BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

MANASSEH BEN ISRAEL, the author of this learned work, was a Portuguese Jew, having been born in Lisbon, in the year 1605. His father fled from that city to avoid the persecution of the Inquisition, by which tribunal he had twice been examined and released. Being again seized and incarcerated in its prison, ne escaped by scaling its walls, succeeded in secretly leaving Portugal, and settled at Amsterdam.

At this period Manasseh must have been very young; for his Hebrew education commenced in the latter city, under the tuition of R. Isaac Uzieli, on whose death he succeeded to the posts his preceptor had held. He made such astonishing progress in his studies, that at the early age of seventeen, he began to compose his Hebrew Grammar, under the title of 1 "The Pure Lip," which was circulated only in manuscript.

His great abilities procured his admission into the Hebrew College of Amsterdam, and the appointment of Preacher to the Synagogue of that city, when only eighteen years of age. Shortly after, he married Rachel Soeiro, a relative of the Abarbanel family, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. To increase the means of providing for his family, he entered into business with his brother-in-law, Ephraim Soeiro, who went to the Brazils.

Manasseh remained at Amsterdam pursuing his studies, and became a proficient in the Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese languages, which he wrote with elegance and fluency. His literary fame procured him the esteem of the learned throughout Europe, with many of whom he was in regular correspondence.

He states, in one of his prefaces, that he was acquainted with ten languages; a knowledge rarely attained even in the present enlightened age.

In 1632, in his twenty-seventh year, he published the present volume-a lasting monument of his deep research and profound knowledge; not alone of Hebrew literature, but of his general acquaintance with ancient profane authors, and many of the early Christian writers, from whose works he makes numerous quotations.

Shortly after this, he published in Latin his "XXX Problems on the Creation;" and in 1636, his treatise on "The Resurrection of the Dead, the Day of Judgment, and the Future State."

At the persuasion of the celebrated and learned Dr. John Beverovicio, Senator of Dordrecht, he committed to the press his opinions on the duration of human life, the major part of which will be found in Part II: he then wrote notes on the Greek poet Phocylides, whose poems he translated into Spanish verse; and on now "On the Immortality of the Soul," which he dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand III.

Having studied Rhetoric in his early years, he had so much ease in expressing his ideas, that he never committed to paper any of his numerous sermons previous to delivering them; and when only fifteen years of age, his discourses were generally admired and approved.

He established a Hebrew printing press, and published three editions of the Hebrew Bible, one in Spanish with marginal notes, and various prayer books; but, notwithstanding the trouble and time employed in the arduous undertaking they did not reward his labours.

In 1642, he published in Spanish his work on "Human Frailty and the Inclination of Man to Sin," and his "Congratulatory Address to the Prince of Orange and Queen Henrietta of England" (consort of Charles I.) on their visit to the Portuguese Synagogue at Amsterdam.

In 1645, he wrote the " Laws, Customs, and Ceremonies of the Jews," the latter part of which, containing the duties of man and wife, he only completed on the marriage of his daughter two years later. He went to the Brazils in 1650, probably to regulate his commercial concerns with his brother-in-law, who was established at Pernambuco. Although the time of his return cannot positively be ascertained, his stay in the southern hemisphere must have been but short; for in the following year the last part of the "Conciliator" appeared before the public. About this time he had the misfortune to lose his eldest son in the flower of his age: this bereavement caused him the most poignant grief, and, as he acknowledges, took such effect on his mind as to render him incapable of the least mental exertion; but, arousing himself from this stupor, he sought and found comfort in that book, the apparent contradictions of which he had so long been occupied in reconciling.

On the invitation of Mr. Secretary Thurlow, he came to England in 1655, and endeavoured to procure the readmission of the Jews into the kingdom, from which they had been exiled 370 years. He presented petitions in behalf of his co-religionists to Parliament, and the Protector, by whom he had been kindly received; and although there exists no positive proof of the acceptance by Cromwell of the conditions he proposed, they must have been tacitly admitted, for, in the following year, some of them were put into execution. Particulars of what took place on this occasion are fully detailed in the Jewish Calendar, published by the Translator in A.M. 5598–1838, page 127.

While this subject was under discussion, he published his "Defence of the Jews" under the title of "Vindicia Judæorum," wherein he fully refuted the infamous accusations that had been made against them in former times.

Although it does not appear that he practised medicine, he must have received his degrees as a Physician; for, in the above-mentioned petition, he styles himself M.D., a title he would not have assumed, had he not held a right to it; for, as the learned Dr. Pococke says of him, "he was a man without passion, without levity, but, alas! without opulence." Among his most intimate friends was the learned Grotius.

Under the impression that the Aborigines of America might be part of the Ten Tribes, he wrote a small work entitled "The Hope of Israel;" he also published a refutation of the pre-Adamites. And under the title of p

The Precious Stone;" a comment on Nebuchadnezzar's Statue, in 12mo., with four engravings by Rembrandt: a few copies of the four were printed on one whole sheet; they are now so scarce and rare, that the Translator has seen one that was sold for 100 guineas.

On his return from England, he retired to Middleburgh, in Zealand, where his brother resided; and died there in 1657. He left the following works, some unedited and others unfinished :

1. The Conciliator.

2. A Hebrew Pentateuch with a Spanish version.

*3. The Jewish Customs, Rites, and Ceremonies; in Five Parts.

5. A Panegyric on the Queen of Sweden.

6. Phocylides (with Notes) in Spanish Verse.

The Precious Stone;" a Comment on the Statue of Nebu

chadnezzar.

8. "n now "The Soul of Life;" on the Resurrection of the Dead and

Immortality of the Soul.

*9. On the Fall of Man and Frailty of Human Nature.

*10. ' mips, "The Hope of Israel.”

11. XXX Problems respecting the Creation, in Latin.

12. A Treatise on the Duration of Human Life.

13., a Hebrew Index, alphabetically arranged, of the passages of Scripture explained in Midrash Raba.

14. ' 10, "Secret of the Righteous," on the Secrets of Nature, or Natural Magic.

שפה ברורה .15

16. On Logic.

"The Pure Lip," a Hebrew Grammar.

17. A Hebrew and Arabic Nomenclature.

18. A Rabbinical Catalogue with Critical Notes.

* The Translator of the present Work has translated those marked, which he has in Manuscript, into English.

19. Notes on Josephus, and continuation of the History of the Jews to his

time.

20. A Latin Defence of the Babylonian Talmud and Rabbinical Philo

sophy.

21. On the Divinity of the Law of Moses, in refutation of Atheism.

22. A Collection of Epistles, and 450 Sermons in Spanish.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF AUTHORS QUOTED