404 
XXX. oF THE HI. Book. 
The Shepherd and the Nightingale. 
« Do fing, fweet nightingale, faid a 
fkepherd one vernal evening to the filent 
bird. 
«« Alas! faid the nightingale, the frogs 
make fo much noife, that I lofe the very 
with to fing. Do you not hear them ? 
“© Yes, replied the fhepherd ; but your 
filence is the caufe of my hearing them.” 
This is one of the moft elegant and 
finifhed volumes of Leffing’s works. In 
the hiftory of fable-writing his erudition 
is at home; in the theory, his fyftematic 
criticifm ; and in the fables he exhibits 
the fimple neatnels of di€tion, and the ex- 
hauftlefs variety of invention, which be- 
long to his Greek model. 
(To e continued. ) 
ee 
For the Menthly Magazine. 
FAcTS relative to the PRESENT CONDY- 
TION cf the JeWS in FRANCE anxd 
GERMANY. 
OR-he lat twenty years the fate of 
the Jews has exctted much attention 
in Germany ard France ; and by turns 
bigoiry and philsnthropy have cenfured 
or joftitied them. 
The nations of Europe, becoming daily 
more abaied and corrupt, can have no 
right to reproach the Jews with immora- 
lity, and efpecially with ufurious prices, 
A compari‘on between them would in ma- 
ny re{peéts turn out to the advantage of 
the latter; who might fay to the Chrif- 
tians, as Jefus Chrift did to che Pharifees, 
*< Let him who is free from fin throw the 
firft fone.” 
If the Jews be. a degenerate race, their 
degeneracy is an eff.ct produced by the 
crimes of otr anceftors, whofe defcendants 
muf be confidered as their accomplices as 
lorg as the Jews flial] have to complain cf 
civil and political rights being unjuitly 
withheld from them. Since the time of 
Vefpaiian their hiftory prefents nothing 
bat fienes of ferrow. Fugitives and pro- 
fcribed in the various countries of the uni- 
verfe where they fought an afylum, they 
have feen all nations united to annihilate 
them ; and notwithftanding this rancorous 
enmity they exift among ali nations. The 
Jews were a prey to innumerable calami- 
ties, and their whole exiflence was little 
elfe thana protracted agony, except in the 
dominions of the Pope. 
No nation was ever fo much attached 
to agriculture as the Jews in Paieftine: 
it was only fora fhort period that they ea- 
Prefent State of the Fews in France and Germany, [June 1, 
gaged in commerce, when Solomon fent 
his fhips from Afiongaber to Ophir. Since 
their difperfion no people were ever fo averfe 
from agriculture, becaufe they were every 
where denied the privilege of acquiring 
and cultivating land, or exercifing arts 
and trades. Commerce was therefore the 
only road left open to them, efpecially re- 
tail-trade, which is within the reach of 
every one, and which, offering only fmall 
and precarious profi:s, produces a rapacious 
difpofition. But the riches which the Jews 
acquired by commerce foon awakened the 
cupidity of their enemies, who plundered 
and banifhed, hanged or burnt them ; and 
to fill up the meafure of their fufferings, 
even pretended to jultify themfelves by 
caiumniating the victims of their crimes. 
The dread of tyranny fuggeited to the 
Jews the invention of bills of exchange 
and infurance ; and they often eluded the 
violence and rapacity of their enemies by 
being enabled to transfer and tranf- 
port their property in a letter or a pocket- 
book ; and thus they and the Armenians 
became the brokers and bankers of the 
world. é . 
The character of the Jews is the effet 
of th-ir education; like that of the Ne- 
groes, the Parias, the Gypfies, and, ina 
word, of all men. 
Inftead of requiring fo much of men 
whom we have almoit forced to become 
vicious, ts there not, on the contrary, rea. 
fon to de furprifed that among the Jews 
we ftill meet with fo may perfons who, 
furmounting by their courage all the ob- 
ftacies which perfecution and public opi- 
nion oppofe to them, have acquired virtues 
and learning. Freind affures us, in his 
Hifttery of Medicine, that in the middle 
ages they were at the head of that profe(= 
fion. Medicine has indeed at all times, 
avd in every country, been cultivated 
among them ; and at prefent they may 
boaft of many eminent phificians. It is 
to the Jews of Toledo we are indebted for 
the Alphonfine Tables, drawn up inthe . 
thirteenth century, and the fineft monu- 
ment of aftronomy during that age of 
Garknefs. If we coniult the DiSionaries 
of Bartcloci, Imbonati, Roffi,&e., we fhall 
find a crowd of diitinguwhed men amon 
the Hebrews, whore names are tran{mitted 
with eclat to poerity : — Maimonides, 
Kimki, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Juda Levi,, 
Elias the Levite, Abarbanel the Republi- 
can, Zacutus, Orobjo, Menafleh Ben-1f 
rael, Mendez, author of a tragedy intitled 
Athalia, Mendelfohn, Pinto, Marcou, 
Hers, Bloch,. Vezelize, &e.  - ' 
Virtues and talents ge erally fellow in 
5 the 
