None can surely guide another to these places. But the first qualification of a guide, a qualification which may atone for serious defects, is that he himself enjoys the adventure. In the present instance this qualification may be claimed. For the writer has turned his attention chiefly to his own favorites, choosing books or parts of books which appealed to him in a long course of reading, and which came back to him with fragrant memories as he set about reviewing some of the former intimates of his leisure hours. The review is not formal; the method is that of the causerie, not of the essay. Some of the books are of minor value, curiosities rather than masterpieces; in others the Jewish interest is but slight. Yet in all cases the object has been to avoid details, except in so far as details help even the superficial observer to get to the author’s heart, to place him in the history of literature or culture. Not quite all the authors noted in this volume were Jews—the past tense is used because it was felt best to include no writers living when the volume was compiled. It seemed, however, right that certain types of non-Jewish workers in the Hebraic field ought to find a place, partly from a sense of gratitude, partly because, without laboring the point, the writer conceives that as all cultures have many points in common, so it is well to bear in mind that many cultures have contributed their share to produce that complex entity—the Jewish spirit. Complex yet harmonious, influenced from without yet dominated by a strong inner and original power, the Jewish spirit reveals itself in these by-paths as clearly as on the main line.
But, though some such general idea runs through the volume, it was the author’s intention to interest rather than instruct, to suggest the importance of certain authors and books, perhaps to rouse the reader to probe deeper than the writer himself has done into subjects of which here the mere surface is touched. The writer could have added indefinitely to these papers, but this selection is long enough to argue against extending it, at all events for the present.
Having decided to stray into the by-paths, it sometimes became necessary to resist the temptation to turn to the main road. This necessity accounts for another fact. Fewer books are treated of the older period. For the older period is dominated by Bible and Talmud, and these were ex hypothesi outside the range. So, too, the scholastic masterpieces and the greater products of mysticism and law are passed over. Yet, though the writer did not consciously start with such a design, it will be seen that accidentally a great fact or two betray themselves. One is that, in the Jewish variety, technical learning can never be wholly dissociated from what we more commonly name literature. Some books which, at first sight, are merely the expression of scholarly specialism are seen, on investigation, to belong to culture in the æsthetic no less than in the rational or legal sense. Again, there becomes apparent the vital truth that Jewish thought, dependent as it always has been on environment, is also independent. For we see how Jews in the midst of Hellenistic absolutism remained pragmatical, how under the medieval devotion to a stock-taking of the past Jews were to a certain extent creative, and how the modernist tendency to disintegration was resisted by an impulse towards constructiveness.
But, to repeat what has already been indicated, the author had no such grave intentions as these. Many of the papers appeared in a popular weekly, the London Jewish World, the editor of which kindly conceded to the writer the privilege of collecting them into a book. Some, however, were specially written for this volume. All have been considerably revised, in the effort to make them more worthy of the reader’s attention. The writer feels that this effort, despite the valuable help rendered by Dr. Halper while the proofs were under correction, has been imperfectly successful. The papers can have little in them to deserve attention. Nevertheless there is this to be urged. Some of the topics raised are apt to be ignored. Yet it is not only from the outstanding masterpieces of literature that we may learn wisdom and derive pleasure. “A small talent,” said Joubert, “if it keeps within its limits and rightly fulfils its task, may reach the goal just as well as a greater one.” This remark may be applied to what may seem to many the minor products of genius or talent. Hence, be they termed minor or major, the books discussed in this volume were worthy of consideration. Beyond doubt most of them belong to the category of the significant and some of them even attain the rank of the epoch-making. And so, without further preface, these papers are offered to those familiar as well as to those unfamiliar with the works themselves. For to both classes may be applied the Latin poet’s invocation: “Now learn ye to love that loved never; and ye that have loved, love anew.”
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
|---|---|
| Preface | [5] |
| [PART I] | |
| The Story of Ahikar | [17] |
| Philo on the “Contemplative Life” | [24] |
| Josephus Against Apion | [32] |
| Caecilius on the Sublime | [39] |
| The Phoenix of Ezekielos | [46] |
| The Letter of Sherira | [53] |
| Nathan of Rome’s Dictionary | [60] |
| The Sorrows of Tatnu | [67] |
| [PART II] | |
| Ibn Gebirol’s “Royal Crown” | [77] |
| Bar Hisdai’s “Prince and Dervish” | [84] |
| The Sarajevo Haggadah | [91] |
| A Piyyut by Bar Abun | [97] |
| Isaac’s Lamp and Jacob’s Well | [102] |
| “Letters of Obscure Men” | [108] |
| De Rossi’s “Light of the Eyes” | [116] |
| Guarini and Luzzatto | [122] |
| Hahn’s Note Book | [129] |
| Leon Modena’s “Rites” | [136] |
| [PART III] | |
| Menasseh and Rembrandt | [147] |
| Lancelot Addison of the Barbary Jews | [153] |
| The Bodenschatz Pictures | [160] |
| Lessing’s First Jewish Play | [166] |
| Isaac Pinto’s Prayer-Book | [171] |
| Mendelssohn’s “Jerusalem” | [178] |
| Herder’s Anthology | [184] |
| Walker’s “Theodore Cyphon” | [191] |
| Horace Smith of the “Rejected Addresses” | [199] |
| [PART IV] | |
| Byron’s “Hebrew Melodies” | [207] |
| Coleridge’s “Table Talk” | [214] |
| Blanco White’s Sonnet | [220] |
| Disraeli’s “Alroy” | [226] |
| Robert Grant’s “Sacred Poems” | [233] |
| Gutzkow’s “Uriel Acosta” | [240] |
| Grace Aguilar’s “Spirit of Judaism” | [247] |
| Isaac Leeser’s Bible | [254] |
| Landor’s “Alfieri and Salomon” | [260] |
| [PART V] | |
| Browning’s “Ben Karshook” | [269] |
| K. E. Franzos’ “Jews of Barnow” | [276] |
| Herzberg’s “Family Papers” | [283] |
| Longfellow’s “Judas Maccabæus” | [290] |
| Artom’s Sermons | [297] |
| Salkinson’s “Othello” | [303] |
| “Life Thoughts” of Michael Henry | [311] |
| The Poems of Emma Lazarus | [319] |
| Conder’s “Tent Work in Palestine” | [325] |
| Kalisch’s “Path and Goal” | [333] |
| Franz Delitzsch’s “Iris” | [340] |
| “The Pronaos” of I. M. Wise | [347] |
| A Baedeker Litany | [353] |
| Imber’s Song | [359] |
| Index | [365] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| FACING PAGE | |
|---|---|
| Menasseh Ben Israel | [148] |
| Title-Page of the First Edition of Byron’s “Hebrew Melodies” | [208] |
| Grace Aguilar | [248] |
| Isaac Leeser | [254] |
| Emma Lazarus | [320] |
| Isaac Mayer Wise | [348] |
| Naphtali Herz Imber | [360] |
PART I