a young,
gifted girl, under the loving care of cultured parents actuated by the
sole desire to imbue their daughter with their own taste for natural and
artistic beauty and their steadfast love for Judaism, and content to
lead a modest existence, away from the bustle and the opportunities of
the city, in order to be able to give themselves up wholly to the
education and companionship of their beloved, only daughter. Under the
influence of a wise friend, Grace Aguilar herself tells us, she
supplicated God to enable her to do something by which her people might
gain higher esteem with their Christian fellow-citizens.

God hearkened unto her prayer, for her efforts were crowned with
success. Her first work was the translation of a book from the Hebrew,
"Israel Defended." Next came "The Magic Wreath," a collection of poems,
and then her well-known works, "Home Influence," "The Spirit of
Judaism," her best production, "The Women of Israel," "The Jewish
Faith," and "History of the Jews in England"--a rich harvest for one
whose span of life was short. Her pen was dipped into the blood of her
veins and the sap of her nerves; the sacred fire of the prophets burnt
in her soul, and she was inspired by olden Jewish enthusiasm and
devotion to a trust.

So ardent a spirit could not long be imprisoned within so frail a body.
In the very prime of life, just thirty-one years old, Grace Aguilar
passed away, as though her beautiful soul were hastening to shake off
the mortal coil. She rests in German earth, in the Frankfort Jewish
cemetery. Her grave is marked with a simple stone, bearing an equally
simple epitaph:

"Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates."

Her death was deeply lamented far and wide. She was a golden link in the
chain of humanity--a bold, courageous, withal thoroughly womanly woman,
a God-inspired daughter of her race and faith. "We are persuaded," says
a non-Jewish friend of hers, "that had this young woman lived in the
times of frightful persecution, she would willingly have mounted the
stake for her faith, praying for her murderers with her last breath."
That the nobility of a solitary woman, leaping like a flame from heart
to heart, may inspire high-minded thoughts, and that Grace Aguilar's
life became a blessing for her people and for humanity, is illustrated
by the following testimonial signed by several hundred Jewish women,
presented to her when she was abou