Maimonides had advanced far beyond his contemporaries in knowledge. Instructed in the philosophy of Aristotle, and a devout student of Plato, his mind broke loose from the fetters of Judaical Rabbinism, and sought to base religion on philosophy rather than on revelation. At one period of his life it is known that he did, under strong external pressure, make an outward profession of Mahometanism, or at least conformed to its ritual. Possibly his experience of its rigid stereotyped creed—on account of which Gibbon has bestowed such strange praise upon it—may have made him less tolerant of the fetters of Rabbinical tradition. It is certain that he introduced new lights and strange forms of thought into his teaching, which alarmed and irritated his brother Rabbins. His opinions were attacked by able and learned men; their supposed errors exposed and condemned. In France, more particularly, the feeling against them became so strong that his works were publicly burned as heretical. A fierce warfare was waged over his writings, which lasted many years, but ended at last in his entire restoration to the respect and admiration of his countrymen. A deputation was sent, in 1232, to his grave in Hebron, to ask pardon of his ashes. If strict justice were done in this life, of how many of its greatest men would not the same entreaty for forgiveness have to be asked! In Maimonides’ instance, at all events, the entreaty was sincere. He is now acknowledged by the Jews to have been the greatest man that has arisen among them since the days of the great Lawgiver who led them out of Egypt. Their common saying about him is, ‘From Moses to Moses there arose not a Moses!’ His writings consist of commentaries and expositions, partly of Scripture, partly of the Talmuds, treatises on logic, metaphysics, medicine, astrology, natural history, and other subjects, in such numbers that they would of themselves form an extensive library. Here also should be mentioned some others of the chief writers of that golden age of Jewish literature—the three Kimchis, Moses, Joseph, and David, born in 1160, 1190, and 1192, all of them Jews of Spanish descent, but natives of Narbonne, and renowned for their ability and learning. David, the most distinguished of the three, was the author of a Hebrew grammar and dictionary of such excellence that he obtained the title of the ‘Prince of Grammarians.’ In the great struggle of those days between the supporters and opponents of science, he ranged himself on the side of the former, and travelled into Spain to endeavour to form a league of those who held his views; and, though we are told he did not prosper in his errand, we cannot doubt that his advocacy had its effect in the ultimate determination of the question.