The Mechanism of Dissolution
co-religionists abroad nothing more nor less than you feel for your fellow-Christians among the Turks. Between me and my fellow-Jews in this country there is nothing more than between Protestant and Protestant, Catholic and Catholic." (Or, if he is baptized, this incriminating confession may presumably be omitted.) "I am part and parcel of your country. Our forefathers came later, but our posterity will stay as long. There is no difference between you and me except a very slight difference of faith—nothing really worth mentioning. In all else we are utterly alike. Do not let yourself be misled by the apparent contrast between me and my unassimilated co-religionists. It is merely a matter of externals. In a little while, in a generation or two, they will be like me—indistinguishable from you. They will be Americans (or Englishmen or Frenchmen) in every respect. Your destiny and ours, your outlook and ours, your hopes and ours, are identical."
But his plea falls on skeptical ears. There is that in the very name of Jew which invali-
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