- MARY HOWITT'S ADAPTATION OF GOLDSCHMIDT'S JACOB BENDIX EN. * THIS

novel displays the customs and character of the Danish Jews, with their relative position to Christians in Denmark. As in many other didactic works, the elements do not fully carry out the apparent intention of the author. There is, indeed, a full and • Jacob Benditen. the Jew. Adapted from the Danish of Goldsebraidt, by Mary Howitt. In three volumes. Published by Colburn and co.

interesting account of the forme and practices of the genuine Jews of Northern Europe, which are as much traditional as Scriptural. There are sketches of the feelings of the Danes at large towards them, and of the uncomfortable position of such of them as are led by education and social ambition to aspire to a profession and to so- ciety. The story of the hero himself, however, lees illustrates the general state of the Jews than the peculiar troubles of a very pe- culiar Jew. The nature of Jacob Bendixen.. s more sensitive than that of mankind in general, his reason too marching for a religion of forms, his sympathies too large for a narrow dispensation. The conclusion from Goldschmidt's picture is, that the Jew is be- hind the age—too circumscribed for the " brOtherhood of nations " —in fact, in a "false position."

Jacob Bendixen, the hero, is the son of a Jew of Funen. He is a child of almost morbid sensibility, brought up after the straitest sect of the Hebrews. With the most ardent longings for companion- ship, he is driven back upon himself, by the thoughtless jests and ridiculous persecutions of the Christian boys of the, place. He passes his solitary leisure in fairy and poetical dreams, stimulated by his own nature and the soft sweet voice and Jewish songs of his mother : under his father he studies the Talmudic learning of his race. With a mind sharpened to logical distinctions, and a sensitiveness grown to preternatural acuteness, he departs for Copenhagen as a student; his father's wealth and his own ten- dencies deciding that he shall pursue learning instead of trade. At Copenhagen, as at Funen, he is met by annoyances, and, to his feelings, absolute persecution : but his quiet d.emeanour and his rapid progress interest the Rector; who not only protects him, but invites him to his house.

"Jacob could easily perceive, from the kindness which was shown to him, that the Rector had said something in his favour beforehand ; and he fancied also that he could see how careful everybody was in the opinions which they expressed, and how they avoided every allusion to Jews or Judaism; but, more than all, was he interested in the domestic and social life of the family, which now, for the first time, he saw as it existed among Christians : the lively, witty conversation of the ladies and gentle- men—conversation of which the unmistakeable element was a refined cultivated intellect ; the gayety at, the table, and even the arrangement of the table itself, and the various dishes many of which were to Jacob for- bidden meats, yet which were, from that very cause only, apparently the more enticing ; and lastly, after dinner, music and song and a little impro- vised dance. All this was to him a strange mixture of rapture and sickness of heart; it was a realization of the wild and wonderful phantom world in which he had dreamed and lived in his earlier childhood, and from which he now seemed to be more distantly' removed than ever, because he did not understand how to participate in it. These people seemed all to be- long to a highly-favoured caste ; to have learned a mysterious art, by which, out of nothing, they could create such an amount of pleasure. He -was seized by a painful longing; he wished that he bad been born of this caste."

This association, assisted by learning and logic, induces Jacob to doubt the utility of the ceremonial and rather cumbersome forms of the Jews, but without shaking his faith in their essential mo- notheism. To his father and family, however, these forms are all in all. The affectionate, devout, patriarchal spirit of his father, only shows itself in tender and touching regret for what he think; his son's apostasy: his uncle is more violent: and the youth of Jacob closes in family coldness and an individual creed. Jacob's love for Thora, the sister of a fellow medical student, is the leading feature of his early manhood. The lady's family are kind and to- lerant Christians, who overlook the difference of creed; and as long as he is with them alone, he' is natural and pleasant. But their friends, and still more a mixed company, revive his morbid sensi- tiveness. Like Chesterfield's vulgar man, he fancies himself the object of every look, and of every remark which he does not hear, of every smile with whose cause he is unacquainted. His position is further aggravated by a rather coarse busybody of a family aunt, the: ife of a divine, who wishes his conversion. At last, driven nigh beside himself by the annoyances to which he is subject, he resolves to quit the country, when his betrothed proposes that he should be baptized and he finds her tete-a-tete with a rival, The French Revolution of 1830 has just taken place, and lie rushes to Paris in hopes of action—distinction ; to find, like many other youthful enthusiasts, the reality a sad damper to his romantic dreams.

" When he had placed his luggage in his hotel, he went out to inquire about the revolution : but there was nothing to learn. Here and there lay a heap of stones which had been used for barricades, but the paviours were already fixing them again in the earth with their rammers; now and then he came to a house which had been injured by the firing, but even here the masons were at work putting all again into order.

"Jacob sought for the French people—the great people who had so lately in these very streets dethroned a king : but he saw only passers-by.as in Co- penhagen—calm, peaceful pedestrians. He sought for the Republican bands —they who at the first glance, he hoped, would see in him one of them- selves, and receive him as a brother: there were none—he himself was no more than a-mere pedestrian to the passers-by. Nobody noticed him, no- body troubled themselves about him—him who had risked the happiness of his life to hasten to them.

"He visited the Chamber of Deputies: they were disputing violently, passionately—about a word, a single letter of the Charter. He hastened to the courts of justice : they were passing sentence on a thief who had dis- turbed the public safety. "His brain seemed to swim; he began to imagine that he must have sold his soul to the Devil for a cheat. "He had wished so ardently to throw himself into the most violent tumult of life—into combat and danger, that he might win honour and renown. He went to the bureau of the Minister of War, that he might enrol himself as an officer in the Algerian service : but not being a Frenchman, he could not become a soldier!

"Es had hastened hither with his blood boiling and his muscles strung for action, and all at once he beheld himself destined to do nothing !"

Akeident, and interest at last enable him to embark for Algiers as. an officer; but his Hebrew nature pursues him, though his He-

brew -Creed is unknown. On the outbreak of the Polish insurrection, he accompanies a brother officer, a Pole, to Poland. After the war is over he returns to Copenhagen; where his betrothed has married his rival, And is encouraging the advances of another man. The lady dies before .her disgrace is accomplished ; and Jacob Bendixen sinks down into a charitable Jew discounter, differing in nothing from the rest of his tribe except in liberality to the poor and his mode of conducting his business. The way in which he did this is indicated in a conversation among some Jews who are attending his funeral ; for he died, a comparatively young man. " What trade did he carry on ? ' inquired Maus& Ringstedt. " Schaie Yisroel's countenance gloomed over at this question,. and he re- plied, God forgive him, and let not the earth lie heavily, upon lurn, because he took the bread from other children of Israel. Therefore am I going to- day, that I may get back a little of that of which he robbed me during two long years. Ile discounted bills ; and how did he discount them ? All the great folks were mad after him, and would not hare anything to do with us others, as long as he lived, although he took a higher percentage than I did. Not long. since, the fat Kammer-junker came to me.

" 'It is a long time since I had the pleasure of serving the Mr. Kammer- junker,' said I. " He laughed, and replied, 'Why, you see Bendixen is now ill, and pro- bably may not recover.'

" What, then, is not my money as good as Bendixen's,' asked I, Mr. Kammer-junker '

" ' Yes,' said he ; but then Bendixen was so like a gentleman, and treated me like a gentleman ; and even though he had the face to take his hundred per cent, yet I would rather have paid him that than you your fifty per cent. And if one happens to be pinched on an occasion, and has not any- thing to leave with him as security or pledge, he will accept one's word of honour, as if he himself understood what word of honour meant. That's what you do not, Mr. Yisroel.' That was what the Kammer-junker said.

No, God forbid, Mr. Kammer-junker !' says I ; any solid pledge for me, but not your word of honour. I have already as many words of honour from lieutenants, lying by me, as would equip a whole regiment.' On that the Kammer-junker laughed, and left me in pledge a new pair of epaulettes, which he had just fetched from the goldsmith, whom he paid with his word of honour.

"'Gentleman?' asked Mausch Ringstedt of his neighbour, what does that mean ?'

" How can I tell?' replied the interrogated; one, I suppose, who takes a hundred per cent.' "

Our extracts will show the pointed, sly, and searching humour that animates the work (if it has not been heightened by the trans- lator, which we think unlikely); and it is rather in critical and in- tellectual than dramatic qualities that the author excels. The subject of the early section is delineation of manners and display of character. In the narrative and dramatic parts these are some- what level, resembling the style of a juvenile tale. They owe their attraction to the information they furnish upon Jewish man- ners and customs, their pictures of Jewish family life, and their exhibition of the kind, affectionate, but exclusive and bigoted feel- ings, of the chosen people. Middle class manners in Copenhagen, and the metaphysical display of Jacob Bendixen's mental peculiari- ties, form the subject of toe second part. The manners have fresh- ness, but Frederica Bremer and Andersen have forestalled their ab- solute novelty : the picture of Jacob's sensitiveness is consistent and natural in itself, though somewhat extreme in its instances. The third volume has adventures, in which the former parts are de- ficient. In them there is a clever sketch of the Polish campaign and the oppressions of the Russians ; neither is the Jewish subject altogether lost sight of, but it has not the fulness of the earlier parts. As a single work, Jacob Bendixen is as interesting from its novel pictures of life as anything of Frederica Bremer.