66 Moral:-Man enters the world with nothing; and, however much he accumulates, he must leave the world with nothing." A lively instance is given in the Talmud of the reverence paid to woman, and the mutual love between husband and wife, existing in the pure Semitic race. The daughter of a purse-proud gentleman (the race is not extinct yet), by name Kelba Sebua, married the young and penniless Akiba, afterwards the great Rabbi Akiba; the daughter was disowned and disinherited by her rich papa for marrying one so much beneath her in wealth and station, but, after the usual experience of love in a cottage, they found that poverty was easier to think of than to bear; the wife knew her husband's capacity for knowledge, and after dividing their last coin, he, with her consent, departed to a seat of learning, where Akiba could develop his mental faculties, and they mutually agreed to work, each one in their humble sphere, until they could meet again in better times. Years rolled on, and busy neighbours gossiped to the wife that the husband merely made this love of knowledge the excuse for leaving her, seeing that he was disappointed of her father's wealth. But she believed in her husband, and one day a herald announced the approach (as was the custom in those days) of a great master, accompanied by thousands of his followers and disciples. The people rushed out to welcome the approach of the much talked of sage, and a poor, thin, ill-clad female came nearer and still more near, when she was rudely thrust aside. Akiba seeing this instantly recognised his wife, and holding her forth to the crowd of disciples and followers, said, "Ye all praise and venerate me as a great teacher, but to her, my wife, give the honour, for she was my teacher; without her I should not have been what I am now." The rich father relented, and, as they say in the story books, forgave them, and they lived happily ever after. Though, by the way, Akiba died a martyr in the rebellion of Barchochab. Thus matter for a modern three volumed novel existed even in those early periods. The fear of trespassing upon your patience prevents my going any further into Semitic proverbs, and their concomitant Semiticism. The proverbs of a people always reflect their social condition, and those I have read to you speak for themselves. I have but touched upon the surface of a problem, which has been the theme of philosophers of every age, "the vitality of races." This depends upon three great facts combined, the desire for knowledge, the love of home, and veneration for the past. It will be observed that where these characteristics are distinct, the race has a wonderful vitality. Mark the Anglo-Saxon race; its desire for knowledge is combined with the love of home, and its respect for ancestry is great to a fault. The social hearth in England is the centre of those pure and unalloyed pleasures, that have made her sons brave and virtuous, and rendered them active and useful in every zone and every climate. The domestic feeling is so strong in the Semitic breast, that a home seems to a Jew the height of human happiness. The husband is never so happy as when his wife and children sit round the social board; and to this day, if we could peep into many houses of the descendants of this race, we should see them mostly cheerful, happy, and singing merry songs of the tales and adventures. of their old heroes, that live as vividly as of yore. Another marked feature in this race is their love of knowledge and information; they seek it from whatever channel it may be offered, in any school, and of any denomination. In Hungary and Poland, the works of Plato and Aristotle are translated into their jargon dialects, as well as into pure Hebrew, and are carefully studied and understood by even ordinary workmen. I read lately that "Shake speare's Hamlet" and "Goethe's Faust" have been translated into pure Hebrew, and that a hundred thousand copies were sold rapidly; some were purchased for the interior of Persia. But the nineteenth century (I am afraid the phrase is fast becoming hackneyed) is a great leveller, and virtue and learning are really the property, more or less, of every race, and not the particular feature of any one; indeed with respect to knowledge and science at the present day we can assert with the laureate "For Saxon, or Dane, or Norman we, We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee." The present generation has learned to cast off prejudice, and to acknowledge virtue wherever it existed, and they do not allow themselves to be blinded by the misrepresentations of past ages. When we search into the literatures of various peoples, and study them, not for the sake of adverse criticism, but truthfully and impartially, we shall indeed see how true to nature, and how universally applicable, are the words of our immortal bard, when he said we could 66 Find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, TWELFTH ORDINARY MEETING. ROYAL INSTITUTION, 5th April, 1869. REV. C. D. GINSBURG, LL. D., PRESIDENT, in the Chair. A communication was received from the Council, stating that the Address to Mr. Charles Dickens would be presented to that gentleman on Wednesday, the 7th inst., at the Adelphi Hotel, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Members generally were invited to attend. It was also stated that the Council had arranged to send three Delegates to the British Association Meeting at Exeter, on the same terms as last year. Mr. A. Higginson called attention to a subject which he had frequently brought under the notice of the Society, namely, the ventilation of sewers, by connecting them with the chimneys of furnaces; and he now expressed his satisfaction that the plan was being practically carried out in Bootle. He considered it to be the most effectual mode of ventilating sewers. An interesting specimen of the fungus tribe, sent by Mr. Alderman Bennett, was submitted to the Meeting, and its nature and characteristics were briefly explained by the Rev. H. H. Higgins. The following paper was then read : THE ORIGIN OF THE MUGGLETONIANS. BY ALEXANDER GORDON, M.A. My object in writing this paper is to furnish an authentic sketch of the Origin of the Muggletonians, a people so obscure that I may even call them unknown. Say to ninety-nine persons out of a hundred that So-and-so is a Unitarian, and you immediately suggest doubts more or less unfavourable to the salvation of So-and-so's soul. But say, instead, that So-and-so is a Muggletonian, and you raise no theological idea whatever; you simply excite a natural amusement that any one can be found who is odd enough to identify himself' with so uncommon a name. Some time ago I had occasion to examine some papers at the Public Record Office connected with this subject, and on mentioning to one of the officials the purpose of my search, "Muggletonians!" said he, "I thought the leading authority was 'Pickwick'!"* Indeed the name has served the turn of wits, from the period of the Restoration downwards. I might refer to Tom Brown's droll and scandalous invention of the marriage of Dr. Titus Oates to one Mrs. Margaret Wells, a Muggletonian widow;† I might quote Allan Ramsay's good-humoured * 66 Muggleton is an ancient and loyal borough, mingling a zealous advocacy of Christian principles with a devoted attachment to commercial rights."-Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, chap. vii. + "Since the saviour of the nation has join'd his saving faculty with a damning talent (for you are to understand his lady is a Muggletonian, and those people pretend to have the power of damnation), we may now expect to see a motly race of half-saviours and half-damners." The Widow's Wedding: or a true Account of Dr. Oates' Marriage with a Muggletonian Widow in Bread |