poverty, but, by perseverance, he made his way through incredible
difficulties to the highest literary reputation among the most eminent men
of his country and of his age; and obtained the name of the Jewish
Socrates. In consequence of his early, intense, and misapplied application
in his first Jewish school, he was seized at ten years old with some
dreadful nervous disease; this interested me, and I went on with his
history. Of his life I should probably have remembered nothing, except what
related to the nervous disorder; but it so happened, that, soon after I had
read this life, I had occasion to speak of it, and it was of considerable
advantage in introducing me to good company at Cambridge. A few days after
I arrived there, Jacob called on me: I returned his book, assuring him that
it had interested me very much. "Then, sir," said he, "since you are so
fond of learning and learned men, and so kind to the Jews, there is a
countryman of mine now at Cambridge, whom it will be well worth your while
to be acquainted with; and who, if I may be bold enough to say so, has been
prepossessed in your favour, by hearing of your humanity to poor Jacob."

Touched as I was by his eagerness to be of use to me, I could not help
smiling at Jacob's simplicity and enthusiasm, when he proceeded to explain,
that this person with whom he was so anxious to make me acquainted was a
learned rabbi, who at this time taught Hebrew to several of the gownsmen of
Cambridge. He was the son of a Polish Jew, who had written a Hebrew
grammar, and was himself author of a treatise on fluxions (since presented
to, and accepted by the university), and moreover the author of a
celebrated work on botany. At the moment Jacob was speaking, certainly my
fancy was bent on a phaeton and horses, rather than on Hebrew or fluxions,
and the contrast was striking, between what he conceived my first objects
at Cambridge would be, and what they really were. However, I thanked him
for his good opinion, and promised to make myself acquainted with his
learned countryman. To make the matter secure, as Jacob was to leave