Page:Sefer ha-Yashar or the book of Jasher (1840).djvu/16

VI was many years subsequently published, in Lemberg, in Gallicia. Both editions, in Hebrew, are now in my possession; and the Royal Asiatic Society, having found a copy of Jasher in Calcutta, gave orders to have it translated, which order was countermanded when it was ascertained that considerable progress had been made in England in this translation. The following copy of a letter from the secretary to the translator, shows the estimate which that learned Society placed upon the work.

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Grafton St., Bond St., London, Sept. 2, 1831.



I am extremely obliged by your having favored me with the sight of Mr. Noah’s letter, and in reply to your letter, mention that the Oriental Translation Committee does not consider that it has any claims on your work, and if that ever the Rev. Mr. Adams translates the Book of Jasher, it will not be in the lapse of several years. Hoping that your praiseworthy and valuable labors in that interesting work will soon, in one shape or other, be presented to the public,

I remain, Dear Sir,

Your obliged and ob’t Serv’t,

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Whatever may have been written and published by commentators, relative to the fabrications of Jasher, I am persuaded they had no reference to this work, although this is the work slightly touched upon by Dr. Horne, as the publication in Venice, on the first discovery of printing; but of its origin and history he knew nothing beyond the rumor that it had originally been brought from Jerusalem. There are some events recorded in Jasher, that are found in the Talmud, no doubt copied from Jasher; for although we find in the Talmud, the Mishnah, and Gemarrah, many parables and fanciful tales, to effect moral and religious purposes, yet every thing that we have in Jasher we find recorded in the Bible, with this difference, that in Jasher the occurrences of the Bible are amplified and detailed at length. The celebrated philosopher, Mendelsohn, expresses a