264 MEMOIR OF ELINSER SAMUEL ISAAC.

he said, will do all things well.' Thus was he whom Christ loved received into eternity. "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen; and amen."

CHAPTER XIII.

CONVERSION OF M. CAPADOSE.

HIS ENTRANCE INTO LIFE-HIS WEARINESS OF EXISTENCE-BEGINS TO READ THE NEW TESTAMENT WITH HIS FRIEND M. DACOSTA-THEY BECOME SECRETLY CHRISTIANS.

WE are now entering upon the life of a student; one who, in proportion to his humbler sphere, brought to the cause, like Moses, and St. Paul, a mind highly cultivated, and enriched with the knowledge and learning so prized by the wise of this world.

His

About the year 1818, M. Capadose, the son of a Portuguese Israelite, was just entering upon the busy scenes of life, in his native city of Amsterdam. uncle, one of the first physicians in Holland, a literary man, and holding a high rank, both as regards medical talent and social connexions, had received him into his house as his son and successor. His parents resided in the same city, and appear also to have been in affluent circumstances. The profession of medicine has always been much followed by the Jews, probably,

as being one of the very few open to them. Maimonides, perhaps the most renowned name among them, was a physician; as early as the ninth century the Jews began to make themselves acquainted with the sciences of the Arabs, and in particular they excelled in this. Among the towns of Spain, and in the east, many Jewish individuals, highly gifted in this art, appeared; yet was it determined so late as the sixteenth century by the theological and Lutheran faculties of Wirtemburg and Rostock, that a Christian when sick cannot call in the assistance of a Jewish physician, because they employ magical remedies; and since the curse of heaven has been pronounced against this people, they ought not to cure the Christians, who are the children of God.* The family of M. Capadose, though

* Adam's History, p. 331. Among the celebrated Jewish physicians of the East may be mentioned Saadeddoulat, whom Jehan Argun raised to the office of his chief minister. Being learned and of polished manners, he acquired great influence at court; and exerted himself to the utmost to promote the welfare of his brethren, who had suffered greatly from the invasion of the Tartars. This prosperity was however, soon interrupted by the death of the monarch; and the Jewish physician, who had exasperated the Mahometans by his partiality to his nation, was charged with having poisoned his benefactor, and on the accusation condemned to suffer death. The populace soon after massacred vast numbers of his countrymen, in order to avenge the real or pretended injuries they had suffered from them during the life of Argun.

Also Dominic of Jerusalem, who taught in the celebrated academy of Sapheta in Galilee, which succeeded that of Tiberias. After he had completed his studies and lectures on the Talmud, he applied himself to the theory and practice of medicine with such success, that the Sultan invited him to Constantinople to be

In

settled at Amsterdam, were Portuguese Israelites. Portugal the very name of Jew is a term of such high reproach, that the government enacted a law which forbade any person to call another by that appellation: if a man who was styled a Jew to his face, stabbed the offender, the law did not condemn him. When we consider the horrid persecutions with which these unhappy people were assailed in that country to drive them from their faith, and the tortures with which the inquisition was ready to receive those new Christians,' whom anguish and fear had cast violently into the pale of the Romish church, we cannot wonder that we find the Portuguese Israelites although preserving still a remembrance of the sunny country of their fathers' exile, so much more like their own land than our northern regions, should yet be found dwelling upon more hospitable shores, exiled even from that, which was in itself banishment. * The Spanish and Portuguese Jews (or the Sephardim as they are called) claim

his physician. He afterwards embraced the Christian Religion, and translated the New Testament into Hebrew, answering at the same time some objections of the Rabbins, against Stephen's martyrdom. Adam's History, page 300.

*The Spanish Jews, even I believe those now settled in foreign countries, are said to preserve among them the old Spanish language, as it was spoken in the days of the glory and prosperity of Spain. A history of the Jews in Spain, written by some one who had the piety, the ability and the leisure to do justice to the subject, access to the necessary documents, (particularly with regard to the Inquisition) and the means of visiting the country, would be a most interesting work, and throw a very desirable light upon the character, the situation, and the sufferings of the chosen people.

their descent from the tribe of Judah; and found these pretensions on a supposition which prevails among them, that many of their ancestors removed, or were sent into Spain, at the time of the Babylonian captivity. In consequence of this supposed superiority, they would not until of late years, by marriage or otherwise, connect themselves with their brethren of other nations. They had separate synagogues,; and if a Portuguese Jew, even in England or Holland, married a German Jewess, he was immediately expelled from the synagogue, deprived of every civil and ecclesiastical rite, and ejected from the body of the nation.*

Holland is said to contain about sixty thousand Jews; the toleration which their ancestors found in this country was happiness compared with the cruelties which were exercised towards them in other parts of the world; but it was only a comparative toleration, many oppressive enactments and regulations subsisting in full force against them. In the early years of the present century, when the narrative of M. Capadose commences, numbers of individuals eminent for their learning and talent were to be found among the Jews in Holland; among whom may be mentioned Stein, Professor of Botany, Pinto the younger, Heilbron a physician of Amsterdam, who was six times crowned by the academy of sciences at Rotterdam, David, a physician, who first introduced vaccination into Holland, and Asser the elder, one of the first counsellors of his age in maritime laws and insurances.

* Adams.