is quietly giving way. And what is the consequence? Fifty years since, there was not, probably, a working Jew in all London:-they were all dealers; traffickers on a scale proportioned to their means, and that traffic restricted to some few trades. It followed, of course, in the world's opinion, that they would not work. Now, there is hardly a trade wherein Jews are not actual labourers. They associate readily enough with others, now others will associate with them: they are becoming a part of the common family; and this will do more for their conversion than all the societies specially engaged in that work put together. Another fact to be deduced from the history of the Jews may be of service even now. We hear every where of the persecution and intolerance of certain sects, as the result of certain opinions; but persecution was common to an age, and not peculiar to a sect, or the consequence of any particular opinions. The Jews, who suffered most,-who had no city of refuge in the whole world,-were themselves persecutors. It was quite as fearful for a Jew to dissent from Judaism, as for a Christian to differ from the Christianity established by law. The Jews, indeed, possessed no municipal power; and if the son of Abraham became a convert to Christianity, they had only to shun and to hate, to injure him by secret ways, or, if opportunity offered, in the same darkness to attack his life. But if the seceder was not backed by the power of his new associates, -if he dissented from one without assenting to another,—if they could call upon the civil power to punish, by shewing that he dissented equally from both, there were no means they had not recourse to, no sacrifices they were not willing to make, to punish, and to persecute even to death. The sufferings of Acosta is a proof of this.-Descended from a family of converted Jews, and brought up a Catholic, he became dissatisfied with the new religion of the family, and returned to Judaism. Upon further inquiry, he entertained suspicions of Judaism, only, indeed, of certain ceremonies, and was instantly excommunicated. He afterwards wrote a work, wherein he contended that the resurrection of the dead was not taught by Moses. Already shunned by the Jews, his mental sufferings now became dreadful; even his own family refusing to have communication with him; his dissent was a plague-spot on his forehead, and he was shunned by all. But this was not sufficient to satisfy the Jews. The promulgation of this new opinion they believed to be an offence against Christianity; and accordingly they, the Jews, the suffering, and long and then persecuted Jews, became, not as before, tacitly, but directly, persecutors, summoning him before a Christian tribunal for an offence against Christianity, where he was subjected to fine and imprisonment. For fifteen years they shut him out from all associates, and when, with a broken and humbled spirit, he read his recantation, and they could no longer refuse him admission into the synagogue, they never ceased to watch his minutest actions; and, availing themselves of the omission of some one of their many ceremonials, he was again excommunicated. Personal and corporal punishment they could not subject him to, but with his consent; but who has not imagination sufficient to feel the pain, the agony, of solitude, amidst numbers? of total separation from all society? of hatred and contempt, where we most desire love and respect? The spirit, even of Acosta, could not hold out for ever again he signed a public confession of his errors; but before he could be re-admitted, he was publicly, in the open synagogue, subjected to corporal punishment, and then laid on his back at the door, that all who passed might trample on him. To live shut out from all human association, and to live after such self-abasement, were equally impossible; and, driven mad by suffering, Acosta put an end to his existence. Solomon Duitsch, the "learned Rabbin," whose "wonderful conversion" is the subject of the volume before us, had a very different course to run. He was converted to the established faith, to the creed of the powerful, and above a century later than Acosta. Acosta was a man of a quick and searching spirit; and however extraordinary the changes in his opinion, they were not unaccompanied with personal sacrifice, and were, beyond question, the result of inquiry and conviction. Duitsch, on the contrary, judging from the work before us, was a poor creature of unsettled temper and weak judgment; who, so far from sacrificing any thing to his new opinions, no sooner became a convert than he became a pensioner, and was, we suspect, a trout of that description which is more easily caught with tickling than a barbed hook. His conversion is just one of those miraculous absurdities suited to the taste of the vulgar. It was, professedly, not the result of reason and deliberation, not founded on inquiry and patient investigation; but he had "a call," we mean literally, for he heard a voice saying to him, 'Arise out of darkness." Another time it was more particular, adding, "Alas, poor sinner! all thy good works, thy fasting, washing, and chastisement, can profit thee nothing. No; thou must come to Christ the crucified:" and this sort of ventriloquism is made the foundation of an entire faith; for, at that time, he hardly knew what Christianity meant, and had not read one word of the New Testament. But we will let him tell his own story. Solomon Duitsch, as he here informs us, was born in Hungary, in the year 1734, and, in 1747, made profession of his faith, agreeable to the usage among the Jews. He studied seven years at Prague, and then, on his returning home, married" Ientild, daughter of that wealthy Jew, Solomon Cohen, who, according to the Jewish opinion of piety, bore an unblemished character, and under whose roof I lived in the happy state of matrimony.' 66 His first wife dying suddenly, within a few years, left him a daughter six months old. Upon this, Duitsch began to moralize, and he tells us" it was the first means by which the eternal love of God chose more effectually to work upon his heart." He did not, however, leave it to work long, for, in little more than three months, he married Sara, the second daughter of that same "wealthy Jew, Solomon Cohen," and the sister of his first wife. Duitsch, notwithstanding his evident inclination for the daugh ters of the "wealthy Jew," seems to have had no great passion for their company: "being," says he, "exceedingly fond of the Talmud, I commonly staid in my study till after midnight;" and midnight study had the effect on Solomon, it often has on weak minds, which is told with all the supernatural nonsense of our modern Methodist tracts; he hears strange noises, sees strange visions, is struck with "inexpressible fear and terror,""a cold sweat covered my face, and I felt, as it were, the agonies of death. The world seemed now too confined for me: yea, I desired every instant, that the earth would open her mouth and swallow me up like Korah." His wife, whom he designates as subtle, cunning, and serpent-like," although, by his own confession, he lived" very comfortably" with her, as well as her sister, until she was driven from her home by its gloom and melancholy, if not by his madness, reasons with him very sensibly, and very affectionately. "Upon this, my wife, who had heard my weeping and grieving, entered my closet, with the child in her arms, and addressed me in the following words: "O my dear! Why weepest thou? What does so grievously affect thy heart? Thou art quite consumed with grief, and almost no more resembling a human being. This is the ready way to bring bodily sickness upon thyself, and at last lose thy senses; so that thou wilt be a shame and reproach to me and my family. Are not thy brethren, the Jews, in the right to scorn and deride thee? Where is thy reason, in forfeiting thy honour and good name so foolishly? The greatest part of them lay the blame upon me, for my indulging thee so much in thy studies, and not raising thy spirits by taking a walk, and playing at cards, or going to musical entertainments with me. But, alas! they little know how often I have endeavoured to divert thee from melancholy thoughts. Pray, think on me, and have pity on this innocent babe in my arms.' This, however, not succeeding, she returned to her parents; and soon after, he tells us, "the Rabbines and elders assembled, and unanimously agreed to blot or strike out my name from amongst the living, meaning their communion. They compelled me not only to write a letter of divorce to my wife, but they also excommunicated me from their community." How they compelled him to write a letter of divorce Solomon does not tell us, unless he means by excommunication, which is a very novel way, and not very likely to succeed with a man who had received "a call," and was therefore, or was about to be, self-excommunicated. But the reasons of this interference of the Rabbins and Elders, is not to us very intelligible, and we suspect Solomon intended it should not be. "His thoughts," it appears, were employed to find out Christ," but it does not appear that he told his wife so, and the Rabbins, we presume, could not read his thoughts. But they too might have overheard "the call;" and we cannot otherwise understand the grounds of his expulsion. It was not from suspicion of his dabbling with interdicted subjects, for his reading was confined to the Talmud; even the Bible he had scarcely looked into, for he acknowledges, some time after, "I bought a Hebrew Bible; and began now, for the first time, to read it from the beginning;" and as to the New Testament, it was not till afterwards, that he possessed one; and was then tricked into the purchase by a soldier, Solomon himself mistaking it, as he acknowledges, for "the last will of some great prince and king," but thought it would assist him in learning German. But the whole of this, his excommunication and his conversion, is a mystery; for, long before he had met with this "last will of some great king," or had read, or could read, one line or one word of it, or, to use his own words, "could give account or reason for my faith," he was able to see and to oppose the subtle errors of the Romish church. The heretics, he says, some Priest told him, were a set of people who, it is true, believe in Christ, but have no faith in the Virgin Mary, and St. Joseph.' "From this moment I thought within myself, who can convince me that the Roman Catholic religion is the true religion? and can prove that the heretics have revolted or separated themselves from the Roman Catholics? It may be that they themselves have dissented from the former, in the like manner as Israel, in former times, separated from Juda, and worshipped the idols on Mount Ephraim. It is possible that amongst those whom they call heretics, the true religion is only to be found." This is argued like a Protestant Doctor; and being merely intuitive, a sort of theological instinct, how can 6 we poor prosing fellows, who are accustomed to wade through volumes, to seek for knowledge, and to dig deep and wearily for it, presume to judge such a man. His knowledge, like his faith, "surpasseth all understanding;" the Rabbins of such a tribe may have an equal instinct in discover ing people that are tainted with it. A Rabbin might, indeed, insinuate that this wonderful instinct for Christianity was first mentioned when he was fed and clothed by Christians; and a Romanist, that these feeders and clothiers were heretics. this would be a vile insinuation. But However, we must admit, that this early and resolute faith. of Solomon's, for which he half insinuates he was turned out of the Synagogue, does throw a little suspicion on his after conduct. The more especially, as we find him, long after" the call," and long after he had possessed and read the New Testament itself, accepting the office of Rabbi among the Jews of Arnheim, and afterwards at Wesel. But one of the reasons assigned for accepting the office, ought, perhaps, to quiet our scruples. "I wished greatly," he says, " to enjoy some rest for studying the gospel with more attention." Truly, the Jews of Arnheim must have been greatly benefited by so conscientious a Rabbi. But faith Solomon certainly had, a faith in the gullibility of other people; for it was not till driven a second if not a third time from out the Synagogue, and wandering about in actual want, and without a home; and when the conversion of the Jews was become a fashion in Germany, and converts were taken into pay and supported; that his early" call," and his early faith, and all the miracles that brought him to the faith, drew from him a public profession. - We confess, we have been altogether disappointed in this book, and have little inclination to pursue our narrative. Any pleasure in the narration itself is out of the question; we never, indeed, expected it. But, like most other people, we feel a great interest in the Jews, not so much theologically, as psychologically; we desire to be admitted into the deep mystery of the human heart and mind, and the Jews are a phenomenon in this way, which we would willingly comprehend, and include under known and recognized principles; we, therefore, desire to understand their feelings and opinions, and the grounds and strength of those opinions; and nothing would throw more light on these, than the honest confession of some one who became, from reason and conviction, a convert to Christianity. But Solomon Duitsch was a drivelling imposter. When a man professes to have no ground whatever for abandoning one opinion and adopting another, for leaving Judaism, in which he was educated, and embracing Christianity, of which he was utterly ignorant, even to the name of the book which contained its doctrine, but direct miracles, known only to himself;when we see him disregarding all these miraculous interferences so long as it was his interest, and only declaring them when his interest pointed the opposite way; we have no hesitation in treating him as a cheat, and throwing his book aside as of no |