E. Lindo History of the Jews in Spain and Portugal, From the Earliest Times to Their Final Expulsion Form Those Kingdoms, and Their Subsequent Dispersion

Annotation

An impartial history of the Jews of Spain and Portugal has long been a desideratum. It is a link uniting the Hebrews of the present day with the Israelites of antiquity; for, during the many centuries they resided in the Iberian Peninsula, they continued to pursue their studies and cultivate the arts and sciences.<br><br>The writings of the learned Rabbins of Spain, served to preserve the works of the ancient philosophers, while Europe in the Gothic ages was exclusively occupied in the art of war. Seeking only to live in tranquillity, every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, from their peaceable habits they could dedicate themselves to study, in which their powerful intellects and cultivated minds gave them greater facilities than the other inhabitants of Europe, and in proportion to their population, even in the present enlightened age, they can boast a much larger number of men of genius and learning than any single country in the world can produce.<br><br>The Jesuit, Huarte, in his Examination of Genius, in the 16th century, considered that the Jewish mind was better fitted for learning than that of others; and the author of Coningsby would lead to the supposition that it yet remains unchanged.