it. R. Samuel now understood what the Gaon meant, and laughingly joined in the study of this tracate.
Whatever element of fiction may exist in these stories, they are of considerable significance to us. For no matter what may be said of legends and their origin, this much is certain, that they show us the attitude of the people toward those about whom they are gathered. If we consider that it is only a little over a century since
the death of Elijah, and that he is already, like Elijah of old, celebrated in hundreds of legends, we shall certainly be helped in forming a true conception of his greatness. Though his biographies show oriental exaggerations, it is nevertheless a fact that he was worthy of all the name "Gaon" implies, and it is equally true that during several centuries we have not had his like.
(To be continued.)
The Neo-Hebrew Muse and some of its Contemporaries.
To enter the realm of Hebrew poetry does not always mean to be uplifted where the ideal moves in all the freedom of unrestrained emotion, and where the sordid and commonplace; in other words, the real, fades out of sight. The explorer in the field of Hebrew poetry is spared such pleasurable illusions; for Hebrew poetry, past or contemporary, is a record of the real, rather than a picture of the ideal. The Hebrew poet does not court the muse for his own pleasure. He writes out of duty to his people, the recorder of whose fate he is. His central theme is always the persecution of his people. The slavery of the martyred race rings through every plaintive note. If Hebrew poetry has changed but little in tone, it is because the lot of the Jew has but little improved. The same pathos which pervaded the Hebrew poetry of the Middle Ages stamps the writings of contemporary poets. The
Hebrew language has undergone striking and curious changes; its diction has been modernized, expanded, and in Russia Russianized; but the theme, the central theme, is the old, old one. There is one significant difference, however, which those who would compare medieval with contemporary Hebrew poetry should not overlook, viz.: While the Hebrew poetry of the Middle Ages, with all its pathos, was the expression of optimism, the Hebrew poetry of to-day, whether sad or cynical, is the expression of pronounced pessimism. This change in the attitude of the Jew, natural as it may be, is not without unhappy consequences. The Jews' proverbial faith in God is put to question. Where is that silent endurance, that divine patience once exercised by him? Have the ages taxed his strength, sapped his ardor, deadened his aspiration? Perhaps! But why does he not look up to God for a restoration of his