It is said by some writers that he did at last go to Jerusalem, and died there; and others assert that he was murdered by Arabs on the road thither; and yet others, that he never had even the happiness to start on the long-desired journey. In truth, of the actual facts of Halevi’s life we know, as absolute certainty, but few, and we have to build up his character, and guess at his circumstances, from his writings. These are fortunately plentiful, and there is no difficulty at arriving at some settled conclusions. From the love poems, which are 800 in number, we gather some knowledge of a happy home, and of a wife of ‘rarest worth and sweet exceedingly.’ Then there are quantities of letters to prove to us that Halevi was as faithful in friendship as in love. One of these epistles, written to a companion while absent on his travels, after regretting the loss of his society, adds, prettily and poetically enough, ‘Within our hearts thou ne’er art out of sight.’ Another, which is addressed to Moses Ibn Ezra, begins, ‘How can I rest whilst we are absent one from another? Were it not for the glad hope of thy return, the day which tore thee from me would tear me from all the world.’ An elegy, which Halevi wrote in 1138 on the occasion of Moses Ibn Ezra’s death, is one of his best known and best liked compositions. Moses Ibn Ezra was a relative of the witty, wandering Abraham Ibn Ezra, and one of that brotherhood of poetic philosophers. But the most characteristic of Halevi’s writings are his religious poems, and these show us our poet in the truest aspect of his short but many-sided life. ‘For Thy songs, O Lord, my heart is a harp,’ he says in one place; and here is a specimen of the melody of his heart-strings: ‘Lord! where art Thou to be found? Hidden and high is Thy home. And where shall we find Thee not? Thy glory fills the world. Thou art found in my heart, And at the uttermost ends of the earth. A refuge for the near, For the far, a trust. ‘The universe cannot contain Thee; How then a temple’s shrine? Though Thou art raised above men On Thy high and lofty throne, Yet art Thou near unto them In their spirit and in their flesh. Who can say he has not seen Thee? When, lo! the heavens and their host Make, silently, Thy presence manifest. ‘I sought to draw near to Thee. With my whole heart I sought Thee, And when I went out to meet Thee, To meet me, Thou wast ready. In the wonders of Thy might And in Thy holiness I have beheld Thee. Who is there that should not fear Thee? The yoke of Thy kingdom is the yoke of all. Who is there that should not call upon Thee? Thou givest unto all their food.’