1.] From all time, this division into two parties, opposed in interest and spirit, had been for the Hebrew nation a principle which contributed to their moral growth.

Every nation called to high destinies ought to be a little world in itself, including opposite poles.

Greece presented, at a few leagues' distance from each other, Sparta and Athens--to a superficial observer, the two antipodes; but, in reality, rival sisters, necessary to one another.

It was the same with Judea.
Less brilliant in one sense than the development of Jerusalem, that of the North was on the whole much more fertile; the greatest achievements of the Jewish people have always proceeded thence.

A complete absence of the love of Nature, bordering upon something dry, narrow, and ferocious, has stamped all the works purely Hierosolymite with a degree of grandeur, though sad, arid, and repulsive.