Oh, let thy teachings softly flow like heaven's dew,
That they inspire mankind with what is good and true;
And let “Immanuel” a potent watchword be,
Ever to make all men in soul and body free.
The first chapter of the Machberoth was apparently written at a late period of the author's life, when he was in exile. He speaks bitterly of his open and secret enemies, who were the direct cause of his ruin; but he consoles himself with the thought that he is their superior in culture, and that he had a wife and comforter, who excelled their wives in virtue and beauty, and who might serve to all women as a model for imitation. That virtue and beauty do not always go hand in hand is a frequent maxim of his:—
Virtue dwells rarely in the bright-eyed and fair,
But in wrinkled old crones with silver-white hair.
The author is now in his proper element, and pretending to stand with a friend of his on the public promenade, where the ladies of the town are walking to and fro, he singles out two of them. The one, called Tamar, he describes as a model of perfect beauty; and the other, Beriah by name, he designates as the personification of ugliness. The merits of the one, and the demerits of the other, are described by Immanuel in the following manner:—
Tamar looketh up, like the stars shine her eyes,
Beriah appears, and Satan's self flies.