sition period from the third epoch of Jewish literature to the
fourth, the golden age, which lasted from the ninth to the fifteenth
century, and, according to the law of human products, shows a season of
growth, blossom, and decay.

The scene of action during this period was western Asia, northern
Africa, sometimes Italy and France, but chiefly Spain, where Arabic
culture, destined to influence Jewish thought to an incalculable degree,
was at that time at its zenith. "A second time the Jews were drawn into
the vortex of a foreign civilization, and two hundred years after
Mohammed, Jews in Kairwan and Bagdad were speaking the same language,
Arabic. A language once again became the mediatrix between Jewish and
general literature, and the best minds of the two races, by means of the
language, reciprocally influenced each other. Jews, as they once had
written Greek for their brethren, now wrote Arabic; and, as in
Hellenistic times, the civilization of the dominant race, both in its
original features and in its adaptations from foreign sources, was
reflected in that of the Jews." It would be interesting to analyze this
important process of assimilation, but we can concern ourselves only
with the works of the Jewish intellect. Again we meet, at the threshold
of the period, a characteristic figure, the thinker Sa'adia, ranking
high as author and religious philosopher, known also as a grammarian and
a poet. He is followed by Sherira, to whom we owe the beginnings of a
history of Talmudic literature, and his son Hai Gaon, a strictly
orthodox teacher of the Law. In their wake come troops of physicians,
theologians, lexicographers, Talmudists, and grammarians. Great is the
circle of our national literature: it embraces theology, philosophy,
exegesis, grammar, poetry, and jurisprudence, yea, even astronomy and
chronology, mathematics and medicine. But these widely varying subjects
constitute only one class, inasmuch as they all are infused with the
spirit of Judaism, and subordinate themselves to its demands. A mention
of the prominent actors would turn this whole essay into a dry list of
names. Therefore it is better for us merely to sketch the period in
outline, dwelling only on its greatest poets and philosophers, the
moulders of its character.

The opinion is current that the Semitic race lacks the philosophic
faculty. Yet it cannot be denied that Jews were the first to carry Greek
philosophy to Europe, teaching and developing