Introduction to _Zera’im_; see also _Foundations of the Law_, chaps. ix. and x. Footnote 130: _Guide_, III., chap. li. Footnote 131: See R. Shem-Tob’s Commentary on the _Guide_, _loc. cit._ Footnote 132: _Ibid._ Footnote 133: Maimonides himself describes the contemporary state of culture among his people in several places. See, for instance, the _Treatise on Resurrection_. Footnote 134: _Emunoth v’ Deoth_, Preface. Footnote 135: R. Jehudah Halevi, despite his profound knowledge of contemporary philosophy, says categorically: “He who accepts this [the Law] completely, without scrutiny or argument, is better off than he who investigates and analyses” (_Cuzri_, II., xxvi. [Dr. Hirschfeld’s translation]). Footnote 136: _Guide_, I., chap. lxxi. Footnote 137: As to the state of mind of the forced converts at that time see what Maimonides says in the _Treatise of the Sanctification of the Name_ and the _Iggereth Teman_. Footnote 138: See Section II. above. Note especially what Maimonides says about prophecy in the Introduction to his _Commentary on the Mishnah_ (written at the time when he lived among the forced converts). Some of this is quoted in Section II. He writes there with such incisive force as to make it clear that he has left the realm of pure speculation and theory, and has a practical object connected with actual circumstances which had stirred him deeply at the time. Footnote 139: All this is clearly hinted in Maimonides’ _Treatise of the Sanctification of the Name_. Footnote 140: _Guide_, III., chap. xxvii. Footnote 141: We find all the principles of his system in the Introduction to his first book (the _Commentary on the Mishnah_), and again at the end of his last book (_Guide_, III., chap. li.). Footnote 142: See Introduction to _Commentary on the Mishnah_. Footnote 143: “This is not the place to treat of this matter; but it is my intention, wherever a matter of belief is mentioned, to explain it briefly. For I love to teach nothing so much as one of the principles of religion” (end of _Berachoth_). Footnote 144: Especially important in this connection are the Introductions to _Zera’im_, to chapter _Chelek_ (where he brings in all the principles of religion), and to _Aboth_ (_Eight Chapters_). Footnote 145: His Preface makes it clear that he regarded his book as a sort of Mishnah in a new form; and it seems (though he does not say it in so many words) that he intended to hint at this idea by the title of the book—_Mishneh Torah_. Footnote 146: