaster.

His pupils abound in the capital and throughout Italy."

"And Capreæ is just at present the schoolroom," said Anna.

"Yes, and too small for the scholars who crowd it. But, if you can pardon my ignorance, of what have you to complain here in

Cæsarea? I have noticed on my arrival, and as I passed through your city, only signs of prosperity and peace; nor since I left Rome, nor indeed before for a long time, have I heard anything of evils which you are suffering under."

'Ah," said Anna, with animation, "I know how it is with you Roman Jews. You grow to be so in love with the greatness of your adopted country, that you are soon strangely forgetful of that from which you sprang. The wrongs and sufferings of Judea, which cry to Heaven, are not heard in the din of great events and the whirl of pleasure. Many of you, so am I told, deny your name and country, and put on the dress and take the name of Roman. Pray Heaven it is not so with you, for your face is honest, and ›› In her earnestness she suddenly paused, and her dark skin was covered with blushes that made her for the moment beautiful. Her eye fell upon my Roman dress, and she perceived that she had involved me in the condemnation she had pronounced.

Almost enjoying her confusion, I said, "I confess my recreancy. But you will judge me with more lenity, I am sure, when I tell you how odious a thing it is to bear the name of Jew in Rome. Were one born a full grown man, he might, perhaps, find philosophy enough to steel him against the taunts and

gibes of those about him. But with only the tender sensibilities of a child-it is quite too hard a yoke to bear. Roman boys taught me early to both hate and despise the religion of my fathers, which, as all the treatment I received on every side, and all the language I heard assured me, would procure for me nothing better than contempt and insult. My father, too, had renounced all of Judaism that he could. He never entered a synagogue; he observed none of the Jewish rites or festivals; his phrases were set to Roman measures; and his outward homage was paid with scrupulousness to pagan institutions, though that he despised them in his heart as much as he hated his own belief, I do not doubt. Gold, gold was his only God; and he cared not for man, but as he might help or hinder him in that only worship of his heart. Do not, my friends, accuse me of filial impiety for these sentiments. For a parent who provided for me only gold, and whose only legacy was gold, I can feel no very lively emotions of gratitude. I received from him none of the signs of a parent's love. He hardly knew me. As he moved in the morning to the narrow vault in Rome's vast centre, where he amassed his riches, with his eyes looking inwards upon some new scheme of wealth, blind and deaf to all beside and without him, he would pass me in

the street as a stranger, though his eyes fell directly on me; and if I made some childish advances, which I soon learned not to do; a frown and a rebuke for a troublesome vagrant that I was, was all I ever received. As I grew

Of

into years I drew no nearer to him, nor he to me. Whatever was needful to my education in all the wisdom of the Romans or the Greeks, was bountifully supplied; nor was I denied that, whatever it might be, which wealth could procure, which was thought necessary to place me on a level with the young men of the capital in any pursuit or pleasure. But to my father's counsels or business I was never admitted. a single thought of his mind, or anxiety of his heart, I was never permitted to be a sharer. Here I was an annoyance and a hindrance. How can you wonder, then, I added, that I grew up not a Jew but a Roman ? or how can you greatly blame me? You, my mother, will not, I am sure, condemn me for this freedom. You, more than I, know how to justify it. But when I had said these things, I then drew another picture of my other parent, and showed how all your endeavors in an opposite direction could not but fail, with all Rome and my father against

you.

As I paused, the widow of Sameas said, "It is not strange, such being your nurture, that