[Footnote 3:  Plutarch, in his short Treatise ‘On Superstition.’]

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No. 495.  Saturday, September 27, 1712.  Addison.

  Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
    Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido,
      Per damna, per cades, ab ipso
        Ducit opes animumque ferro.

  Hor.

As I am one, who, by my Profession, am obliged to look into all kinds of Men, there are none whom I consider with so much Pleasure, as those who have any thing new or extraordinary in their Characters, or Ways of living.  For this reason I have often amused my self with Speculations on the Race of People called Jews, many of whom I have met with in most of the considerable Towns which I have passed through in the Course of my Travels.  They are, indeed, so disseminated through all the trading parts of the World, that they are become the Instruments by which the most distant Nations converse with one another, and by which Mankind are knit together in a general Correspondence:  They are like the Pegs and Nails in a great Building, which, though they are but little valued in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the whole Frame together.

That I may not fall into any common beaten Tracks of Observation, I shall consider this People in three Views:  First, with regard to their Number; Secondly, their Dispersion; and, Thirdly, their Adherence to their Religion:  and afterwards endeavour to shew, First, what Natural Reasons, and, Secondly, what Providential Reasons may be assigned for these three remarkable Particulars.

The Jews are looked upon by many to be as numerous at present, as they were formerly in the Land of Canaan.

This is wonderful, considering the dreadful Slaughter made of them under some of the Roman Emperors, which Historians describe by the Death of many Hundred Thousands in a War; and the innumerable Massacres and Persecutions they have undergone in Turkey, as well as in all Christian Nations of the World.  The Rabbins, to express the great Havock which has been sometimes made of them, tell us, after their usual manner of Hyperbole, that there were such Torrents of Holy Blood shed as carried Rocks of an hundred Yards in Circumference above three Miles into the Sea.

Their Dispersion is the second remarkable Particular in this People.  They swarm over all the East; and are settled in the remotest Parts of China:  They are spread through most of the Nations of Europe and Africk, and many Families of them are established in the West-Indies:  not to mention whole Nations bordering on Prester-John’s Country, and some discovered in the inner Parts of America, if we may give any Credit to their own Writers.

Their firm Adherence to their Religion, is no less remarkable than their Numbers and Dispersion, especially considering it as persecuted or contemned over the Face of the whole Earth.  This is likewise the more remarkable, if we consider the frequent Apostacies of this People, when they lived under their Kings, in the Land of Promise, and within sight of their Temple.