42, 
. 
are attacked with an energy, the more 
remarkable as proceeding from the wild 
Mendelffohn. ‘The jewifh rabbins at Ber- 
lin agreed with the catholic priefts at 
Paris; the caufe was common. Mendeli- 
fohn, perhaps, even repented of the ar- 
dour of his lebour. ‘The philofophic 
Jew, by his fituation, has been often 
rendered timorous ; and this timidity was 
doubly oppreflive to the delicate frame of 
the nervous Mendelflohn. 
. His tranquillity was now broken in by 
the fanatics of every profeffion. Lavater, 
who is a-kind of dluminée in religion, 
awakened the vigour of Mendelffohn’s f= 
culties. ‘The fanaticifm of Lavater has 
been long known on the continent; and 
he has given us.the phyfiognomy of his 
difordered mind, in his ‘¢ Diary,” lately 
publifhed in England. He had tranflated 
a work of M. Bennet, in which was in- 
troduced, as Mirabeau terms it, a kind 
of evangelical demonftration of the truth 
of the chri@ian religion. Conceiving his 
own conclufiens irrefiftible, he dedicated 
the whole to Mendelffohn; but the dedi- 
cation was not the gift of a friend, but 
the challenge of an enemy; and he ex- 
aSted nething lefs. from the unfortunate 
Jew, than a refutation, or a baptifm. 
Mendelfohn wanted fortitude, or did not 
confder it as fafe for himfelf and his little 
people, to ftand forth the champion of a 
fvfiem of natural religion, which he con- 
fidered the Mofaic code fimply tobe ; and 
which, fhould the arguments of the pli- 
lofepher have prevailed, might be con- 
fidercd fatal to the very foundations of 
i The-great Frederic was not 
chrifianity. 
his {riend; this enlightened monarch, 
Jong under the tuition of Voltaire, had 
formed a frong prejudice againit all Ger- 
rian writers, and could not believe that' 
a Jew, and a Jew who wrote in the Ger- 
man language, was a perfon either to be 
the 
reftified-a with to read the works o 
jewith phbilofopher, and the jewifh phi- 
Jo 
the Pruffian menarch. : 
Mendelffchn oppofed the degradation of 
the national language, when the grea 
Frederic ordered all literary compofitions 
to be made in the French zdiom ; and by 
this incurred the refentment of the imo- 
narch. Yet there were among the eour- 
ff] 
Risgraphical Sketch of Mojes Ldendeifjehu. 
tiers thof who admired the philofephier; 
and the once celebrated Marquis. d’ Ar- 
gens addreffed a petition to the king, for 
letters of naturalization in favour of our 
illufrious Jew. It is drawn up with great 
wit in thefe words: ‘¢ A philofopher, a 
very indifferent catholic, mtreats a phi- 
lofopher, as indifferent a preteftant, to 
grant this privilege to a philofopher, as. 
indifferent a Jew. In all this there is too 
much philofopuy for reafon to refufe the 
claim of the petitioner.” 
| Refolved not to fink iv‘o the grave, 
without oppofing fo audacious and fo- 
public’a challenge, Mendelfiohn replied 
to the officious fanatic, by a letter re- 
markable for its pathetic remonftrance 
and cogent reafoning. ‘This controverfy 
was happily not prolonged ; the fagacity 
and the juftice of M. Bonnet haftened to 
remedy the; imprudence of the enthufiaft 
Lavater. He correfponded with Men- 
delffohn,; and affairs were arranged with 
a prudent fecrecy. Of what uie, at this 
day, are fuch inept and delufive difcuf- 
fions?. Whatever the learned Jew may 
urge, every honeft chriftran would not 
be lefs perfuaded of the evidences of 
chriftianity; and whatever the moft’ in- 
genious chriftien may. prefs on his. an- 
tagonift, can have no effect on the honeft 
Jew *. 
But although this controverfy thus 
clofed, it was the prelude of a difquietude 
which thofe who-knew him confefs occa- 
fioned his death. Having loft his beloved 
affociate, the great Lefiing, M. Jacobr 
(2 German, writer, known more for the 
number than excellence of his works) pri- 
vately wrote to-Mendelffchn that Leffing, 
with whom he had paft fome. days before 
his death, declared to -him, that he had 
comptetely adopted the principles of 
‘Spinola. This Jacobi (and we have 
* Admire the following paflage of Rouf- 
feau: ‘© We who converfe with the Jews 
are not nearer truth. Thofe unfortunate 
men are entirely at our will; our tyranny 
renders them timorous; they know ‘that in- 
juftice and cruelty cof little to.chriftian cha- 
rity; dare they fpeak, when they know we 
can callout blafphemy? You may convert fome 
miferable men by paying them to calumniate 
their fe&3; fome vile knaves will fpeak, and 
yields to flatter you. Their doors will fmile 
in filence. In the Sorbenne the predictions 
of the Meffiah relate to Jefus; among the 
rabbins-of Amfterdam. they bear not the 
flighteft affinity. Iwill never believe that 
we have heard the arguments of the Jews 
till they are free, and have {chools and uni- 
verfities where they may fpeak and difpute 
without rik.” Eze, liv. iv. p. 130. 
Row 
