Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography.
ALEXANDER GARDNER, PAISLEY; and 12 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. DAWSON BROTHERS, MONTREAL; CUPPLES AND HURD, BOSTON. 1888.
One effect of Daniel Deronda was to make known to a wide circle of readers the vitality of Judaism as a system which still holds sway over the mental as well as the external life of men. During the few years which have passed since the publication of that great fiction, the interest in modern Judaism has continued to grow. It is but a short time since the Western world was startled by the outbreak of an ancient feeling against the Jews, which had been supposed to be long dead, at least in some of the quarters where it was displayed. The popular literature of the day also seems to indicate that the life of existing Jewish communities is attracting a large share of attention in the reading world. The charming pictures which Emil Franzos has drawn of Jewish life in the villages of Eastern Galicia, are not only popular in Germany, but some have been reproduced in a cheap form in New York to meet the demand of German Americans, and some have also been translated into English. The interest of English readers in the same subject is further shown by the recent translation of Kompert's Scenes from the Ghetto , as well as by Mr. Cumberland's still more recent and powerful romance of The Rabbi's Spell . Among students of philosophical literature a fresh interest has been awakened in the history of Jewish thought by the revival of the question in reference to the sources of Spinoza's philosophy. The affinities of this system with the familiar tendencies of Cartesian speculation have led the historians of philosophy generally to represent the former as simply an inevitable development of the latter, while the affinities of Spinozism with the unfamiliar speculations of earlier Jewish thinkers have been almost entirely ignored.
In these circumstances a special interest may be felt in the life of one of the most remarkable Jews of modern times—a life which forms one of the most extraordinary biographies in the history of literature.
Solomon Maimon
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Translated from the German, with Additions and Notes,
J. CLARK MURRAY, LL.D., F.R.S.C.,
CONTENTS.
"TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
My Grandfather's Housekeeping.
First Reminiscences of Youth.
Private Education and Independent Study.
Jewish Schools—The Joy of being released from them causes a stiff foot.
My Family is driven into Misery, and an old Servant loses by his great Faithfulness a Christian Burial.
New Abode, new Misery—The Talmudist.
Joy endureth but a little while.
I become an object of contention, get two wives at once, and am kidnapped at last.
My Marriage in my Eleventh Year makes me the Slave of my Wife, and procures for me Cudgellings from my Mother-in-law—A Ghost of Flesh and Blood.
Endeavour after mental Culture amid ceaseless Struggles with Misery of every kind.
I study the Cabbalah, and become at last a Physician.
A brief Exposition of the Jewish Religion, from its Origin down to the most recent Times.
Jewish Piety and Penances.
Friendship and Enthusiasm.
The Life of a Family-Tutor.
Also on a Secret Society, and therefore a Long Chapter.
Continuation of the Former, and also something about Religious Mysteries.
Journeys to Königsberg, Stettin and Berlin, for the purpose of extending my knowledge of men.
Deepest Stage of Misery, and Deliverance.
Arrival in Berlin—Acquaintances—Mendelssohn—Desperate Study of Metaphysics—Doubts—Lectures on Locke and Adelung.
Mendelssohn—A chapter devoted to the memory of a worthy friend.
My aversion at first for belles lettres, and my subsequent conversion—Departure from Berlin—Sojourn in Hamburg—I drown myself in the same way as a bad actor shoots himself—An old fool of a woman falls in love with me, but her addresses are rejected.
I return to Hamburg—A Lutheran Pastor pronounces me to be a scabby Sheep, and unworthy of Admission into the Christian Fold—I enter the Gymnasium, and frighten the Chief Rabbi out of his Wits.
Third Journey to Berlin—Frustrated Plan of Hebrew Authorship—Journey to Breslau—Divorce.
Fourth Journey to Berlin—Unfortunate Circumstances—Help—Study of Kant's Writings—Characteristic of my own Works.
FOOTNOTES:
ALEXANDER GARDNER,
PAISLEY AND LONDON.
WIT, WISDOM, AND PATHOS,
