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Our readers must excuse us, if we are again induced
to urge this deserving institution on their earnest attention. It is not
large sums the Managers require, but only sufficient to keep it in
existence until such a period as the general desire for information will
induce a regular sale of the works to be issued. But this period has not
yet arrived; and hence the necessity for us to ask all Israelites who
can spare the sum of one dollar per annum to send in their names as
members, for which they will receive all the numbers of the Jewish
Miscellany which may appear during the current year for which their
contribution is sent. The Committee on Publication do not pledge
themselves to any given number of volumes, but only that they mean to
issue them to the full amount of the money in the Treasurer’s hands;
beyond this they cannot go, unless they were to issue the books at their
own expense, which they cannot do under present circumstances, the
enterprise being one of a public nature, and the committee being only
the organ of a regularly instituted society. There appears to have been
an error prevailing in the minds of certain persons* in New Orleans with
regard to the frequency of publication, since we have learned that they
expected a number of the Miscellany every month. They perhaps have not
reflected that it would have been impossible for our committee to
perform as much literary labour as this would have required; besides
which, in the circular which the Editor of the Occident issued as
Corresponding Secretary no such prospect was held out, as he only
alluded to the possibility of eight numbers per annum, in case from
twelve to fifteen <<411>>hundred subscribers could be obtained.
We refer the
gentlemen who attach some personal blame to us to our circular of
December 10th, 1845, (Kislev 11th, 5606.) But instead of fifteen
hundred, not more than about four hundred and fifty were ever obtained;
we cannot state the precise number, as we have not at hand the Recording
Secretary’s book to refer to. It was only through means of the strictest
economy that the committee could issue nine numbers in two years;
and we have to depend for yet farther aid during this, the third year of
the society, to defray the expenses of four numbers, which it is
proposed to issue, two of which have only as yet appeared, owing to the
low state of the treasury. Instead of blaming the committee, people
ought to blame their own apathy. They always complain that they cannot
find good reading books for their children; that all the ordinary works
which they can purchase in the book stores are of such a tendency that
they give a wrong bias to the mind of youth. In this we join them with
all our heart; but when it comes to apply a remedy, to furnish a series
of good and instructive reading, (will it be believed?) it is impossible
to find, we will not say fifteen hundred subscribers at one dollar, but
even five hundred! Is this a blame to a committee of three Israelites
residing in Philadelphia, or to all the Jews living in America? We say
honestly, that if the enterprise can be carried on with more success in
another city, we, for one will vote to transfer it; if there can be
found three persons more disinterestedly alive to the wants of Judaism
than the present committee, let them be appointed. We have no personal
ends to subserve by the parent society’s being in Philadelphia, nor our
acting as chairman of the committee. Individually, we have spent many an
hour, many a day in revising and superintending the publications; and we
only regret that the task has not been oftener imposed on us; for
multifarious as our engagements are, we could have found time to attend
yet more to this public benefaction.
The enterprise is not a local nor a personal one;
it was, it is true, commenced in Philadelphia, and this too by the
present president and chairman of the publication committee; but only in
order that literature of a Jewish kind might be diffused all over the
land, at a cost so trifling that the poorest man might be able to
participate in its benefits. That our anticipations have not been
realized, is not our fault; that the rich have not stepped forward to
endow our treasury with the requisite funds, in the absence of
subscribers, is no cause of blame to us. But if we Jews had among us a
tithe of the zeal of the Christians, who spend their thousands in
tracts, prayer-books, and Bibles, for gratuitous distribution all over
the land, we should not have been compelled to wait the slow incoming of
the individual subscriptions. Still it is time
<<412>>that our men and women
whom the Lord has richly endowed with worldly goods, should think it
their duty to do something for their religion and its advancement. They
live in fine houses, eat dainty food, drive along in easy carriages; but
we ask them to point out to us the sacrifices they have made for
Judaism? Equally we ask the middling classes, “How much have you spared
from your daily superfluities to adorn and diffuse your religion?” We
fear that they could all easily have done a great deal more than they
have dreamt of, without injuring themselves or their families; the will
is only wanting, and whilst this is so, every enterprise must languish,
every effort of those sincerely religious must be in vain, as far as
human foresight can discern.
It is a pity that we have to make this public
confession, that we have to publish to the world a statement of our
derelictions; but we scorn to flatter Israelites or gentiles, and we
must speak out the truth, let it wound whom it may, or though it may
recoil back on us to our own injury. Personally we have no fear; and
thus we are perfectly careless whether or not our words draw upon us the
ill-will of any one, or of an entire class. This much we will say
unhesitatingly, that we have been an attentive observer of passing
events for fully twenty-four years that we have lived in this country,
and have never known a single person become poor by his contributions to
religious objects though in the mean time we have known of many fortunes
dissipated like chaff before the wind, and have known other cases where
a deceased left much less to divide among his heirs than they or the
public had expected. Would it not have been just as well in all these
cases had they who once possessed wealth given liberally towards the
promotion of their faith? They would have had at least the satisfaction
of looking back on the good they had done as so much snatched from the
general ruin, which has since befallen them.
We assure our readers, let their opinion of us or
our efforts be what they may, that they could not do better than by
encouraging education and literature with their means; for thus they
could lay the foundation of an elevated character for the rising
generation, and help to perpetuate the faith of Israel in all its
professors. They may deem books as trifling aids; but if this is so we
tell them they have not duly observed the operations of the human mind.
Their silent instructions instill drop by drop their impression on the
soul, and wo to that parent, and wo to that child, where the food of the
spirit is not carefully watched, so that its effects may be wholesome
only.
As regards the eleven numbers of the Miscellany
already issued, it becomes us not to speak, as we acted as editor
throughout. But no one will dispute that they are pleasant and useful;
and this is all that <<413>>can be demanded. And as regards cheapness, there is
no ground for complaint likewise; the books are richly worth the price
affixed, and thus the subscribers have received their full return for
their money and it is only to be regretted that our means were too
limited to have made their contribution more productive to them. We
hope, therefore, in conclusion, that people will make an earnest effort
to increase the sphere of usefulness of the society, and not injure it
at least by carping and fault-finding, and begrudge a few pennies in
postage for the works as they issue. All that the committee can do is to
send the books by the nearest post-office to some central place of
deposit; and let the contributors only remember that a little effort and
forbearance on their part will render our labours both pleasant and
useful to us and them; and that they are all equally interested in the
success of our enterprise, as the chairman and members of the
publication committee. |
