edition of McCaul's _Old Paths_
(1876) are omitted many of the calumnies and aspersions of the first
edition, published in 1839.

Levinsohn's life was a continuous struggle against an insidious disease,
which kept him confined to his bed, and prevented him from accepting any
prominent position. But though, as he said, he had "neither brother,
wife, child, nor even a sound body," he impressed his personality upon
Russian Jewry as no one else, save the Gaon, had before him. His breadth
of view and his sympathetic disposition gradually won him the respect
and love of all who knew him. The zaddikim Abraham of Turisk and Israel
Rasiner were his lifelong friends; the Talmudist Strashun acknowledged
his indebtedness to him, and Rabbi Abele of Vilna remarked jestingly
that the only fault to be found with the _Te'udah_ was that its author
was not the Gaon Elijah. He enjoyed prominence in Government circles,
and Prince Wittgenstein was passionately fond of his company. Above all
he endeared himself to the Maskilim. To him they looked as to their
teacher and guide; him they consulted in every emergency. Lebensohn and
Gottlober, Mandelstamm and Gordon, equally sought his criticism and
advice. For all he had words of comfort and encouragement. The younger
Maskilim he warned not to waste their time in idle versification, not to
become intoxicated with their little learning; and the older ones he
implored to respect the sentiments of their conservative coreligionists.
"Take it not amiss," he would say to the latter, "that the great bulk of
our people hearken not as yet to our new teachings. All beginnings are
difficult. The drop cannot become a deluge instantaneously. Persevere in
your laudable ambition, publish your good and readable books, and the
result, though slow, is sure."

Thus lived and labored the first of the Maskilim, an idealist from
beginning to end. Persecution did not embitter, nor poverty depress him.
And when he passed away quietly (February 12, 1860) in the obscure
little town in which he had been born, and which has become famous
through him, it was felt that Russia had had her Mendelssohn, too.
Strange to say, he little suspected the tremendous influence he exerted
upon the Haskalah movement, but was quite sanguine of the success of his
fight for "truth and justice among the nations." His work he modestly
summed up in the epitaph which was inscribed on his tombstone at his
request:

Out of nothing God called