oung students in a consecutive manner, except in so far as they fall
within the range of lessons on Jewish History. It was strongly urged on
me by a friend of great experience and knowledge, that a small text-book
on later Jewish Literature was likely to be found useful both for home
and school use. Such a book might encourage the elementary study of
Jewish literature in a wider circle than has hitherto been reached.
Hence this book has been compiled with the definite aim of providing an
elementary manual. It will be seen that both in the inclusions and
exclusions the author has followed a line of his own, but he lays no
claim to originality. The book is simply designed as a manual for those
who may wish to master some of the leading characteristics of the
subject, without burdening themselves with too many details and dates.

This consideration has in part determined also the method of the book.
In presenting an outline of Jewish literature three plans are possible.
One can divide the subject according to _Periods_. Starting with the
Rabbinic Age and closing with the activity of the earlier Gaonim, or
Persian Rabbis, the First Period would carry us to the eighth or the
ninth century. A well-marked Second Period is that of the Arabic-Spanish
writers, a period which would extend from the ninth to the fifteenth
century. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century forms a Third
Period with distinct characteristics. Finally, the career of Mendelssohn
marks the definite beginning of the Modern Period. Such a grouping of
the facts presents many advantages, but it somewhat obscures the varying
conditions prevalent at one and the same time in different countries
where the Jews were settled. Hence some writers have preferred to
arrange the material under the different _untries_. It is quite
possible to draw a map of the world's civilization by merely marking the
successive places in which Jewish literature has fixed its
head-quarters. But, on the other hand, such a method of classification
has the disadvantage that it leads to much overlapping. For long
intervals together, it is impossible to separate Italy from Spain,
France from Germany, Persia from Egypt, Constantinople from Amsterdam.
This has induced other writers to propose a third method and to trace
_Influences_, to indicate that, whereas Rabbinism may be termed the
native product of the Jewish genius, the scientific, poetical, and
philosophical tendencies of Jewish writ