immediately stopping to read the passage. And here I must observe, that not
only in the old story books, where the Jews are as sure to be wicked as the
bad fairies, or bad genii, or allegorical personifications of the devils,
and the vices in the old emblems, mysteries, moralities, &c.; but in almost
every work of fiction, I found them represented as hateful beings; nay,
even in modern tales of very late years, since I have come to man's estate,
I have met with books by authors professing candour and toleration--books
written expressly for the rising generation, called, if I mistake not,
Moral Tales for Young People; and even in these, wherever the Jews are
introduced, I find that they are invariably represented as beings of a
mean, avaricious, unprincipled, treacherous character. Even the
peculiarities of their persons, the errors of their foreign dialect and
pronunciation, were mimicked and caricatured, as if to render them objects
of perpetual derision and detestation. I am far from wishing to insinuate
that such was the serious intention of these authors. I trust they will in
future benefit by these hints. I simply state the effect which similar
representations in the story books I read, when I was a child, produced on
my mind. They certainly acted most powerfully and injuriously,
strengthening the erroneous association of ideas I had accidentally formed,
and confirming my childish prejudice by what I then thought the
indisputable authority of _printed books_.

About this time also I began to attend to conversation--to the conversation
of gentlemen as well as of ladies; and I listened with a sort of personal
interest and curiosity whenever Jews happened to be mentioned. I recollect
hearing my father talk with horror of some young gentleman who had been
_dealing with the Jews_, I asked what this meant, and was answered, "'Tis
something very like dealing with the devil, my dear." Those who give a
child a witty instead of a rational answer, do not know how dearly they
often make the poor child pay for their jest. My father added, "It is