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, king of Leon and Castile, who has been surnamed The Wise, on account of his attachment to literature, is now more celebrated for having been an astronomer than a king. He was born in 1203, succeeded his father Ferdinand III. in 1252, and died in 1284, consequently at the age of 81. The affairs of the reign of Alphonsus were very extraordinary and unfortunate, but we shall here only consider him in that part of his character, on account of which he has a place in this work, namely, as an astronomer and a man of letters. He acquired a profound knowledge of astronomy, philosophy, and history, and composed books upon the motions of the heavens, and on the history of Spain, which are highly commended. “What can be more surprising,” says Mariana, “than that a prince, educated in a camp, and handling arms from his childhood, should have such a knowledge of the stars, of philosophy, and the transactions of the world, as men of leisure can scarcely acquire in their retirements? There are extant some books of Alphonsus on the motions of the stars, and the history of Spain, written with great skill and incredible care.” In his astronomical pursuits he discovered that the tables of Ptolemy were full of errors, and was the first to undertake the task of correcting them. For this purpose, about the year 1240, and during the life of his father, he assembled at Toledo the most skilful astronomers of his time, Christians, Moors, or Jews, when a plan was formed for constructing new tables. This task was accomplished about 1252, the first year of his reign; the tables being drawn up chiefly by the skill and pains of Rabbi Isaac Hazan, a learned Jew, and the work called the Alphonsine Tables, in honour of the prince, who was at vast expences concerning them. He fixed the epoch of the tables to the 30th of May 1252, being the day of his accession to the throne. They were printed for the first time in 1483, at Venice, by Radtolt, who excelled in printing at that time; an edition extremely rare: there are others of 1492, 1521, 1545, &c.

His person was comely and graceful, and his countenance expressive of studiousness and gravity. His indefatigable attention to his studies, gave him an air of austerity; and, at times, there appears to have been no inconsiderable degree of moroseness in his deportment: notwithstanding which, he is represented as behaving in a very kind and affable manner to his friends, and as being very pleasant in conversation with them, especially at his meals. He would also be free and communicative to any persons who desired to learn of him, but very angry with scholars, if they did not readily comprehend his meaning. Open impiety and profaneness were always opposed by him with great zeal and courage. He was much dissatisfied, as appears from several passages in his works, that his great learning had not procured him more encouragement, and he evidently thought that he had a just claim to some considerable preferment. He was unquestionably a man of very uncommon erudition, but -extremely deficient in taste and judgment. He was also of a testy and choleric temper, had a high opinion of his own learning and abilities, was extremely dogmatical, and treated those who differed from him in opinion with much rudeness and scurrility; though some allowance must be made for the age in which he lived, in which that mode of writing was much more common among divines and scholars than it is at present. From the general tenor of his life and of his works, and the opinion formed of him by those who were the best acquainted with him, it seems equitable to conclude, that, with all his failings, he meant well; nor do we apprehend that there is any sufficient ground for the extreme severity with which the late Mr. Gilpin has treated him in his “Lite of Bernard Gilpin.” He translated the Prophetical writings into Greek, and the Apocalypse into Hebrew. He was desirous of translating the whole New Testament into Hebrew, which he thought would have contributed much to the conversion of the Jews, if he had met with proper encouragement. And he relates, that a learned Jew with whom he conversed, once said to him, “O that you would set over all your New Testament into such Hebrew as you speak to me, you should turn all our nation.” Most of his works were collected together, and printed at London in 1662, under the following title: “The Works of the great Albionean divine, renowned in many nations for rare skill in Salems and Athens tongues, and familiar acquaintance with all Rabbinical learning, Mr. Hugh Broughton.” This edition o'f his works, though bound in one large volume, folio, is divided into four tomes. Dr. Lightfoot, who was himself a great rmister of Hebrew and rabbinical learning, says, that in the writings of Broughton, “the serious and impartial student of them will find these two things. First, as much light given in scripture, especially in the difficultest things thereof, as is to be found in any one author whatsoever; nay, it may be, in all authors together. And, secondly, a winning and enticing enforcement to read the scriptures with a seriousness and searching more than ordinary. Amongst those that have studied his books, multitudes might be named that have thereby grown proficients so far, as that they have attained to a most singular, and almost incredible skill and readiness, in his way, in the understanding of the Bible, though otherwise unlearned men. Nay, some such, that, by the mere excitation of his books, have set to the study of the Hebrew tongue, and come to a very great measure of knowledge in it; nay, a woman might be named that hath done it. This author’s writings do carry with them, I know not what, a kind of holy and happy fascination, that the serious reader of them is won upon, by a sweet violence, to look in the scripture with all possible scrulinousness, and cannot choose. Let any one but set to read him in good earnest, and, if he find not, that he sees much more in scripture than ever he could see before, and that he is stirred up 'to search much more narrowly into the scripture than ever he was before, he misseth of that which was never missed of before by any that took that course, if multitude of experiences may have any credit.” It will justly be thought in the present age, that Dr. Lightfoot formed'too high an opinion of the value of Broughton’s writings; but in whatever estimation they may now be held, the celebrity of Broughton in his own time, and his extraordinary learning, gave him a reasonable claim to some memorial in a work of this kind. Many of his theological Mss. are preserved in the British Museum, of which a list is given in Ayscough’s catalogue.

Mr. Ditton published many mathematical and other tracts. His first works were a paper on the Tangents of Curves, and a treatise on Spherical Catoptrics, both which were published in the “Philosophical Transactions.” This last was written in the Latin language, and was so highly approved, that it was republished in a foreign periodical work, called the “Acta Eruditortim,” in 1707; and was afterwards printed in the “Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris.” In 1706 he published a treatise, entitled, “An Institution of Fluxions, containing the first principles, operations, and applications of that admirable method, as invented by sir Isaac Newton.” This work, with additions and alterations, was again published by Mr. John Clarke, in 1726, some years after Mr. Ditton’s death. The same year, 1 706, Mr. Ditton also published a treatise on the laws of nature and motion. Of this the celebrated Wolfius makes mention, and asserts, that it illustrates and renders easy the writings of Galileo, Huygens, and the “Principia” of sir Isaac Newton. It is also noticed by De la Roche, in “The Memoiresde Literature,” vol. VIII. p. 46. In 1709 he published the “Synopsis Algebraicum” of John Alexander Bernatus Helvetius; with many additions and corrections. His treatise on Perspective was published in 1712. In this work he explained the principles of that art mathematically; and besides teaching the methods then generally practised, gave the first hints of the new method afterward enlarged upon and improved by Dr. Brook Taylor; and which was published in 1715. Several publications of Mr. Ditton’s appeared in 1714, one of which was a “Discourse upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ;” the truth of which he here endeavoured to demonstrate. This work went through four editions, and was translated into several of the modern languages. Tindal, Collins, and some other authors, opposed it, and endeavoured to confute the reasoning; to whom Ditton had begun an answer, but died before it was finished; and his friends, upon revising it, found it too incomplete to hazard its publication. Another of his works that appeared in the same year, was, “The new law of Fluids; or, a Discourse concerning the ascent of liquids, in exact geometrical figures, between two nearly contiguous surfaces.” To this was annexed a tract, to demonstrate the impossibility of thinking or perception being the result of any combination of the parts of matter and motion; a subject much agitated in those days by the free-thinkers and their opponents. There was also adjoined to this work an advertisement from him and Mr. Whiston, concerning a method for discovering the longitude; which, it appears, they had published about half a year before. This attempt, it is thought, cost Mr. Ditton his life; for, although it was approved and countenanced by sir Isaac Newton, previously to its being presented to the Board of longitude, and the method lias been since successfully put in practice, in finding the longitude between Paris and Vienna, yet that board then determined against it. Such a disappointment, together with the public ridicule incurred, is supposed to have affected his health, but this we think unlikely, as his death was occasioned by a putrid fever, which proved fatal Oct. 15, 1715, in the fortieth year of his age. He was much regretted by the philosophical literati of that time, who expected from his assiduity, learning, and penetrating genius, many useful and ingenious discoveries. In an account of Mr. Ditton, prefixed to the German translation of his Discourse on the Resurrection, it is said, that he had published, in his own name only, another method for finding the longitude; but which Mr. Whiston denied. However, Raphael Levi, a learned Jew, who bad studied under Leibnitz, informed the German editor that he well knew that Ditton and Leibnitz hud corresponded upon the subject; and that Ditton had sent to Leibnitz a delineation of a machine he had invented that purpose; which was a piece of mechanism con with many wheels, like a clock, and which Leibnitz highly approved of for land use, but doubted whether it wouldanswer on ship-board, on account of the motion of the ship.

, a learned Jew, and zealous defender of the opinions of that people, was born in London in 1740, and after a regular apprenticeship to a shoemaker, settled in that business; but, not succeeding in it, commenced hat-dresser; and in this new profession, though surrounded with domestic cares, still finding time for study, produced a volume on the “Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews,” 1783, 8vo. He next published “Lingua Sacra,” 3 vols. 8vo, containing an Hebrew Grammar with points, clearly explained in English, and a complete Hebrew-English Dictionary, which came out in numbers, 1785 1789. This performance, though by no means the most perfect of its kind that might be produced, is a great instance of industry and perseverance in a person who was confined all the time to a mechanical business to supply domestic wants. In 1787 he published his first “Letters to Dr. Priestley,” in answer to his “Letters addressed to the Jews,” inviting them to an amicable discussion of the evidences of Christianity; in which he says, “I am not ashamed to tell you that I am a Jew by choice, and not because I was born a Jew; far from it; for I am clearly of opinion that every person endowed with ratiocination ought to have a clear idea of the truth of revelation, and a just ground of his faith, as far as human evidence can go.” In 1789 he published his second “Letters to Dr. Priestley,” and also “Letters to Dr. Cooper, of Great Yarmouth,” in answer to his one great argument in favour of Christianity from a single prophecy; 2. to Mr. Bicheno; 3. to Dr. Krauter; 4. to Mr. Swain; 5. to Anti-Socinus, alias Anselm Bailey; occasioned by their Remarks on his first Letters to Dr. Priestley. In this year he published the “Pentateuch, in Hebrew and English,” with a translation of the notes of Lion Socsmaan, and the 613 precepts contained in the law, according to Maimonides. At the end of the same year, at the earnest request of the most considerable of the Portuguese Jews, he undertook to translate their prayers from Hebrew into English; which he accomplished in four years (though confined to his bed by illness twenty-seven weeks), the last of six volumes appearing in 1793. The first volume of his “Dissertations on the Prophecies” was also published in 1793; and in 1794 his Translation of the Service for the two first Nights of the Passover, as observed by all the Jews at this day, in Hebrew and English. In 1795 he published “Letters to Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, M. P. in answer to his Testimony of the Authenticity of the Prophecies of Richard Brothers, and his pretended mission to recall the Jews.” A second volume of his “Dissertations on the Prophecies” appeared in 1796, which he intended to complete in six volumes; and of which, in May 1797, more than half of the third volume was printed. In the beginning of 1797 he published a “Defence of the Old Testament,” in a series of letters addressed to Thomas Paine, in answer to his Age of Reason, part II. For the German Jews he translated their Festival Prayers, as he had done those of the Portuguese, in 6 vols. 8vo; a labour of four years. By all the synagogues in London Mr. Levi was regularly employed to translate the prayers composed on any particular occasion, as those used during the king’s illness in 1788, and the thanksgiving in 1789; with various others for the use of the several synagogues. He wrote also a sacred ode in Hebrew, 1795, on the king’s escape from assassination. On Nov. 14, 1798, he had a violent stroke of the palsy, which nearly deprived him of the use of his right hand. He died in July 1799, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was interred in the Jews’ burial-ground near Bethnal-green, with a Hebrew epitaph, of which the following is a translation “And David reposed with his fathers, and was buried. Here lieth a correct and proper person, of perfect carriage, who served the Lord all his days, turned away from evil, and was supported by his own industry all the days of his life; Rabbi David the son of Mordecai the Levjte, of blessed memory, who departed for the rtext world on the Sabbath night, 3d of Ab., and was buried with good reputation on Monday the fourth; the days of his life were 59 years. May his soul be enveloped with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mayest tbon come to the grave at full age.”

Controversiarum in Fcederato Belgio de Dutch, under the title of the “ Comviva voce, and afterwards in writing, with Isaac Orobio, -a Jew of Seville in Spain, who had made his escape out of the inquisition, and retired to Amsterdam, where he practised physic with great reputation. This dispute produced a piece by our author, entitled” Collatio arnica de Veritate Religionis Christiana cum erudito Judaso.“” A friendly conference with a learned Jew concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion." In it he shewed, that a Jew can bring no argument of any force in favour of Judaism which may not be made to militate strongly in favour of Christianity. Orobio, however, contended that every man ought to continue in the religion, be what it would, which he professed, since it was easier to disprove the truth of another religion than it was to prove his own; and upon this principle he averred, that, if it had been his lot to be born of parents who worshiped the sun, he saw no reason why he should renounce their religion and embrace another. To this piece against Orobio, Limborch added a small tract against Uriel Acosta, a Portuguese deist, in which Limborch answers very solidly his arguments, to shew that there is no true religion besides the religion of nature. (See Acosta.) Shortly after, Limborch published a little piece of Episcopius, in Flemish, containing an account of a dispute between that remonstrant and one William Borne, a Romish priest, shewing, that the Roman church is not exempt from errors, and is not the sovereign judge of controversies. In 1692 the book of sentences passed in the inquisition at Thoulouse, in France, coming into the hands of a friend, and containing all the sentences passed in that court from 1307 to 1323, Limborch resolved to publish it, as it furnished him with an occasion of adding the history of that dreadful tribunal, drawn from the writings of the inquisitors themselves *. In 1693 our author had the care of a new edition, in one large folio volume, of the sermons of Episcopius, in Dutch; to

, a learned Jew, born in that city, in 1353, embraced Christianity, and entered the ecclesiastical profession after his wife’s decease. He was appointed preceptor to John II. king of Castille; afterwards archdeacon of Trevigno, bishop of Carthagena, bishop of Burgos, and is said to have died patriarch of Aquileia, August 29, 1435, aged 82. He has left additions to Nicholas de Lyra’s “Postills;” a treatise, entitled “Scrutinium Scripturarum,” Mant. 1474, fol. reprinted several times; and other learned works, abounding, according to Dupin, in useful biblical criticism. His three sons were baptized with him, and recommended themselves by their merit. Alphonso was bishop of Burgos, and wrote an abridgment of the Spanish History, which is in the “Hi>pama illustrata,” 4 vols. fol. Gonsalvo, the second son, was bishop of Placentia; and Alvarez, the third, published a History of John II. king of Castille.