“Wisdom shall raise her loud exulting voice, And midst her people glory and rejoice; Oft the Almighty’s awful presence near, Her dulcet sounds angelic choirs shall hear. Me before time itself He gave to-day, Nor shall my spirit faint or feel decay; I bowed before Him in His hallowed shrine, And Sion’s pride and Sion’s strength was mine. Did I not tall as those fair cedars grow, Which grace our Lebanon’s exalted brow? Did I not lofty as the cypress rise, Which seems from Hermon’s heights to meet the skies? Fresh as Engaddi’s palm that scents the air, Like rose of Jericho, so sweet, so fair; Green as the verdant olive of the groves, Straight as the plane-tree which the streamlet loves, Richer than vineyards rise my sacred bowers, Sweeter than roses bloom my vernal flowers; Fair love is mine, and hope, and gentle fear; Me science hallows, as a parent dear. Come, who aspire beneath my shade to live; Come, all my fragrance, all my fruits receive! Sweeter than honey are the strains I sing, Sweeter than honey-comb the dower I bring; Me, taste who will, shall feel increased desire, Who drinks shall still my flowing cups require; He whose firm heart my precepts still obeys, With safety walks through life’s perplexing maze; Who cautious follows where my footsteps lead, No cares shall feel, no mighty terrors dread. Small was my stream when first I rolled along, In clear meanders Eden’s vales among; With fresh’ning draughts each tender plant I fed, And bade each flow’ret raise its blushing head; But soon my torrent o’er its margin rose, Where late a brook, behold an ocean flows! For Wisdom’s blessings shall o’er earth extend, Blessings that know no bound, that know no end.” =The Talmud.=—Our treatise would be incomplete without some notice of the mysterious book whose name heads this paragraph,—the Talmud. Comparatively unknown except in name for centuries, it was repeatedly suppressed in the Dark Ages by popes and kings, as likely to be dangerous to Christianity. (_See Dr. Jastrow’s “Dictionary of the Talmud.”_) Talmud means _learning_. It is essentially a digest of law, civil and criminal, and a collection of traditions orally preserved. It consists of two parts, viz., the Mishna, or earlier text; and the Gemara (_ghe-mah’ră_), a commentary on the Mishna. The age that gave birth to the Talmud was the period after the Captivity, when a passionate love for their sacred and national writings animated the Jews restored to their country and its institutions. Hundreds of learned men, all great in their day, who treasured in their memories the traditions of a thousand years, contributed to its pages.