Biographical Sketch of Mojes Mendelifabd. 
lightens Europe. Buta fublime genius; 
an Ifraelite, who feels no degradation. 
when aflociated with a Locke and a Leib- 
nitz, was hardly expected to arife; al- 
though a Spinoza had already opened the 
vatt career of philofophy. 
Such a Jew has appeared, amidft pe- 
culiar and controuling accidents of for- 
tune. In his youth perplexed by the vo- 
juminous ignorance of judaical learning ; 
in his middle age opprefled by comfort- 
leis indigence and excruciating malady ; 
and in his mature life unpatronifed, but 
by public applaufe; perfevering in the 
unphilofophical avocations of a petty com- 
merce. By the ferce of his reafoning, 
Germany calls him the Jewifh Socrates ; 
and by the amenity of his diction, the 
Jewith Plato. Motes Mendelffohn is the 
name of this illuftrious Ifraelite. 
Moses MENDELSSOHN was born at 
Deffau, in the province of Anhalt, in the 
year 1729. Inthis town his father was a 
jewifh {choolmafter, and though this avo- 
cation would feem not unfavourable to a 
literary youth, the reader muft be’ told, 
that a jewish {choolmatter, is neceflarily 
the moft illiterate of men. The jewith 
fchools, formed merely for their own 
youth, exhibit to the philofa@pher no in- 
curious fpectacle. He beholds, in this 
age, the antipodes of the human under- 
ftanding; youths, with the affiduity of 
ftudents; exerting themfelves in fy{tema- 
tical barbarifm. The fummit of Hebrew 
ftudies clofes with an introduction to that 
vaft colle&tion of puerile legends, and 
ftill more puerile fuperftitions, the Tal- 
mud. The ftudent confumes the feafon of 
youth in growing pale over this immenfe 
repofitory of human follies. With a pi- 
ous abhorrence, he would reject every 
{cience, did. he know to diftinguith them 
by their names. 
The boy, Mendelffohn, with a creat 
appetency for mftruction, had a vigorous 
digeftion of genius, and was, at firft, not 
undelighted by feeding even on the gar- 
bage of euriofity. Ardent and conftant 
in his reading, he foon feleéted from the. 
ma({s of rabbinical] dreamers, the fuperior 
works of the celebrated Maimonides ; but 
fuch was his untired application, and 

diftin@tions, unfavourable to the jewifh na- 
tion. The Baronefs receives, with equal po- 
litenefs and affe€tion, the wife ef Dr. Herz 
and the widow and daughter of Mofes Men- 
delffohn, with the German princeffes, whofe 
imperial pride the fometimes caftigates by the 
prefence of thefe Jeweffes; and whofe titles 
to her regard, fhe confiders more honourable 
than thofe of the hufbands of German prin- 
ceilgs. 
. 
‘39. 
fuch the agitation of a very delicate minds 
that the fervour ftruck on the irritability 
of his frame. At the early age of ten 
years, he was attacked by a nervous dif- 
order of a very peculiar nature, and all 
his future life may be termed a protraction 
of fenfibility. 
Extreme poverty’ feemed to be his de- 
ftiny. So miferable was the penury of 
his father, that he could no further main- 
tain him; and Mendelffokn travelled on 
foot to Berlin, to find labour, or bread. 
He lived there feveral years, indigent, 
unknown, and often deftigute of the firit 
neceflaries ot exiftence. ‘The houfelefs 
wanderer was invited by a rabbin, to 
tran{cribe his MSS, and this man initiated. 
him into the myfteries of the theology, 
the jurifprudence, and fcholaftic philoto- 
phy of the Jews. Labouring in thefe 
mines of lead, it would not then have 
ftruck a fagacious obierver, that the hum- 
Po) 
ble copier of the reveries of a talmudift, 
was one day to open a quarry of platonic 
marble; and to ereét a graceful calumn 
of genius, which was to endure with a 
future age. .A Hebrew writer, in his 
barbarous learning, was to become one of 
the pureft models of compofition to a lite- 
rary nation. 
The affliftions of poverty, and the fer- 
vours of ftudy, were, at length, alleviated, 
and animated, by the contolations of 1:- 
terary friendthip. The firit companion 
of his misfortunes and his ttudies, was 
another Jew, of the name of Itrael Mofes. 
This Polander had been the mafter of a 
little jewith {chool; and the freedom of 
his inquiries, and his love of philofophy, 
had received the honours of periecution, 
from the bigots of his town. Calumniated 
without remorfe, this fenfitive ftudent 
was expelled fram the communion of the 
orthodox; and his heart having more fen- 
fibility than fortitude, waited without 
energy, in the mental difeafe of melan- 
choly. He protraéted a forrowing ex- 
iftence; | he perifhed by the gradual torture 
of defpondence; and cloied his exiftence 
by a premature death! 
We may juftly fufpect, whether this 
Tfrael Mofes was not one of the fublimeit 
philofophers. He converfed and compofed 
in no other language than the Hebrew; 
and with this feeble inftrument of hiiman 
reafon, Mendelffohn declared, that he had 
become fo acute a mathematician, that he 
difcovered, without other aid, the moit 
important demonftrations; not only en- 
dowed with a genius for {cience, he was 
an able naturalift, fenfible to the charms 
ef the fine arts, and with a mind, which; 
at 
