17 July 1815

Jug. True

2

Histories Sketch

2

Among the Jews, the expectation of a lord, who under the title of the Messiah, i.e. the Lord’s anointed—in the character and with the power of a Monarch, should spring up out of their own race, and deliver them out of the hands of the foreigners by whom they are held in subjection, and thus [...?] restore[?] them to independence, had prevailed among them from the commencement of their bondage. Without any supernatural gift of foresight, or so much as any pretence to it, predictions to this effect not only in that state of society might naturally be delivered, but in such circumstances could not in any order of things while man was man, fail to be delivered. What nation was ever subject to another without entertaining such a wish? To what nation entertaining any such wish could there be any want of individuals ready upon every favorable occasion to contribute to its accomplishment? And toward its accomplishment how could any thing be ever attempted without using such language as should tend and intend to represent such accomplishment as probable to cloath that accomplishment in the highest and brightest colour of probability.