used vary
considerably, yet Manasseh ben Israel's splendid _Vindiciae Judeorum_ and
Spinoza's "Tractate" alike insist on the natural right of men to think
freely. They anticipated some of the greatest principles that won
acceptance at the end of the eighteenth century.

Manasseh ben Israel was born in Lisbon of Marrano parents, who emigrated
to Amsterdam a few years after their son's birth. He displayed a
youthful talent for oratory, and was a noted preacher in his teens. He
started the first Hebrew printing-press established in Amsterdam, and
from it issued many works still remarkable for the excellence of their
type and general workmanship. Manasseh was himself, not only a
distinguished linguist, but a popularizer of linguistic studies. He
wrote well in Hebrew, Latin, English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and was
the means of instructing many famous Christians of the day in Hebrew and
Rabbinic. Among his personal friends were Vossius, who translated
Manasseh's "Conciliator" from Spanish into Latin. This, the most
important of Manasseh's early writings, was as popular with Christians
as with Jews, for it attempted to reconcile the discrepancies and
contradictions apparent in the Bible. Another of his friends was the
painter Rembrandt, who, in 1636, etched the portrait of Manasseh. Huet
and Grotius were also among the friends and disciples who gathered round
the Amsterdam Rabbi.

An unexpected result of Manasseh ben Israel's zeal for the promotion of
Hebrew studies among his own brethren was the rise of a new form of
poetical literature. The first dramas in Hebrew belong to this period.
Moses Zacut and Joseph Felix Penso wrote Hebrew dramas in the first half
of the seventeenth century in Amsterdam. The "Foundation of the World"
by the former and the "Captives of Hope" by the latter possess little
poetical merit, but they are interesting signs of the desire of Jews to
use Hebrew for all forms of literary art. Hence these dramas were hailed
as tokens of Jewish revival. Strangely enough, the only great writer of
Hebrew plays, Moses Chayim Luzzatto (1707-1747), was also resident in
Amsterdam. Luzzatto wrote under the influence of the Italian poet
Guarini. His metres, his long soliloquies, his lyrics, his dovetailing
of rural and urban scenery, are all directly traceable to Guarini.
Luzzatto was nevertheless an original poet. His mastery of Hebrew was
complete, and his rich fancy was expressed in glowing lines. His dramas,
"Sa