Eleazar and Naphtaly [By J.P. Claris de Florian] Tr.by H.H. Young

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1827 edition. Excerpt: ... be commended? said the young and pretty Jewess, who had not spoken until now. I am willing, for an instant, to examine our writings with you, as if they were not sacred. Do you not experience some pleasure in, the details of the patriarchal manners; so finely described in the book of Genesis? Do you derive no gratification from reading a second time the hospitality of Abraham, the marriage of Rebecca, the meeting of Jacob and Rachel at the well from which he lifted off the stone, the seven years slavery to which he voluntarily submitted to obtain the object of his affections, and the other subsequent seven the better to deserve her? Do not the histories of Job, of Ruth, of Jonathan, of Tobit interest you? Do you not acknowledge the songs of Moses, of Debora, of David, and of Solomon, in our psalms and prophecies, to possess some beauties of eloquence and ge nius? Compare the Bible with the Alcoran, the Sadder, the Zend Avesta, (the very reading of which is barely supportable) and adopt, at least, the opinions of the fathers of your church, of your writers, and most celebrated poets, who, notwithstanding their hatred of our nation, think it their duty and glory to admire and study our writings, and very often to imitate them. But without fully discussing their merits, remember our laws. Open their code, perchance the only one whose commands have been obeyed three thousand years, and in every page you will find inculcated the precepts of humanity. I am not speaking of the Decalogue, beyond comparison the finest and most ancient monument of universal morality. I wish only to cite those laws which are much less known. 'Protect and love, ' says Moses, 'the unfortunate and those 'who are strangers, remembering that you yourselves were unfortunate and...