And these two forces we may regard as
in some sense rivals,--rivals not by the necessity of their own nature,
but as exhibited in man and his history,--and rivals dividing the empire
of the world between them. And to give these forces names from the two
races of men who have supplied the most signal and splendid
manifestations of them, we may call them respectively the forces of
Hebraism and Hellenism. Hebraism and Hellenism,--between these two
points of influence moves our world. At one time it feels more
powerfully the attraction of one of them, at another time of the other;
and it ought to be, though it never is, evenly and happily balanced
between them.
The final aim of both Hellenism and Hebraism, as of all great spiritual
disciplines, is no doubt the same: man's perfection or salvation. The
very language which they both of them use in schooling us to reach this
aim is often identical. Even when their language indicates by
variation,--sometimes a broad variation, often a but slight and subtle
variation,--the different courses of thought which are uppermost in each
discipline, even then the unity of the final end and aim is still
apparent.
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