st possible intervals of time
and space. My Jewish birth which I long considered a stigma, a sore
disgrace, has now become a precious inheritance, of which nothing on
earth can deprive me."[34]

The fact is that Rahel Levin was a great woman, great even in her
aberrations, while her satellites, shining by reflected light, and
pretending to perpetuate her spirit, transgressed the bounds of
womanliness, and opened wide a door to riotous sensuality. Certain
opponents of the woman's emancipation movement take malicious
satisfaction in rehearsing that it was a Jewess who inaugurated it,
prudently neglecting to mention that in the list of Rahel's followers,
not one Jewish name appears.

The spirit of Judaism and with it the spirit of morality can never be
extinguished. They may flag, or vanish for a time, but their restoration
in increased vigor and radiance is certain; for, they bear within
themselves the guarantee of a future. Henriette Herz, the apostate
daughter of Judaism chewing the cud of Schleiermacher's sentimentality
and Schlegel's romanticism, had not yet passed away when England
produced Jewish women whose deeds were quickened by the spirit of olden
heroism, who walked in the paths of wisdom and faith, and, recoiling
from the cowardice that counsels apostasy, would have fought, if need
be, suffered, and bled, for their faith. What answer but the blush of
shame mantling her cheek could the proud beauty have found, had she been
asked by, let us say, Lady Judith Montefiore, to tell what it was that
chained her to the ruins of the Jewish race?

Lady Montefiore truly was a heroine, worthy to be named with those who
have made our past illustrious, and her peer in intellect and strength
of character was Charlotte Montefiore, whose early death was a serious
loss to Judaism as well as to her family. Her work, "A Few Words to the
Jews by one of themselves," containing that charming tale, "The Jewel
Island," displays intellectual and poetic gifts.

The most prominent of women writers in our era unquestionably is Grace
Aguilar, in whom we must admire the rare union of broad culture and
profound piety. She was born at Hackney in June of 1816, and early
showed extraordinary talent and insatiable thirst for knowledge. In her
twelfth year she wrote "Gustavus Vasa," an historical drama evincing
such unusual gifts that her parents were induced to devote themselves
exclusively to her education. It is a charming picture this, of