MENDELSON, Moses, that is, Moses the son
of Mendel, a Jew of Berlin, and one of the most cele-
brated writers of Germany, died there in the year 1785
at the age of 57. His first attempt as an author was
soon after 1767, by a work entitled Jerusalem; in which,
besides other bold and unjustifiable opinions; he main-
tains, that the Jews have a revealed law but not a re-
vealed religion; that opinions are not subjects of re-
velation; and that the only religion of the Jewish na-
tion is that of nature. He acquired great honour by
his Phædon, or "Discourses on the Immateriality and
Immortality of the Soul," translated into the French
1773, 8vo; in which he unfolds this important truth,
the great foundation of all morality, with the wisdom
of an enlightened philosopher and the charms of an ele-
gant writer. In consequence of this excellent work,
he was styled the Jewish Socrates by some of the pe-
riodical writers; but he wanted the firmness and cou-
rage of the Grecian philosopher. His timidity, and
even pusillanimity, defects too common to speculative
men, prevented him from being of any essential service
to his nation; of which he might have become the
benefactor by being the reformer. The pliancy of his
character, his soft, modest, and obliging disposition,
gained him the esteem alike of the superstitious and
of the incredulous. After all, he could never procure
admission to the Berlin society, or to the conversation
of the king of Prussia. At his death he received from
his nation those honours which are commonly paid to
their first rabbins. Contrary to an imprudent custom
prevalent among the Jews of burying their dead before
sunset, his interment was delayed till 24 hours after he
expired. Though Mendelshon was descended from a
respectable family, he was very poor. In early life he
entered into a counting-house of his own nation, where-
in he greatly recommended himself by his capacity and
integrity in business: But philosophy and literature soon
became his principal occupation; and to the famous
Lessing he was indebted for counsels which, without
diverting his attention from those pursuits that were
necessary to his subsistence, accelerated his progress in
his literary career. Even after the death of his bene-
factor, Mendelshon retained for him the sincerest regard
and the most lively gratitude. Notwithstanding the
very strict regimen which he observed, he survived him
only a few years; for his feeble frame and weak consti-
tution were gradually and insensibly undermined by in-
tense application to study.