Page:Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages (1917).djvu/16

12 And whether he wrote Hebrew verse or English prose, on grammar or exegesis or apologetics, his graceful style made the perusal a pleasure, not a task. In addition to several treatises on the rudiments of the Hebrew language may be mentioned his Hebrew elegy on the death of Princess Charlotte—done into English verse by his friend, Coleridge; the dirge chanted at the obsequies of George III.— likewise rendered into English by a Christian friend, W. Smith; the metrical Hebrew version of the British anthem, "God Save the King"; his "Vindiciæ Hebraicæ" in which he blends "much erudition, elegance of style, and well-applied wit"; his "Letter to Isaac Lyon Goldsmith," in defence of the Jewish religion; and "An introductory lecture delivered at the University of London," November 11, 1828—which, no doubt, is the date of his induction into office. It is not generally known that he published a specimen of a new revised Hebrew text of the Bible, in 1835, and that he supervised the printing of the first Hebrew Bible in the United States, issued by William Fry, in Philadelphia, 1814. In this connection, it is interesting to note that a Hebrew hymn, composed by Hurwitz, and set to music by Louis Leo, was chanted, seven years after the author's death, at the consecration of Temple B'nai Jeshurun, in New York City.