through its inspired prime to its brilliant after-glow in the centuries
with which this little volume deals.

One special reason has induced me to limit this book to the scope
indicated above. The Bible has been treated in England and America in a
variety of excellent text-books written by and for Jews and Jewesses. It
seemed to me very doubtful whether the time is, or ever will be, ripe
for dealing with the Scriptures from the purely literary stand-point in
teaching young students. But this is the stand-point of this volume.
Thus I have refrained from including the Bible, because, on the one
hand, I felt that I could not deal with it as I have tried to deal with
the rest of Hebrew literature, and because, on the other hand, there was
no necessity for me to attempt to add to the books already in use. The
sections to which I have restricted myself are only rarely taught to
young students in a consecutive manner, except in so far as they fall
within the range of lessons on Jewish History. It was strongly urged on
me by a friend of great experience and knowledge, that a small text-book
on later Jewish Literature was likely to be found useful both for home
and school use. Such a book might encourage the elementary study of
Jewish literature in a wider circle than has hitherto been reached.
Hence this book has been compiled with the definite aim of providing an
elementary manual. It will be seen that both in the inclusions and
exclusions the author has followed a line of his own, but he lays no
claim to originality. The book is simply designed as a manual for those
who may wish to master some of the leading characteristics of the
subject, without burdening themselves with too many details and dates.

This consideration has in part determined also the method of the book.
In presenting an outline of Jewish literature three plans are possible.
One can divide the subject according to _Periods_. Starting with the