366 EVOLUTION [CHAP. V 



Letter 277 (Isa. li. 4), and the nations "hear and say, It is truth" (Isa. 

 xliii. 9). But with "the portion of my people' (Jer. x. 16), 

 Jacob, " the lot of my inheritance " (Deut. xxxii. 9), it is not 

 so. This nation, " the ancient people ' (Isa. xliv. 7), which 

 " remembers the former things and considers the things of 

 old" (Isa. xliii. 18), "knows not, neither doth it understand" 

 (Psalm Ixxxii. 5), that by thy Torah (instruction or theory) 

 thou hast thrown light upon their Torah (the Law), and that 

 the eyes of the Hebrews l " can now see out of obscurity 

 and out of darkness ' (Isa. xxix. 18). Therefore " I arose ' 

 (Judges v. 7) and wrote this book, Toledoth Adam (" the 

 generations of man," Gen. v. i), to teach the children of my 

 people, the seed of Jacob, the Torah (instruction) which thou 

 hast given for an inheritance to all the nations of the earth. 



And I have " proceeded to do a marvellous work among 

 this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder ' (Isa. 

 xxix. 14), enabling them now to read in the Torah of Moses 

 our teacher, " plainly and giving the sense " (Neh. viii. 8), that 

 which thou hast given in thy Torahs (works of instruction). 

 And when my people perceive that thy view has by no 

 means "gone astray' (Num. v. 12, 19, etc.) from the Torah 

 of God, they will hold thy name in the highest reverence, and 

 " will at the same time glorify the God of Israel ' (Isa. 

 xxix. 23). 



"The vision of all this" (Isa. xxix. 11) thou shalt see, O 

 Prince of Wisdom, in this book, " which goeth before me " 

 (Gen. xxxii. 21) ; and whatever thy large understanding finds 

 to criticise in it, come, " write it in a table and note it in a 

 book" (Isa. xxx. 8); and allow me to name my work with 

 thy name, which is glorified and greatly revered by 



Thy servant, 



NAPHTALI HALLEVI [z>. the Levite]. 



Dated here in the city of Radom, in the province of 

 Poland, in the month of Nisan in the year 636, according to 

 the lesser computation (i.e. A.M. [ 5]636 = A.D. 1876). 



1 One letter in this word changed would make the word "blind," 

 which is what Isaiah uses in the passage alluded to. 



