Excerpt from Secular and Religious Works of Penina Moise: With Brief Sketch of Her Life This little volume is compiled by the undersigned members of the Charleston Section, of the Council of Jewish Women, who were personally acquainted with the beloved and revered authoress, either as relatives, pupils, or children of dear friends. It has been a work of love, and though containing but few of her prose writings, and not all of her poems, it is as complete as was possible, considering lapse of time, condition of manuscripts, and the difficulty of thorough research. They were composed between 1820 and 1880 and are published in the order in which they were written, or as nearly so as can be determined. Much assistance has been found through the old files of The Charleston Courier. The publication has been a voluntary tribute from the Section to one of the three Jewish women whose lives and works fitted them for positions of distinction in the world. Rebecca Gratz, Emma Lazarus and Penina Moise represent much in Jewish womanhood. The two first had beauty, wealth and social prestige; the last had the social position by birth but owing to poverty from childhood, and ill health, followed by years of blindness, she lived the life of a martyr. Not withstanding this, she became through her character and mind, the nucleus of a coterie of refined and cultivated people scarcely credible under the circumstances. She was a poetess of the heart and soul. No claim is laid that the literature of the world will be augmented by this little book. Somewhere among her poems, will be found something to fit almost any human emotion. Nowhere will be found anything but Faith, Submission, Affection, Cheerfulness and a passionate love for nature and her works. Can any more be asked? Penina Moise left behind her, the incense of a purely religious life. This volume is a tribute to her memory. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.