nicated in this paper: now it has set itself the difficult task of critically examining, and, if needful, rejecting all those minor and incidental portions of the Jewish Law which bore reference to the heathens, who at that period surrounded their nation, to the land in which their forefathers sojourned, and its climate, and other moving causes which may have since ceased to exist.

When these peculiar precepts are thus whether rightly or wrongly laid aside, very little or no difference will be found to remain betwixt the codes of morals inculcated by the Law and the Gospel. Both command love, both give hopes of eternity, both enjoin all virtues and duties upon us. The Jew, therefore, could scarcely be treated as an inferior being by the Christian, after his rejection of the special precepts above alluded to; there would then at all events be nothing dangerous in his creed to the state in which he resided, and that state could therefore scarcely continue to treat him with the same suspicion. There is another feeling, too, which exists in the breasts of the public generally, and which is of course of great service to the Jewish claims -the feeling of humanity, which lies, as the offspring of Christianity, in hearts where Christianity itself is unhappily all but denied. It is this humanity which erects poor-houses and hospitals, and turns prisons into palaces, and would, in fine, if possible, make all men happy. And thus, too, must it sympathize with the Jews, and wish to confer those benefits on them, which could alone, in their own opinion, give them happiness. At present, a violent conflict is carried on betwixt antiJewish prejudices, and these ever waxing feelings in their favour-and literature is the battle-field in which these foemen meet. The Jewish religion is examined and explained by both parties, and its peculiarities are brought before us both in historical and poetical forms. Pamphlets by clever, though sometimes unprincipled, men, treat the Jewish question, now from a philosophical, and now a political point of view. Thus has Bruno Bauer, the infamous follower of Strauss, sent forth a work on this subject, which has met with several replies. On the whole, the orthodox party amongst the Christians are nationally opposed to this movement; and yet, as we have above remarked, it is only a homage to the triumphant spirit of Christianity, and will be found useful in the end. Every collision produces sparks, and those sparks must give some light. Let us trust, that this angry and long-continued conflict may lead to the light of truth in the end, and work out the designs of Providence.

A work which appeared two years ago, entitled "The Jews in Austria, regarded from an Historical, Legal, and Political Point of View," has excited, and still continues to excite, much attention. It contains a mournful history of past persecutions and acts of shameless tyranny under which the Jews had groaned in Austria; and it further paints their present situation, which appears to be a most unjustly painful one.

A quantity of books about Jews are written for children, which, being composed by the Israelitish party, are designed to convince them that all Jews must necessarily be noble and admirable persons. The

sermons and public speeches of different Jews are also printed from time to time; and these latter productions are distinguished by that Oriental power and fertility of language, which the colder nations of Europe would in vain strive to employ. Jewish hymn and song books also appear, which contain sometimes both solemn and beautiful productions. The Jews are collecting their legends, too, very busily. The work of Herrmann Schiffs, entitled "Hundert und ein Sabbath,” ("The Hundred and one Sabbaths,") is extremely attractive. The day of rest appointed for the Sabbath is therein devoted to the examination of Jewish antiquities. The legends told are themselves animated by the most wonderful poetical power; the Orient in all its myriad coloured glory has brought them forth. They are often grotesquely legendary, and recount the most absurd falselioods; but this does not detract from their charm. All that the Talmud, Cabala, and Tradition, that endless mother, have reported of strange and of wonderful, all those wild stories which even in the early ages of mankind were only told as magic tales, are collected and recounted here. Thus we read of the Angels :

"There is nothing in the world, not even a plant, which an angel is not set over to watch, and every separate thing is governed according to the will of its own angel, On this account it is forbidden to mix things which are not of analogous order with one another, because the highest stewardships of the angels are thereby thrown into confusion, each order of things having its own special governors.

"Some angels are made of wind, and others of fire, and each gives the other some portion of his own element whilst peace exists between them. Those which come down from heaven, are therefore formed of two elements; and the nearer they come to earth, the more do they take into their compositions of this world's air.

"An angel which goes on a message to earth may only stop there for seven days at a time; otherwise he will take too much of the earthly elements into him and be unable to fly up again."

But of the devils we are told :

"God created them on the eve of the Sabbath, on Friday evening, just at the hour of twilight; but as the Sabbath commenced ere the work was completed, God left them imperfect, and they remained spirits without bodies.

"Four women are the mothers of the devils, and each of them has an innumerable host of spirits under her: they rule in four hemispheres, in due rotation; and the devils assemble at the mountain Nischju, near the mountain of darkness, from the time of the going down of the sun to midnight, and over all these spirits Solomon formerly had power.

"The Rabbi Alieser had borne witness that the first man was so tall as to reach from earth to heaven, for we read in the 3rd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, 'Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this thing is, &c. But after man had sinned, the Creator laid his hand upon him, so that he only remained several ells high. For we read in the Psalms, Thou hast beset me before and behind, and hast laid thine hand on me.""

Rabbi Baccara tells us, he was once on a ship and saw a bird which stood up to its ancle joints in water, whilst its head reached to the skies; he thought, therefore, that the water must be very shallow, and wanted to get out of the ship and bathe himself; but a voice came

which said, "Go not into the water, for seven years ago an axe fell in here, and it has not yet come to the bottom."

"The Rabbi Saffra was once in a ship, and saw a fish which put its head out of the water, on which was written: I, one of the smallest dwellers in the sea, am three hundred miles long, and shall swim to-day into the Leviathan's mouth, that he may make his meal of me.'

"This Leviathan God has created to be his plaything,—so the Psalms tell us,—and in the fourth hour of every day he plays with this creature; and Lilith is the wife of the Leviathan,-she who was too proud to submit to Adam, and acknowledge him as her lord."

Of this nature are the Jewish legends of olden times. In the collections which now appear they are no longer given as worthy of belief, as formerly was the case, but only treated as antiquated relics dug from the mines of fable, which do not even embody truths allegorically, but are solely the products of an unbounded imagination.

Germany's novel writers, too, both male and female, have seized on the Jews and their position in the social world as fitting subjects for romantic and harrowing works; and some clever and some silly productions of this nature have come under our notice. The most remarkable, perhaps, of these Israelitic tales is "Jenny," by the anonymous authoress of a novel which appeared last year, entitled "Clementin." Accidentally, as we presume, these two novels seem not to have been generally read or noticed in Germany,—which is certainly very singular, inasmuch as they have both great merit.

The Jewish question is treated from the so-called progressive point of view in this "Jenny," the motto of which is as follows:-"A race of which the Saviour, the Madonna, and the Apostles formed a part, which, after a persecution of two thousand years, is still faithful to the religion and the customs of its forefathers, which still brings forth great minds that widen the circle both of science and of art,-a race like this must have equality of birthright with every other race on earth."

The novel itself introduces the reader to a happy, rich, and respected Jewish family. The son is a medical man, clever, and honoured by all who know him; the daughter is in every respect a most superior person. She, the heroine, has been educated in a Christian school and loves her Christian teacher, a young enthusiastic "Theolog," or candidate for admission into holy orders. She is about to become a Christian, and then the clergyman's wife-i. e. Frau Pfarrerin. But it is for her lover's sake that she resolves to be baptized, not from her love for Christianity, which, from Jewish views or prejudices which have grown up with her, appears to her hard of belief, and therefore affords her no peace. Eventually she becomes convinced that she has, in point of fact, forsworn herself, when she announced herself to be a Christian, without feeling any living faith, and she is thus induced to confess her state of mind to her betrothed before their marriage takes place. The confession thus made to the ardent young Christian, separates the lovers for ever. Jenny's brother has made the acquaintance of a Christian girl in the course of his medical avocations, whom

he loves. She returns this love, and does not restrain her feelings, as the christening of the sister authorizes her to hope for a similar step on the part of the brother. But he will not abandon his suffering brethren; he is resolved to fight for those rights which are denied them; and thus he feels himself compelled, by the inward voice of duty, to abandon the loved one of his heart. His proposition, that she should unite her fate to his, each still retaining his or her own faith, in a country where his nation is not so despised, is rejected by her, from consideration for the feelings of her family, who would all be rendered unhappy by a step of such a nature on her part.

Some years afterwards, when Jenny has in a great degree recovered from the shock which her parting from her lover occasioned her, she makes the acquaintance of a certain Count Walter. His love for her

conquers all prejudices, and he demands her hand, and becomes her affianced bridegroom. He feels himself, however, necessitated to reply by a challenge to a satirical remark on his marriage with a Jewess, and in the duel which ensues he falls. Jenny dies whilst bending over the corse of her betrothed.

All those circumstances which separate the Christian and the Jew are brought before us in this novel; all the opinions, pro and contra their social emancipation, whether emanating from Jewish or Christian prejudices, are introduced. Admirable samples are given us of the stereotyped national characters of this people. The father, Mayer, a "liberal" merchant, who is half man of business and half philosopher; his son, the already emancipated Jew, who despises wealth, and longs for glory; the mother, the resigned and faithful Jewish wife, just what she should be; Frau Steinheim, the ever-talking, ever finely dressed, supremely ridiculous Jewess; Steinheim, the boasting, self-contented, good-humoured, witty, oratorical Israelite; and Joseph, the cautious trader, who has only eyes for this world, and looks through all men.

In concluding our remarks, we would suggest the probable reason of a circumstance which may have attracted the attention of many,-viz, the general connubial felicity which attends almost all Jewish marriages. This is, in all probability, to be attributed to that very exclusion from a social footing of equality with their neighbours, of which the Jews complain so loudly. Thrown upon their own resources, they naturally strive at least to amuse one another. Would that all Christians did the like!

ART. XIII.-The Literature of Germany, Historically developed. By Franz L. J. Thimm. London: D. Nutt, 158, Fleet Street. 1844.

A MOST valuable little book, which we strongly recommend to all students of the German language; even to those who are well acquainted with Germany's literary treasures, this little work will prove useful as a book of reference. The criticisms here given, in the course of notices

of at least 200 German authors, appear to be generally fair and sensible in their tone. The author is indeed rather too indiscriminate in his praise of Goethe, as he thinks that most absurd production, "Stella," a remarkably fine play. On the other hand, he greatly underrates the 2nd Part of "Faust," which according to him should never have been written, still his critical remarks are generally just; and, altogether, the work is a most useful guide to German literature. In conclusion, we would entreat the author not to spell Grün, Gruen, in the next edition, which will undoubtedly be soon called for; and so take our leave of him, thanking him in the name of all students of German, for this valuable contribution to their libraries.

ART. XIV.—1. Minor Poems of Schiller. By J. H. Merivale, Esq., F.S.A. Pickering.

2. The Poems of Schiller. Translated by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton Bulwer, Bart. Blackwood. 1844.

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Or the first collection of Poems no inconsiderable portion has already appeared in this Review. We believe we may number among them the 'Elysium," ," "Der Kampf," "Das verschleierte Bild," "Die Götter Griechenlands," "Cassandra," "Der Antritt des neuen Jahrhunderts," "An die Freude," "Die Grösse der Welt,' "Der Abend," "Die Theilung der Erde," "Das Mädchen aus der Fremde," "Das Ideal und das Leben," ""Das Siegesfest," and the "An die Freunde." On these poems we have bestowed great attention, and feel fully assured, that in point of fidelity to the original, and elegance of versification, they stand unrivalled by any existing translation. We have further glanced over the "Resignation," the "Künstler," and some others; and we have seen only fresh grounds to determine us in our previously formed estimate of Mr. Merivale's transcendant powers as a translator of a most difficult original, in some parts almost an unintelligible original. The difficulty of versifying "Die Künstler " must be essayed to be fully appreciated. We rejoice to find a poem which we despaired of ever seeing in an attractive English dress, perfectly exhibited; and anticipate great benefit to our own artists unacquainted with German, from reading such a poem containing the whole of Schiller's own deep and keen-felt sense of the beautiful ideal of the origin of art. We cannot forbear extracting two of these exquisite stanzas.

"The world by Industry's laborious hand

Transform'd-the human heart to new sensations moved
By impulses, in ardent conflict proved-

Your circle of creation wide expand.

Man, evermore progressive, thankful soars

Aloft, upbearing Art on venturous wing;

And from o'erflowing Nature's plenteous stores

New worlds of beauty spring.

The barrier-gates of science are unloosed.
The spirit in your easy victories used

Through a wide artificial universe