But there is a saying which I have
heard attributed to Mr. Carlyle about Socrates--a very happy saying,
whether it is really Mr. Carlyle's or not,--which excellently marks the
essential point in which Hebraism differs from Hellenism. "Socrates,"
this saying goes, "is terribly _at ease in Zion_." Hebraism--and here is
the source of its wonderful strength--has always been severely
preoccupied with an awful sense of the impossibility of being at ease in
Zion; of the difficulties which oppose themselves to man's pursuit or
attainment of that perfection of which Socrates talks so hopefully, and,
as from this point of view one might almost say, so glibly. It is all
very well to talk of getting rid of one's ignorance, of seeing things in
their reality, seeing them in their beauty; but how is this to be done
when there is something which thwarts and spoils all our efforts?
This something is _sin_; and the space which sin fills in Hebraism, as
compared with Hellenism, is indeed prodigious. This obstacle to
perfection fills the whole scene, and perfection appears remote and
rising away from earth, in the background.
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