Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by GEO. P. PUTNAM & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. BRITISH PREFACE. NEXT to the birth and mission of Jesus Christ, the exist ence and institutions of the Hebrew people are the most important event in universal history. The founder of Judaism and the founder of Christianity are the two persons, whose lives and labors have most extensively and powerfully influenced the progress and destiny of the human race. The truths which they revealed, the doctrines which they taught, have entered as the profoundest element into the civilization of mankind. While saving individuals, they have been the true power of nations, acting at once as the most vivifying and the most conservative principle in human affairs. It is only with the institutions of the former of these illustrious personages, that the present work is concerned. The polity of Moses has a twofold importance. It is important, first, from the perfection of wisdom, in which the work was accomplished; but still more important, secondly, from its consequences to the world. These consequences continue to this moment, and will continue through all |