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is not yet virtuous and highminded enough to consent; and hence the government will not venture upon a measure as impracticable, perhaps, as it is unpopular. Or, to state the case more truly, since, among us, the feelings of the people are represented in the government, the government has no inclination to do it.

The other means of prevention, and the only one, it appears, which is now open to us, is to educate, to enlighten, to exalt the public mind. Knowledge, reading, must supply those resources to the mind, which shall render it independent of meaner excitements. For why does a man resort to the intoxicating draught? Commonly, because he is unhappy without it; he wants something to excite or to entertain him. He sits down at home for an evening, and it is dull to him; he goes abroad for relief, and too often finds a relief, which is his ruin. Now let this man have been educated, not in the technical, artificial way, which too much prevails, but educated to the love of knowledge; let something of the science and mystery of nature have been opened to him; let interesting books have been provided for him; let him have been associated with others in the same pursuits; and he would not have found leisure a burden; he would not have found company a snare; he would not have found his home irksome. Life, with him, would have received a new impulse, new resources; and he would be proportionably raised above sense and matter, to intellect and virtue.

The hope of seeing communities thus educated, intelligent, virtuous, and happy, is one which we delight to cherish. We gladly go along, however cautiously, with this spirit and promise of the age. Visions of improvement, not of perfectibility, are before us; and though past experience seems to mock them, we will not believe they are dreams. The auspices of freedom, the tendencies of knowledge, the counsels of providence, the promises of Christianity, the hope of man, all forbid despair. Let our favored communities do their duty, and there shall be no place even for scepticism. Tell us not of difficulties, of obstacles, of expenses, in the way of rearing a wise, and enlightened, and righteous generation. Give us the refuse of the superfluous expenditure of the country, the fragments from the tables of luxury, the leavings of expensive entertainments and amusements, the cast off garments of sumptuous wardrobes; or store for us what excess consumes, and intemperance swallows in this land; and with these means, we could pledge ourselves to raise up a community, far more enlightened than the world has yet seen. Let every man, moreover, give his own faithful personal endeavors, and we deem it not too solemn to add, his earnest prayers to Heaven, and here upon these shores of promise, shall be reared up a community as pure and happy, as it shall be intelligent and enlightened.

ART. IV. 1. The Constitution of the Reformed Society of Israelites, for promoting true Principles of Judaism according to its Purity and Spirit. Founded in Charleston, South Carolina, sixteenth of January, 1825. Charleston. 1825. 8vo. pp. 16.

2. A Discourse, delivered in Charleston, South Carolina, on the twentyfirst of November, 1825, before the Reformed Society of Israelites, for promoting true Principles of Judaism according to its Purity and Spirit, on their first Anniversary. By ISAAC HARBY, a Member. Charleston. 1825. 8vo. pp. 40.

We remember very few pamphlets of greater interest than these. It has, until lately, been supposed, that the minds of Israelites were so wedded to their religious peculiarities, as to be impenetrable to the spirit of innovation. Christians have been occasionally attracted by curiosity to the synagogue, and have observed in silence the singular rites and ceremonies, which are in practice there. But as long as there was so total a want of sympathy between the faiths of the two denominations, it was hardly thought worth while to animadvert upon the external modes of worship among the Jews, however uncouth and unreasonable they might appear. Little was it suspected, that in the bosom of that denomination itself, there were any who were so far surmounting the proverbial prejudices of their race, and so far imbibing the liberal spirit of the age, as to admit the possibility of improvement within their pale. Yet the publications before us are evidences of a spontaneous impulse towards a better state of things. The event, which they record, has been produced, neither by foreign nor internal violence or solicitation. What all the power and cruelty of all the potentates of Europe could never have wrung, by force or bribery,

from the persecuted remnant of Israel, is now taking place under the operation of far gentler circumstances.

Many of our readers are probably unacquainted with the existing mode of conducting the services in Jewish synagogues. We will just hint at a few of their most prominent peculiarities, which may be sufficient to illustrate the account and the extracts, that we shall presently borrow from the pamphlets whose titles are placed at the head of the article.

Upon entering one of these edifices on a Saturday, you behold the assembly seated or standing with their hats on, and generally wearing an air of much greater indifference, than is witnessed even among Christians, during the season of public devotion. The priest, with a few attendants, is stationed on a high enclosed platform in the centre of the floor. As an instance of the little interest, which is excited by the immediate business of the place, we recollect, that once, while we were fixing our attention on the intonations of the chanting priest, a highly respectable elder of the congregation arose and crossed the area, and taking his seat next us, began the discussion of a curious point of Hebrew phraseology; after which, he entered upon much more general conversation, leaving on our minds at. last the impression of his being a polite and hospitable entertainer, rather than of what we know he really was, a devout fellow worshipper.

The whole of the liturgy is conducted in the Hebrew language, with the exception indeed of occasional portions, which, in some synagogues, it seems, are uttered in Spanish. This latter circumstance is considered an aggravated enormity by the new party for reform. These Spanish portions of the liturgy are employed only for particular purpose, ose, namely, to express the amount of monies offered for the benefit of the synagogue and its institutions, by the subscribing members; thus interrupting the prayers and worship with the fiscal concerns of the establishment, and that, too, in a language unknown to almost all present. Whether this is a practice in all synagogues, we are unable to

say.

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The ritual consists of readings and responses in a kind of chant, or recitative, enunciated frequently with great indistinctness and volubility, now sinking into a low murmur, and now rising into a kind of nervous and violent vociferation. All this, we should have been willing to confess, is necessarily ridiculous to none but those who are strangers to it, if we had not perceived by

the pamphlets under review, that it is regarded with mortification by many of those who have been, as it were, dyed in the very element of the system from their infancy and youth.

Owing to the rapidity of uttering the liturgy, it is generally finished in about three hours, though we are informed in an appendix to the 'Constitution of the Reformed Society of Israelites,' that if it were conducted with due solemnity, and in a slow, distinct, impressive tone, its length would certainly occupy the attention of the congregation from nine until two o'clock, if not later. During its repetition, the members of the congregation, except a few of the most devout, are seen coming in and going out of the synagogue at all times, and but a very slight check seems to be imposed upon the usual inclinations of the children. There is nothing in the shape of a discourse, or religious instruction of any kind, except, we believe, on a very few annual or occasional festivals. At these solemnities, some enlightened member of the body is called upon to deliver an appropriate English discourse.

We ought to remark, that that part of the liturgy, which consists in reading the portion of the laws, called the Parasah, is generally well read, devoutly, and emphatically. The rest of the service corresponds to the description given above.

In the hope of remedying these and other defects and improprieties, as they appeared to them, about a dozen members of the Hebrew congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, about a year since assembled and formed the Society, to which allusion has already been made. In two months, their number swelled to thirtyeight, and at the moment when we are writing, it exceeds fifty. Of the general character of the leading individuals, it may be sufficient to remark, that it is highly respectable. A petition was signed by fortyseven Israelites of Charleston, and presented to the vestry of the congregation. The' following extracts will exhibit the principal objects of the memorialists.

" Your memorialists seek no other end, than the future welfare and respectability of the nation. As members of the great family of Israel, they cannot consent to place before their children examples, which are only calculated to darken the mind, and withhold from the rising generation, the more rational means of worshipping the true God.

"It is to this, therefore, your memorialists would, in the first place, invite the serious attention of your honorable body. By

causing the Hasan, or reader, to repeat in English, such part of the Hebrew prayers as may be deemed necessary, it is confidently believed, that the congregation, generally, would be more forcibly impressed with the necessity of divine worship, and the moral obligations, which they owe to themselves and their Creator; while such a course would lead to more decency and decorum during the time they are engaged in the performance of religious duties. It is not every one who has the means, and many have not the time, to acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew language, and consequently to become enlightened in the principles of Judaism. What, then, is the course pursued in all religious societies, for the purpose of disseminating the peculiar tenets of their faith among the poor and uninformed ?

"The principles of their religion are expounded to them from the pulpit in language that they understand; for instance, in the Catholic, the German, and the French Protestant churches; by this means the ignorant part of mankind attend their places of worship with some profit to their morals, and even improvement to their minds; they return from them with hearts turned to piety, and with feelings elevated by their sacred character. In this consists the beauty of religion; when men are invoked by its divine spirit, to the practice of virtue and morality."

" With regard to such parts of the service as it is desired should undergo this change, your memorialists would strenuously recommend, that the most solemn portions be retained, and everything superfluous excluded; and that the principal parts, and, if possible, all that is read in Hebrew, should also be read in English (that being the language of the country), so as to enable every member of the congregation fully to understand each part of the service. In submitting this article of our memorial to the consideration of your honorable body, your memorialists are well aware of the difficulties with which they must contend, before they will be enabled to accomplish this desirable end; but while they would respectfully invite the attention of your honorable body to this part of their memorial, they desire to rest the propriety and expediency of such a measure, solely upon the reason by which it may be maintained."

" Your memorialists would next call the particular attention of your honorable body, to the absolute necessity of abridging the service generally. They have reflected seriously upon its present length, and are confident, that this is one of the principal causes why so much of it is hastily and improperly hurried over."

" According to the present mode of reading the Parasa, (Pentateuch) it affords to the hearer neither instruction nor entertainment, unless he be competent to read, as well as comprehend,

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