Jews in that city. He is full of marvellous and romantic histories.-WARTON on English Poetry.

An English translation of these travels, with notes by Dr. Zunz, has been published by ASHER, Berlin.

SHAKESPEARE.

The only places (with the addition of those in The Merchant of Venice) wherein Shakespeare mentions the Jew, are as follows:-Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii., scenes 3 and 5; Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii., scene 3; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii., scene 1; Love's Labour Lost, Act iii., scene 1; Macbeth, Act' iv., scene 1; first part of Henry IV., Act ii., scene 4. In accordance with the spirit of the times, the allusions are not very complimentary to the Hebrew race.-P. A.

JEWS IN IMPERIAL ROME.

As early as the reign of Augustus, there were many thousands of Jewish residents in Rome, and their manners and their creed spread widely among the people. Josephus (" Antiq." XVII., xi. § 1) says, about 8,000 Jews, resident in Rome, took part in a petition to Cæsar. If these were all adult males, the total number of Jewish residents must have been extremely large. See the famous fragments of Seneca, cited by St. Augustin ("De Civ. Dei, VI. 11), "Usque eo sceleratissimæ gentis consuetudo convaluit, ut per omnes jam terras recepta sit; victi victoribus leges dederunt."

There are numerous scattered allusions to the Jews in Horace, Juvenal and Martial. It would appear at first sight that the persecution which attended the innovation of all new religious oppositions, would have been directed against the Jews as strongly as against the Christians; but a moment's

reflection is sufficient to explain the difference. The Jewish religion was essentially conservative and unexpansive. Although in the passion for Oriental religions, many of the Romans had begun to practise its ceremonies, there was no spirit of proselytism in the sect; and it is probable that almost all who followed this religion, to the exclusion of others, were of Hebrew nationality. The Christians, on the other hand, were ardent missionaries; they were, for the most part, Romans who had thrown off the allegiance of their old gods, and their activity was so great, that from a very early period of their history, the temples were in some districts almost deserted. Besides this, the Jews simply abstained from and despised the religions around them. The Christians denounced them as the worship of dæmons, and lost no opportunity of insulting them.LECKY. Hist. European Morals, passim.

FILIAL INGRATITUDE.

The Jewish religion is an old trunk which has produced two branches that have covered the earth-I mean Mahommedanism and Christianity—or, rather, it is a mother, that has brought forth two daughters, who have crushed her (Pont accablée) with a thousand wounds.-MONTESQUIEU.

Another French author thus expresses himself:— The Jewish religion is a venerable mother, whose age is lost in the obscurity of time. She has given birth to two daughters, the Christian religion, and the Mahommedan religion, who respect her, and rend her at the same time; who glory in being descended from her, and desire nothing so much as to see her exterminated; who approve all she has done before becoming a mother, and condemn all she has done since, although her conduct has always been the same; in a word, who have for her, at the same time, admiration and horror.-COLLIN DE PLANCY.

THE VEILED PROPHET OF KHORASSAN.

"For far less luminous, his votaries said,
Were ev'n the glories, miraculously shed

O'er Mousa's cheek, when down the mount he trod,
All glowing from the presence of his God."

MOORE'S Lalla Rookh.

"Ses disciples assuroient, qu'il se couvroit le visage, pour ne pas éblouir ceux qui l'approchoit par l'éclat de son visage, comme Moyse."-D'HERBELOT.

HEBREW VIRTUE.

The character of virtue of Marcus Aurelius, though exhibiting the softening influence of the Greek spirit, which in his time pervaded the Empire, was in its essentials strictly Roman. Though full of reverential gratitude to Providence, we do not find in him that intense humility, and those deep and subtle religious feelings which were the principles of Hebrew virtue, and which have given the Jewish writers so great an ascendancy over the hearts of men.-LECKY. European Morals.

GREAT SYNAGOGUE, DUKE'S PLACE.

August 31st, 1766. This afternoon the ceremony of the dedication of the new built Synagogue in Duke's Place was performed with the greatest pomp and solemnity, in which the chief and other eminent rabbis belonging to the Portuguese Jewish nation assisted; when the prayer for their Majesties and the Royal Family, which was always read in Hebrew, was at this time pronounced by the Chief Rabbi in English, and followed by Handel's "Coronation Anthem," performed by a numerous band of the most eminent musicians. The procession and other ceremonies on that

occasion in the synagogue were accompanied with several anthems, choruses, etc., by the same performers.—Annual Register, 1766.

AGUILAR.

The Hebrew word for an eye, signifies also a fountain, D; hence, perhaps, the Spanish and Portuguese derive their "olhar d'aqua.-LIGHTFOOT.

Query. By conversion, Agui(o)lar? though some, I believe, derive this name from Aquila. In the copy of an old letter to Henry VIII., under date March 3rd, 1513, I find mentioned the "Comendador de Aghilar.”—P. A.

CORDOBA (CORDOVA).

No city has been honoured with so proud a list in many departments of literature as Cordova. Strabo speaks of the learning of its inhabitants, and so does Cicero ("Orat. pro Archiâ ").

The two Senecas and Lucian among the Romans; Averroes and Abenzoar, distinguished Arabic writers; the three most famous Hebrew Rabbis, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Maimonides; Ferdinand, the logician; Juan de Mena, the father of Spanish poetry; Gongora, the poet, and Cespeda, the universal genius, were all natives of Cordova. Repeated efforts have been made to revive the spirit of learning in this interesting capital; but Cordova continues without a bookseller's stall-a striking monument of the triumphs of monkery and ignorance over all that is great, good and generous in the human character.-Compiled.

Our readers no doubt recollect that the French shoemaker derives his designation, "Cordonnier" from cordouanier, a leather dresser, who is so called from his using the excellent leather of Cordova.

AUTHENTICITY OF THE PENTATEUCH.

Whoever wishes to see the principal arguments for the genuineness and antiquity of the Pentateuch, brought together within the compass of half-an-hour's reading, will do well to consult a pamphlet by Dr. Marsh, entitled "The Authenticity of the Five Books of Moses Vindicated;" in which the objections are refuted with all the acuteness and perspicuity which so eminently characterise the learned professor.-Quarterly Review, vol. ix.

Dr. Marsh, who became successively Bishop of Llandaff, and of Peterborough, republished his observations in an enlarged work in 1840.-P. A.

JEWISH LAWS.

God, at the first, gave laws to all mankind; but afterwards he gave peculiar laws to the Jews, which they have ever to observe, just as we have the common law for all England; and yet you have some corporations besides, that have peculiar laws for themselves.-SELDEN. Table Talk.

PERMANENCY OF JEWISH CUSTOMS.

The history of the Hebrews develops those permanent customs which are still operating on this insulated race, and which, through a long series of ages, by separating the Israelite from the Christian, have occasioned a reciprocal ignorance of their modes of thinking, their motives of conduct, their dissimilar customs, and their irreconcilable difficulties.

Christians, who have written on Jewish affairs, frequently describe customs and opinions, as if they solely related to the former state of the Hebrews, not aware that customs and rites which are purely Oriental are still existing in the