In taking a retrospective view of the facts that were stated in the preceding Lectures, it must be acknowledged that a spirit of relentless cruelty pervaded the whole nation; and we cannot but feel that the exactions and barbarities which were recorded, mark an indelible stain upon this period of your history. They are blots in the characters of the successive monarchs, and are painfully indicative of the cupidity, ferocity, and ignorance of the people. On the other hand, we must admit that the conduct of the Jews themselves, under their continued sufferings and oppressions, whilst it furnishes a fresh example of the characteristic perseverance with which they brave all dangers and difficulties, in pursuit of riches, affords, at the same time, a further proof of the resignation, fortitude, and self-devotion, for which that nation has been ever distinguished. Behold them proceeding to leave the British Isle in the beginning of winter; see their tender infants clinging to their mothers, who are scarcely able to support them; see them laying down when unable to proceed, stripped of all their comforts, insulted by those called Christians; and when they arrive at the sea shore, behold numbers of them, in their embarkation, drowned by the mere wanton barbarity of the English, and the rest stripped of the poor pittance they were permitted to retain. Oh, the reflections are too much for _me_. I would rather not think of the past, but look at the present improved state both of the persecuted and persecutors, which shall be the pleasing subject of the second series. It must not be omitted to be mentioned, that in banishing the Jews from this country, the English have expelled one of the most brilliant stars of the Reformation, who was a Christian Jew, an Englishman by birth, and educated in the University of Oxford, the well-known Nicolaus de Lyra, who wrote a commentary on the Old and New Testament; and being deeply versed in the ancient tongues, and well read in all the works of the learned rabbies, he selected their best opinions, and expounded the holy Scriptures in a manner far above the taste of that age, in which he showed a greater acquaintance with the principles of interpretation than any of his predecessors. He was, indeed, a most useful forerunner to Luther, who made ample use of his commentaries, in which he frequently reprehended the reigning abuses of the Church――a fact which led Pflug, Bishop of Naumberg, to say―― “Si Lyra non lyrasset, Lutherus non saltasset.” Others have it thus:―― “Nisi Lyra lyrasset, Totus mundus delirasset.”¹ ¹ See the Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism Investigated, p. 241. _Geschichteder hebräischen Sprache und Schrift_, p. 105.