happiness of the intellectual universe; and to throw a false glory over scenes of rapine and bloodshed, and devastation. To such works and their admirers we might apply the words of the ancient prophet, 'He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot say, Is there not a lie in my right hand.' The minds of young persons, who spend their time in reading fiction, generally become completely dissipated; they lose a relish for facts connected with the system of nature and the history of mankind when represented in their true light. They are like the man that has become addicted to the use of strong drink, who is not satisfied with the refreshing and healthy beverage nature has freely supplied, but requires some thing of a stimulating nature to excite and elevate his feelings. There is sufficient variety in the existing scenes of creation and providence, without having recourse to scenes of fiction to instruct and gratify a rational mind. "If we survey the Alpine scenes of nature; if we explore the wonders of the ocean; if we penetrate the subterraneous recesses of the globe; if we investigate the structure and economy of the animal and vegetable tribes; if we raise our eyes to the rolling orbs of heaven; and if we contemplate the moral scenery which is every where displayed around us -shall we not find a sufficient variety of every thing that is calculated to interest and improve the mind?" Parents, therefore, who permit their children to more than waste their time in reading fictitious narratives, (the wild vagaries of an unbridled imagination,) or ne. glect to furnish them with suitable books-such as will be calculated to interest and instruct them, are certainly very censurable. Do they feel the responsibility that rests upon them to "train up their child in the way he should go" as they ought? Are they sensible of the duties they owe to their children, who are looking up to and depending upon them for advice and instruction -to the community with which they are to associate and a part of which they are soon to become-and to God who has placed them for a season under their care, and who will call them to an account for the manner in which they train them up? If they did they would not be indifferent to this important subject. Youth is emphatically the seed time of life. Much care should be taken therefore in the selection of the seed to be sown. ""Tis education forms the common mind:-Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." February 16th, 1831. F. MERRICK. LITERATURE OF THE JEWS. THE Spanish and Portuguese Jews, from whom the most distinguished of the Dutch Hebrew families are descended, were renowned among their nation for superior talents and acquirements, and we believe maintain even to this day an almost universally admitted pre-eminence. Under the tolerant and comparatively enlightened Mohamedan conquerors of Spain, their property was protected, their toleration was encouraged, and their persons loaded with favors. Their writers boast with delight and enthusiasm of "the glory, splendor and prosperity in which they lived." Their schools in the south of the Peninsula were the channels through which the knowledge of the East was spread over western and northern Europe. Abenezra, Maimonides and Kimki, three of the most illustrious ornaments of the Synagogue, rank among the Spanish Jews.-Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, while knowledge among Christians seemed at the lowest ebb, the catalogue of Hebrew writers is most extensive and most varied. Mathematics, medicine, and natural philosophy, were all greatly advanced under their auspices; while the pursuits of poetry and oratory adorned their pages. They obtained so much consideration, that the ancestors of almost every noble family in Spain may be traced up to a Jewish head. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are crowded with every calamity that could afflict a nation, pursued by all the blindness of ignorance and all the hatred of infatuated and powerful malevolence. Their sacred books were destroyed; their dwellings devastated ; their temples razed; themselves visited by imprisonment and tortures; by private assassinations and extensive massacres. When the infamous Ferdinand Fifth established or re-organized the Inquisition in Spain, the Jews were among its earliest victims. Two hundred thousand wretches were pursued by fire, sword, famine and pestilence, and he who should offer them shelter, food, or clothing, was to be punished as a felon. Of those who fled to the mountains many were murdered in cold blood, and others died miserably of hunger. Of those who embarked, thousands perished with their wives and children on the pitiless ocean. Some reached the more hospitable regions of the North, and preserved the language and literature of their fathers; yet the epoch of their glory seemed departed, and the Arbabanels, the Cordozos, the Spinozas, and a few others, glimmer only amidst the general obscurity. The Jews, as a people, appeared wholly occupied in selfish worldliness, scarcely-producing such a man as Mendelsohn, even in a century, and claiming for him then no renown in his Hebrew character. The Jews seem to have partaken of the general character of the age; and scepticism and incredulity took their stand where ignorance and superstition had existed before. Yet the changes which had been extensively in action in the religious and political world, could not but produce some effect upon their situation. They had become too important a part of society to be passed by without notice; while their wealth and their great financial operations gave them extraordinary weight. They have been courted by kings, ennobled by emperors. All the concerns of states have been obliged to turn upon their individual will. They have become in a word the very monarchs of the earth, deciding the great question of peace or war-the arbiters, in truth of the destinies of man. lords of the ascendthat interest our afThe revival which we But it is not in this point of view that we mean to consider the Jews; nor are these ant' the individuals among them fections or excite our regard. contemplate with delight is the revival of those old and holy associations which seemed buried in the abyss of worldliness, of that enlightened, that literary spirit which gives the promise and is the pledge of brighter and better days. We see the young tree of truth and inquiry springing up in the waste. Its roots strike deep, its branches spread widely, it shall gather the people under its shade. We know of nothing more touching, nothing more sublime, than the feelings with which an intelligent Hebrew must review the past and present, while he anticipates the future history of his race. That history begins, as he deems it will end, in triumph and in glory. Yet mists and chilling desolation envelope all the intermediate records. With what proud and glow. ing emotions must he trace the origin and progress of that religion, which he and his fathers have professed through trials sharper than the fiery furnace, for which all of them have suffered, and millions have died. With Israel the living God condescended to covenant, and called them his chosen, his peculiar people.' Miracles and signs and wonders cover all their early wanderings with light, fair as the milky way across the arch of heaven. For them the cloudy pillar was raised in the desert; for them the column of fire dissipated the gloom and the terrors of night. Amidst thunderings and lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet and the presence of God, their law was promulgated; the bitter waters of Marah were made sweet to them; and manna fell from heaven as the nightly dew-Well might they shout with their triumphant leader, The Lord is our strength, and our song, and our salvation.' 6 Then come the days of darkness-and they are many. The glory of the temple is departed. They are scattered like chaff among the nations. Opprobrium and insult hunt them through the earth. Shame and suffering bend them to the very dust, till degradation drags them to the lowest depth of misery—All the cruelties that ferocity can invent; all the infatuation that furious blindness can generate; all the terrors that despotism can prepare, are poured out upon their unsheltered heads. Warrants go forth for their extirpation; yet the race is preserved. Those who most hate and persecute one another, all unite to torture them. Exile, imprisonment, death-these are the least of their woes. Why should the picture be drawn?the soul is lacerated with the contemplation. Those generations are gathered to their fathers. Stilled are their sorrows and their joys. Next a few dim rays play across the path of time. Civilization and freedom gathering the human race beneath their wings, and protecting them all by the generous influence of a widely pervading benevolence, raise the race of Israel to their rank among the nations. -Then hidden in the deeper recesses of futurity, what visions of splendor are unveiled! The gathering of the tribes, Jerusalem, the glorious temple, their own Messiah;-but the thoughts falter, the spirit is troubled.-Yet 'the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.' Under the influence of thoughts like these Da Costa must have composed the hymn, of which we venture to give a translation. It breathes, it burns with all the blended emotions of pride and indignation; of hope deferred that sickeneth the heart; of confidence; of despair; of virtue wounded by contumely and true nobility insulted by contempt: there is a spirit roused by a contemplation of injustice, and a sense of wrong soaring from eloquence to sublimity. ISRAEL. [EXTRACT FROM THE TRANSLATION.] |