ailed as far as Ophir to
bring Afric's gold to Jerusalem. Before the destruction of the Holy
City, Jewish communities established themselves on the westernmost coast
of Europe. "The whole of the known world was covered with their
settlements, in constant communication with one another through
itinerant merchants, who effected an exchange of learning as well as of
wares; while the other nations grew more and more isolated, and shut
themselves off from even the sparse opportunities of mental culture then
available."

The second factor conducing to mental advancement was the schools which
have flourished in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and the
third was the linguistic attainments of the Jews, which they owed to
natural ability in this direction. Scarcely had Greek allied itself with
Hebrew thought, when Jews in Alexandria wrote Greek comparable with
Plato's, and not more than two hundred years after the settlement of
Jews in Arabia we meet with a large number of Jewish poets among
Mohammed's disciples, while in the middle ages they taught and wrote
Arabic, Spanish, French, and German--versatility naturally favorable to
intellectual progress.

Jewish influence may be said to have begun to exercise itself upon
general culture when Judaism and Hellenism met for the first time. The
result of the meeting was the new product, Judaeo-Hellenic literature.
Greek civilization was attractive to Jews. The new ideas were
popularized for all strata of the people to imbibe. Shortly before the
old pagan world crumbled, Hellenism enjoyed a beautiful, unexpected
revival in Alexandria. There, strange to say, Judaism, in its home
antagonistic to Hellenism, had filled and allied itself with the Greek
spirit. Its literature gradually adopted Greek traditions, and the ripe
fruit of the union was the Jewish-Alexandrian religious philosophy, the
mediation between two sharply contradictory systems, for the first time
brought into close juxtaposition, and requiring some such new element to
harmonize them. When ancient civilization in Judaea and in Hellas fell
into decay, human endeavor was charged with the task of reconciling
these two great historical forces diametrically opposed to each other,
and the first attempt looking to this end was inspired by a Jewish
genius, Jesus of Nazareth.

The Jews of Alexandria were engaged in widespread trade and shipping,
and they counted among them artists, poets, civil officers, and
mechanics