sure, which he devoted with his the laborious duties of his place relaxed his diligence as a student. His evenings, and a great portion of the night, were still regularly given to literature and philosophy. He had long looked with anxious and compassionate interest. upon the general ignorance of his Hebrew brethren; and the desire of diffusing among wonted ardour both to various new departments of science and literature, and the further prosecution of those upon which he had already entered. He thus extended his mathematical acquirements to algebra and fluxions; while natural philosophy, natural history, general history, and metaphysics, all came in for them the light of modern accom a share of his attention. Among his other plishments were a remarkably beautiful hand - writing, and great skill in accounts. Trivial as these acquirements may be deemed, it so turned out that to them, principally, Mendelssohn was indebted for the prosperity of his future life. His diligence in the performance of his regular duties, and his excellent general conduct, soon raised him high in the favour of his employer; but that gentleman was particularly struck with the talent he displayed in the arts we have just mentioned. He at last resolved to remove him from the school-room to the counting-room, and to employ him as one of his clerks. From this situation he afterwards promoted him to a higher place in his establishment, which was a large silk manufactory; and at last he appointed him manager of the whole concern. Mendelssohn was now in the enjoyment of a handsome income; but neither this nor literature and science had become, as it continued to be throughout his life, the first wish of his heart. With this view he projected, in conjunction with a friend, a Hebrew periodical work, to consist of short essays on such parts of science and morals as could most easily be made popular and interesting, to be entitled The Moral Preacher. Of this work, however, the first in which Mendelssohn tried his powers as a public writer, only two numbers appeared, when he felt it prudent to discontinue it in consequence of the outcry raised against it by his more bigoted brethren, to whom such an attempt to displace their ancient rabbinical manuals of instruction seemed fraught both with presumption and profanity. But Mendelssohn, though turned from his course for the moment, was not thus to be driven to relinquish finally what he deemed to be as much the path of his duty as it was of his ambition. About the year 1754, an event took place which greatly influenced Mendelssohn's future and Mendelssohn now joined career; we mean his introduc- his contributions to theirs. tion to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, afterwards so celebrated among the literary ornaments of his country, but who was then, like his new friend, only a young man of twenty-five, and only beginning to be known as a writer. Mendelssohn is said to have been first made known to Lessing by a Jewish medical practitioner of the name of Gumpertz, by whom he had been assisted in learning some of the modern languages. They had also occasionally played at chess together; and it was as a proficient in this game that the young Jewish philosopher was first recommended to the acquaintance of the future author of Nathan the Wise. But these two congenial minds soon turned their intercourse to higher ends. To Mendelssohn this connection was especially important, inasmuch as it speedily introduced him to various other literary men then residing in Berlin, to whose society, from their difference of religious creed, he would not otherwise have had access. In this manner he became the intimate associate of Nicolai, Abbt, and others, who afterwards greatly distinguished themselves in the regeneration of the literature of their country. These young men were the principal supporters of various periodical works which then existed at Berlin, He had not yet, however, published any work in his own name, when one day his friend Lessing brought him a philosophical treatise which had just been published, and requested him to read it and give his opinion of it. On returning the book some days afterwards, Mendelssohn observed that he thought he could without much difficulty refute the author's positions. Encouraged by his friend, he accordingly sat down to the composition of his reply. When he had finished it, he brought the manuscript to Lessing, and requested him to be kind enough to read it, which the latter promised to do as soon as he should be at leisure. At their next interview, however, somewhat to Mendelssohn's surprise, the matter was never mentioned by Lessing; and Mendelssohn was too modest to introduce it himself. This happened several times, till at last the anxious author ventured to ask his friend if he had found time to look at the manuscript. Lessing again complained of want of leisure, but promised him that he should certainly contrive to find time to read it immediately. In the mean time,' he added, 'here is a small volume on the same subject, which has just appeared; take it home with you, and let me know what on you think of it.' Mendelssohn's among his very greatest persurprise may be conceived formances. The incessant litewhen on opening this volume rary labours of this illustrious he found it to be his own man were often carried work already in print his under the pressure of ill-health, Philosophical Dialogues, as he and always amidst the interhad entitled it. Put it into ruptions of business or of your pocket,' said Lessing, society. He eventually became enjoying his amazement, and the partner of Mr. Bernard in this Mammon along with it; it his silk-manufacturing establishis what I got for the copyright.' ment, and lived in the enjoyFrom this time Mendelssohn ment of opulence. In his took his place in the very front thirty-third year he married, rank of the literary men of and had the happiness before Germany. It does not, how his death of seeing his family ever, belong to this rapid sketch growing up around him. One even to enumerate the long of his publications, which he succession of works by which, entitles Morning Hours, conduring almost every year of his sists of a series of lectures on remaining life, he sustained and natural philosophy, which he added to his fame. For the was for some years in the habit classical elegance of his German of delivering to his children style he was considered as al- every morning for two or three most without a rival among his hours after sunrise. His habits contemporaries. His treatise, of living were extremely simple in particular, on the immortality and abstemious. It was inof the soul, entitled Phædon, conceivable,' says Mr. Samuels, attracted, immediately on its to whose Memoir we have been appearance, universal attention; principally indebted for the and being translated into above facts, 'that the quantity English, French, Dutch, Italian, of food to which he restricted Danish, and Hebrew, spread himself could sustain a human the fame of the author over all being; and at the same time it Europe. But the great effort was affecting to see him press of his life still continued to be his guests good-humouredly to the moral and intellectual im- partake of viands and liquors, provement of his brethren of which himself, though ever so the house of Israel. For this desirous, durst not venture to purpose he brought all the taste. . . . He was very fond resources of his learning and of company, and never courted genius to the illustration of the solitude, except from four or Hebrew scriptures; and his five o'clock in the morning till translations of the Books of about eight or nine, when he Moses and the Psalms, the adjourned to his counting-house latter in verse, are reckoned and remained there till noon. tives, foreigners, old and young, in promiscuous groups, with whom he conversed till eight o'clock on various topics.' Mendelssohn died, in consequence of a cold which he caught in returning one morning from the synagogue (in his attendance on which he was always extremely regular), on After dinner he generally attended to business again till about four in the afternoon. About this hour his friends and pupils used to meet at his house; and, on his return, he usually found a numerous assembly in his room, who anxiously awaited his appearance. There were theologians, literati, philosophers, public the 4th of January 1786, in the functionaries, merchants, na-fifty-eighth year of his age. JOHN OF SALISBURY-ROGER BACON. THE persons with whom we | sometimes been described. The have been occupied in the chapters immediately preceding the present have all belonged to what may almost be called our own times; or, at least, their pursuits have been such as indicate an advanced state of literature, philosophy, and civilisation generally. It is only within the last two or three centuries that anything like a spirit of independent speculation has formed a pervading characteristic of the literature of modern Europe. Up to that period the intellect of our forefathers may be said, in most of its efforts, to have walked in leading-strings. The peculiar circumstances in which literature sprung up a second time in Western Europe after the subversion of the Roman empire, sufficiently explain why it remained so long in a state of pupilage. But the extended period in modern history called the Dark Ages was only the night of the human mind, and by no means its sleep, as it has numbers of those who then dedicated themselves to literary pursuits were very great, and their zeal and industry in many cases such as has never been surpassed. As an evidence of the assiduity with which it was customary for men to apply themselves to the studies then in fashion, we may quote the account which our countryman JOHN OF SALISBURY, who flourished in the twelfth century, gives us of the education he had received. 'He says, that in the year after Henry 1. died he went to the Peripatetic School at Paris, on the Mount of St. Genevieve, and there studied logic; he afterwards adhered to Master Alberic, as opinatissimus dialectus (a dialectician in the highest repute), and an acerrimus impugnator (most keen impugner) of the nominal sect. He was two years with him and Robert Metridensis, an Englishman, both men acuti ingenii and studii pervicacis (of acute genius and |