the contents of the latest lawh 'from Acre. During the reading of these letters the strictest silence prevails, and pipes and cigarettes are for the time discarded. In Turkish and Russian territory the position of the Babis is one of comparative immunity. Askabad, in Transcaspia, is a very important centre, and it is there, perhaps, that the followers of Beha enjoy the greatest freedom. Finally, we must mention the recent spread of this religious movement in non-Mohammedan countries, which is practically confined to the United States of America. From the latest information, it would appear that no less than three thousand Americans now subscribe to the new faith. The propaganda first began in 1893, at the World's Congress of Religions in Chicago, when a certain Bābi, named Ibrahim Kheirallah, who had come to the United States on business, gave a course of fifteen lectures on Mohammedanism and the various movements which had grown out of it. In the course of these "lessons," he continually referred to the teachings of the Bāb, and in a short time he is said to have secured over one hundred "believers." He next proceeded to New York City, where he published his lectures. Such were the beginnings of Babism in the United States. Of the subsequent history of the movement in America it is at present hard to speak. At all events, it seems that here, too, the division between Abbas Efendi and Aga Mohammad Ali has been at work, and that the first Bābi missionary, Kheiral lah, belongs to the party of the latter. The followers of Abbas Efendi, who believe him in all sincerity and devotedness of faith to be the incarnation of God, are known as the Sabitis, or the "Firm,” while those who deny his claims have received from their opponents the name of Nakizis, or "Adversaries." The principal Bābi centres in the United States are as follows: Chicago, about one thousand; Kenosha, Wis., from four hundred to five hundred; New York City, about four hundred; Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia; Wilmington and Bellevue, Del.; Newark, Fanwood, and Hoboken, N. J.; Brooklyn and Ithaca, N. Y.; Detroit, Mich.; Boston, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Denver. Bābism, though still, as it were, in its infancy, is said to count to-day over one million adherents, and the possibilities of its future success are infinite, for, in spite of internal schisms and external disabilities, there is no falling off either in the number of fresh converts or in the religious fervor of believers. E. DENISON ROSS. 10 JEWS AND JUDAISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY THE light of the nineteenth century, passing through the Jewish prism, throws a peculiar spectrum upon the screen of modern history. The colors are not exactly those of the rainbow, nor is the prism akin to the solid, polished, and transparent glass through which the light is beautifully separated; it is the troubled Jewish mind through which it passes, and the image seen on the screen is accordingly different. It begins with the roseate hues of hope, to which succeed the deeper red tints of enthusiasm, and it closes with the yellow of despair. To drop the metaphor, a survey of the sequence of vicissitudes through which the Jews have passed during the last hundred years is like writing the history of the most noteworthy changes in the history of modern civilization, and of the different moods and ways in which they have affected one peculiarly receptive portion of human society. The Jews do not merely live in the midst of other nations, but they also live with those nations and |