little from such extremists. The only
work produced by them that can be admitted to have literary qualities is
Isaiah Hurwitz's "The Two Tables of the Testimony," even at this day
enjoying celebrity. It is a sort of cyclopaedia of Jewish learning,
compiled and expounded from a mystic's point of view.

The condition of the Jews in Italy was favorable, and their literary
products derive grace from their good fortune. The Renaissance had a
benign effect upon them, and the revival of classical studies influenced
their intellectual work. Greek thought met Jewish a third time. Learning
was enjoying its resurrection, and whenever their wretched political
and social condition was not a hindrance, the Jews joined in the
general delight. Their misery, however, was an undiminishing burden,
yea, even in the days in which, according to Erasmus, it was joy to
live. In fact, it was growing heavier. All the more noteworthy is it
that Hebrew studies engaged the research of scholars, albeit they showed
care for the word of God, and not for His people. Pico della Mirandola
studies the Kabbala; the Jewish grammarian Elias Levita is the teacher
of Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, and later of Paul Fagius and Sebastian
Muenster, the latter translating his teacher's works into Latin; popes
and sultans prefer Jews as their physicians in ordinary, who, as a rule,
are men of literary distinction; the Jews translate philosophic writings
from Hebrew and Arabic into Latin; Elias del Medigo is summoned as
arbiter in the scholastic conflict at the University of Padua;--all
boots nothing, ruin is not averted. Reuchlin may protest as he will, the
Jew is exiled, the Talmud burnt.

In such dreary days the Portuguese Samuel Usque writes his work,
_Consolacam as Tribulacoes de Ysrael_, and Joseph Cohen, his chronicle,
"The Vale of Weeping," the most important history produced since the day
of Flavius Josephus,--additional proofs that the race possesses native
buoyancy, and undaunted heroism in enduring suffering. Women, too, in
increasing number, participate in the spiritual work of their nation;
among them, Deborah Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, the most
distinguished of a long array of names.

The keen critic and scholar, Azariah de Rossi, is one of the literary
giants of his period. His researches in the history of Jewish literature
are the basis upon which subsequent work in this department rests, and
many of his conclusions still stand unassailable. Ab