. Mendelssohn's reply, like his "Jerusalem"
and his admirable preface to a German translation of Manasseh ben
Israel's _Vindiciae Judeorum_, gave voice to that claim on personal
liberty of thought and conscience for which the Jews, unconsciously, had
been so long contending. Mendelssohn's view was that all true religious
aspirations are independent of religious forms. Mendelssohn did not
ignore the value of forms, but he held that as there are often several
means to the same end, so the various religious forms of the various
creeds may all lead their respective adherents to salvation and to God.

Mendelssohn's most epoch-making work was his translation of the
Pentateuch into German. With this work the present history finds a
natural close. Mendelssohn's Pentateuch marks the modernization of the
literature of Judaism. There was much opposition to the book, but on the
other hand many Jews eagerly scanned its pages, acquired its noble
diction, and committed its rhythmic eloquence to their hearts. Round
Mendelssohn there clustered a band of devoted disciples, the pioneers of
the new learning, the promoters of a literature of Judaism, in which the
modern spirit reanimated the still living records of antiquity. There
was certainly some weakness among the men and women affected by the
Berlin philosopher, for some discarded all positive religion, because
the master had taught that all positive religions had their saving and
truthful elements.

It is not, however, the province of this sketch to trace the religious
effects of the Mendelssohnian movement. Suffice it to say that, while
the old Jewish conception had been that literature and life are
co-extensive, Jewish literature begins with Mendelssohn to have an
independent life of its own, a life of the spirit, which cannot be
altogether controlled by the tribulations of material life. A physical
Ghetto may once more be imposed on the Jews from without; an
intellectual Ghetto imposed from within is hardly conceivable. Tolerance
gave the modern spirit to Jewish literature, but intolerance cannot
withdraw it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MOSES MENDELSSOHN.

Graetz.--V, 8.

Karpeles.--_Sketch of Jewish History_, p. 93; _Jewish Literature
and other Essays_, p. 293.

English translations of _Phaedo, Jerusalem_, and of the
_Introduction to the Pentateuch_ (_Hebrew Review_, Vol. I).

Other translations of _Jerusalem_ were made by M. Samuels (London,
1838) and by Isaac Leeser, the