The Wandering Jew

Edmund J. Sullivan

1898

Sartor Resartus, p. 21

Text illustrated: "He was a stranger there, wafted thither by what is called the course of circumstances; concerning whose parentage, birth-place, prospects, or pursuits, Curiosity had indeed made inquiries, but satisfied herself with the most indistinct replies. For himslf, he was a man so still and altogether un participating, that to question him even afar off on such particulars was a thing of more than usual delicacy: besides, in his sly way, he had ever some quaint turn, not without its satirical edge, wherewith to divert such intrusions, and deter you from the like. Wits spoke of him secretly as if he were a kind of Melchizedek, without father or mother of any kind; sometimes, with reference to his great historic and statistic knowledge, and the vivid way he had of expressing himself like an eye-witness of distant transactions and scenes, they called him the Ewige Jude, Everlasting, or as we say, Wandering Jew" (19-20).