Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/202

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198
JEWISH LITERATURE

ant historical record. For the author shared the sufferings of the Jews of the Iberian peninsula in 1391, and this gives pathetic point to his counsel: “Flee without hesitation when exile is the only means of securing religious freedom; have no regard to your worldly career or your property, but go at once.”

It is needless to indicate fully the nature of the Ethical Wills of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries. They are closely similar to the foregoing, but they tend to become more learned and less simple. Yet, though as literature they are often quite insignificant, as ethics they rarely sink below mediocrity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ethical Literature

Steinschneider.—Jewish Literature, pp. 100, 232.
B. H. Ascher.—Choice of Pearls (with English translation, London, 1859).
D. Rosin.—Ethics of Solomon Ibn Gebirol, J. Q. R., III, p. 159.

Bachya

Graetz, III, p. 271.