560 



JEWS. 



according to the usual srumlal of those times, that 

 some Christian children had been (bund in the house 

 of a Jew, murdered in preparation for the pass- 

 over, " Bury them," was his only reply. Happy 

 would it have been for Europe, if other sovereigns 

 had resembled him ; though superstition had ahold 

 on his dominions, it had none upon his mind: even 

 as a crusader, the grandson of Barbarossa effected 

 by peaceable means what others could not accom- 

 plish by war, and left a name as enviable among the 

 infidels, as that of Saladin has ever been among the 

 Christians. 



The character of the Jews has remained nearly 

 the same to the present day, only varying with the 

 times, not by any wide and decisive change in the 

 prosperity or improvement of the race. But it is 

 needless to dwell upon this period, since it has been 

 set before the public eye in the splendid panorama 

 of Ivanhoe ; where we see at a glance the suffer- 

 ings to which they were exposed, and the fortitude 

 with which they stooped to meet them, the con- 

 tempt and hatred with which they were universally 

 regarded, and the power which they contrived to 

 gain notwithstanding, the low avarice to which 

 they descended, and the traditional enthusiasm in- 

 spired by the remembrance of their religion and 

 their holy land. In the delightful vision of Re- 

 becca, perhaps the loveliest portrait the imagina- 

 tion ever drew, we see the gentle firmness formed 

 by long exposure to danger, contrasted in Rowena 

 with the superiority of one who had breathed 

 nothing but the incense of chivalrous adoration ; 

 and we fear, that one touch of Sir Walter Scott's 

 pen has done more for this injured race, than jus- 

 tice and humanity in the last thousand years. 

 While we acknowledge the moral taste of Shak- 

 speare in respect to character, and confess that he 

 does not attempt to give the guilty any lasting attrac- 

 tion, we regret that his Merchant of Venice has 

 done so much to associate all that is savage and ra- 

 pacious with the name of Jew. We cannot blame 

 him for sharing the prejudices of his time, but we 

 certainly are glad that there is a power to correct 

 his errors, and to balance the impression against 

 the Jews which his painting has made, by one in 

 their favour, drawn with equal talent, and from its 

 nature resistless and enchanting. 



We are sorry that there is so little to be said of 

 the literature of the Jews. The fetters of Rab- 

 binism have been so closely folded about their 

 minds, as to prevent free and vigorous action. 

 They have had little of the quiet which is most 

 favourable to intellectual exertion, and we take it, 

 that no great literary improvement can be expected 

 from those who are constantly weighed down by 

 the millstone of banishment or bondage. The 

 most remarkable person in this department, who 

 has ever sprung from the race, is the modern Men- 

 delsohn, whose reputation in Germany is thought 

 to have bettered the condition of the Jews. If, 

 however, his opinions were, as we understand them, 

 that the Jews had a revealed law, but no revealed 

 religion beside the law of nature, the Jews must 

 have dreaded his heresy more than they exulted 

 in his success. Their feeling towards him was not 

 unlike that of the Hindoos toward Rammohun Roy, 

 but they forgave him his deism, so long as he did 

 not embrace Christianity. 



It is not surprising that a people who have suffered 

 so much by that sickness of heart which arises from 

 hope deferred, should have been exposed to fre- 

 quent delusion. When they have been so long 



watching the heavens, ready to believe that every 

 change was a sign of the Messiah's coming, any 

 impostor might calculate upon their easy credulity. 

 Before our Saviour, there were false Christs in 

 great numbers, and since his time the Jews have 

 been repeatedly misled by adventurers. The most 

 remarkable deception of this kind has been prac- 

 tised in modern times. In 16(56, Sabbathai Sevi, 

 a person obscurely born, who appeared in Smyrna, 

 took advantage of his remarkable personal beauty 

 to carry on this daring imposture. He formed the 

 design when young, and prepared his way by affecting 

 uncommon self-denial. When the public mind seemed 

 ready for the declaration, he announced himself as 

 the Messiah. The Rabbins resisted him and drove 

 him from place to place, till he reached Jerusalem, 

 where he remained, gathering proselytes, for many 

 years. His declaration excited a strong feeling 

 against him, but one of his most distinguished op- 

 posers suddenly falling dead, the accident was in- 

 terpreted as a testimony of heaven in his favour. 

 Then the glad tidings spread throughout Europe 

 and Asia, that the Messiah was come; labour was 

 suspended, and the Jews every where waited the 

 call to rise. Meantime Sabbathai found it no easy 

 matter to ride in the whirlwind he had raised. 

 The ardour of his partisans hurried him to Con- 

 stantinople to confront the Sultan. That monarch 

 made him this fair and reasonable proposal, " that 

 the Messiah should be shot at with three poisoned 

 arrows, and if he proved invulnerable he would 

 himself own his title; if he declined this offer, he 

 must either become a Mahometan or be put to 

 death." Sabbathai was not long embarrassed by 

 uncertainty; he declared himself a Mahometan 

 without any unnecessary delay, and was dismissed 

 by the Sultan with honour instead of contempt. 

 He then supported the double character which he 

 had assumed with such expedition, and his fol- 

 lowers were fast going over to Mahomet in imita- 

 tion of his example, when the Rabbins succeeded 

 in gaining the ear of the Sultan, who imprisoned 

 him in Belgrade, where he died a natural death in 

 his fifty-first year. Gross and obvious as this im- 

 posture was, it long survived him, and his followers 

 are said to be-found even now in various parts of 

 the world. This shows how ready they are to 

 grasp at any hope, when faith is almost changed 

 into despair, not only by the growth of Christian- 

 ity, but by their own tradition. This is found in 

 the Talmud in the form of a prophecy by Elijah, 

 that the world is to continue six thousand years ; 

 two thousand years without law, two thousand 

 years under the law, and two thousand under the 

 Messiah's reign. The first expired in Abraham's 

 life, the second when our Saviour really came 

 Such a tradition, unimportant as it is to others, 

 one would suppose would be disheartening to them, 

 when they can only evade it, by saying that the 

 advent is delayed on account of the sins of the 

 world ; the very sins which the Messiah was to 

 come in order to take away. 



It is a little singular that Cromwell and Napoleon 

 each took an interest in the Jews, and endeavoured 

 to remove the ban which rested upon the race. 

 Such was the prejudice of the day, that Cromwell 

 could do but little in their favour, though the re 

 publicans were not zealous against them. Har- 

 rington, in his Oceana, recommended the sale of 

 Ireland to the Jews. The necessities of Charles 

 II. and his court, did more than Cromwell's de- 

 cision, and after the restoration, the Jews crept 



