then, with my
biographical sketch, which is now very near a conclusion; or, as I
should more correctly say, which has very nearly brought me to the
present period of time: I preached that sermon at Rumpelwitz, in which I
hope that the Babylonian question was pretty satisfactorily set at
rest. I preached it before the Herr Baron and his noble family, and some
officers of distinction who were staying at his castle. Mr. Doctor Moser
of Halle followed me in the evening discourse; but, though his exercise
was learned, and he disposed of a passage of Ignatius, which he proved
to be a manifest interpolation, I do not think his sermon had the effect
which mine produced, and that the Rumpelwitzers much relished it. After
the sermon, all the candidates walked out of church together, and supped
lovingly at the "Blue Stag" in Rumpelwitz.

'While so occupied, a waiter came in and said that a person without
wished to speak to one of the reverend candidates, "the tall one." This
could only mean me, for I was a head and shoulders higher than any
other reverend gentleman present. I issued out to see who was the
person desiring to hold converse with me, and found a man whom I had no
difficulty in recognising as one of the Jewish persuasion.

'"Sir," said this Hebrew, "I have heard from a friend, who was in your
church to-day, the heads of the admirable discourse you pronounced
there. It has affected me deeply, most deeply. There are only one or
two points on which I am yet in doubt, and if your honour could but
condescend to enlighten me on these, I think--I think Solomon Hirsch
would be a convert to your eloquence."

'"What are these points, my good friend?" said I; and I pointed out to
him the twenty-four heads of my sermon, asking him in which of these his
doubts lay.

'We had been walking up and down before the inn while our conversation
took place, but the windows being open, and my comrades having heard the
discourse in the morning, requested me, rather peevishly, not to resume
it at that period. I, therefore, moved on with my disciple, and, at his
request, began at once the sermon; for my memory is good for anything,
and I can repeat any book I have read thrice.

'I poured out, then, under the trees, and in the calm moonlight, that
discourse which I had pronounced under the blazing sun of noon. My
Israelite only interrupted me by exclamations indicative of surprise,
assent, admiration, and increasing conviction. "Prodigious!