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V such an active intelligent people, rather than to restrict them in their material and mental p r o g r e s s — The Jews of our time have been most successful in their exertions i n science and art, and many of the most esteemed names among poets and authors, have been pointed out by them with just pride as their brethren in the faith. What this highly gifted people have effected under the most unfavourable circumstances, under continual oppression and clogging prejudices, historians have sufficiently proved. But what, i f free, they could effect for mankind and the world, bids defiance to every calculation; it offers the elements of a power which no political economist, no politician, who would not lay himself open to the charge of shortsightedness, dare undervalue.Whereever these people are found, even i f it be in the most depressed state, they furnish matter for reflection, and germs capable of extraordinary developement. Apart from their Biblical history, great interest has always been connected with the Jews in their separation and dispersion; and to ascertain which country received the ten lost tribes of Israel is a scientific problem, the solution of which possesses universal importance. — To this end Benjamin's ,,Eight years in Asia and Africa" furnishes an unpretending but nevertheless a valuable contribution, which as such merits recommendation, even to those, who do not belong to the same faith as the estimable author. May these few words serve to recommend this book, — be a helping hand, which one traveller willingly lends to another when they accidentally meet, soon after by different paths to continue their earthly wanderings towards the same goal. 22. C'anonbury Square, Islington, London. May 3, 1808.
Berthold Secmann, ph. D., F. L. S., Adjunctus Praesidii of the Imperial LeopoldinoCaroline Academy.