We must not pass over Mendelssohn’s three celebrated friends—Wessely, the father of modern Hebrew poetry, David Friedlander, the founder of the Jews’ Free School at Berlin, and Isaac Euchel, the translator of the Jewish prayer-book. These men, though less distinguished than their great contemporary, have exercised so large an influence on their countrymen and co-religionists that they may be said to have almost entirely changed the tone of Jewish thought and feeling.[206] The synagogue service has also undergone considerable alteration. The prayers and sacred poems have been abridged, and preaching very generally introduced. Even the use of organs is not unusual. Indeed, the old stereotyped service seems to have been exchanged for a ritual according in minor matters with the sentiments and inclination of each congregation. In Russia, during this century, the condition of the Jews seems to have varied according to the caprices alike of the rulers and the people. They were admitted within the Muscovite kingdom by Peter the Great; but in the reign of Elizabeth, A.D. 1745, their residence was again forbidden, on the ground that they had been maintaining a treasonable correspondence with some Siberian exiles. The expulsion could not have been general, since only a few years later, in 1753, the old charge of sacrificing children was again alleged against them; an appeal was made to the reigning pope, Benedict XIV., and his successor (Clement XIII.) undertook to make an investigation. He accordingly commissioned Count Bruhl to inquire into the matter, adding, to his honour, that he was to disregard all hearsay evidence, and be satisfied with nothing short of proof. It needs not to add that he did not obtain that. But the popular fury rose to such a height that an imperial ukase was found necessary to control it. The same charge has been repeated since, with the same total absence of evidence, even in our time. FOOTNOTES: [204] ‘There be Three Lights in God: the Ancient Light, the Pure Light, the Purified Light. These three make one God.’ For Book of Zohar, see Appendix. [205] Nathan the Jew, the hero of Lessing’s famous play, _Nathan der Weiss_, was designed as a portrait of Mendelssohn. [206] There were other distinguished men belonging to this age, which, indeed, was unusually rife in literary talent. Joel Lowe, professor at Breslau; Herr Homberg, superintendent of Jewish education in Galicia; Aaron Wolfsohn, also professor at Breslau; and Solomon Maimon, author of several philosophical works and his own autobiography. CHAPTER XL. A.D. 1700-1800. THE JEWS IN ENGLAND.