23 JUNE 1888, Page 25

Jewish Portraits. By Lady Magnus. (T. Fisher TInwin.)— These are

somewhat slight, but graceful and interesting sketches. They deal with Jehudah Halevi ; the street in Frankfort from which the house of Rothschild proceeds ; Heinrich Heine ; the criticisms passed on "Daniel Deronda ;" Manasseh Ben Israel, the great printer, publisher and apologist for the Jews in the time of Crom- well; "Charity in Talmudic Times ;" and Moses Mendelssohn. To us, the paper of greatest interest and most substance is that on "Charity in Talmudic Times ;" while the least just and in- teresting is that on Heinrich Heine, which is a paper rather of the rose-water-sprinkling order. Now, Heinrich Heine had genius enough, and bitterness enough, and sweetness enough, too, of its kind, and savageness enough, and passion enough, and even foulness enough, to make it rather inappropriate to sprinkle him with rose- water. That does not make his sweetness sweeter ; and it certainly does not over-power the foulness of his fouler poems. The paper

on "Charity in Talmudic Times" is a very clear and pleasant one,

and the whole volume is both pleasant and readable.