but is swallowed up in the ocean of matter."

Not long after Maimonides passed his twentieth year the family,
consisting of the father and his two sons, Moses and David, and a
daughter, moved from Cordova to Fez, compelled by Jewish persecutions.
Here it is said that they had to submit to wearing the mask of Islam in
order to lead a peaceful existence. This has been doubted, however, and
his whole life is in flagrant contradiction with any such even apparent
apostasy from the faith of his fathers. Father and son took advantage of
the opportunity of intercourse with Moorish physicians and philosophers
to increase their store of knowledge, but could not be content in the
political and religious conditions in which they were compelled to live.
About 1155, then, they went to Jerusalem, but found conditions even more
intolerable there, and turned back to Egypt, where they settled down in
Old Cairo. In 1166 the father died, and after this we learn that the
sons made a livelihood, and even laid the foundation of a fortune, by
carrying on a jewelry trade. Moses still devoted most of his time to
study, while his brother did most of the business, but the brother was
lost in the Indian Ocean, and with him went not only a large sum of his
own money, but also much that had been entrusted to him by others.
Maimonides undertook to pay off these debts and at the same time had to
meet the necessities not only of himself and sister, but also of the
family of his dead brother. It was then that he took up the practice of
medicine and succeeded in making a great name and reputation for
himself. He continued to write, however, and completed his commentary on
the Talmud.

About the age of fifty Maimonides, as seems to be true of a good many
men who live to old age, became rather discouraged and despondent about
himself. He refers to himself in his letters and writings rather
frequently as an old and ailing man. He had nearly twenty years of
active life ahead of him, but he had the persuasion that comes to many
that he was probably destined to an early death. His son was born
shortly after this time, and that seems to have had not a little to do
with brightening his life. While in Egypt Maimonides married the sister
of one of the royal secretaries, who, in turn, wedded Maimonides'
sister. Maimonides took on himself the education of his son, who also
became a physician, though his father was not to have the satisfaction
of watching his succes