do something oneself for the Jewish cause, and thus fulfil the poet's
lines,

Thus shalt thou plant a garden round the tomb,
Where golden hopes may flower, and fruits immortal bloom.




THE SOLACE OF BOOKS


In the year 1190, Judah ibn Tibbon, a famous Provencal Jew, who had
migrated to Southern France from Granada, wrote in Hebrew as follows to his
son:

"Avoid bad society: make thy books thy companions. Let thy bookcases and
shelves be thy gardens and pleasure grounds. Pluck the fruit that grows
therein; gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh. If thy soul be
satiate and weary, change from garden to garden, from furrow to furrow,
from scene to scene. Then shall thy desire renew itself, and thy soul be
rich with manifold delight."

In this beautiful comparison of a library to a garden, there is one point
missing. The perfection of enjoyment is reached when the library, or at
least a portable part of it, is actually carried into the garden. When
Lightfoot was residing at Ashley (Staffordshire), he followed this course,
as we know from a letter of his biographer. "There he built himself a small
house in the midst of a garden, containing two rooms below, viz. a study
and a withdrawing room, and a lodging chamber above; and there he studied