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MEMOIRS OF RACHEL

CHAPTER I.

Parentage.—Abraham Felix and Esther Haya.—Characteristics of the
Father reflected in the Daughter.—Nomade Life.—Birth-place,
early Childhood, and Pnranits.......................................Page IS

WHENEVER it happens that an individual of low birth and
obscure origin springs into notoriety by the power of genius,
aided by fortuitous circumstances, the anecdote-mongers and
scandal-purveyors of an insatiate public stretch their inventive
faculties to the utmost verge of probability, and even of pos-
sibility, in order to invest with all the hues of romance the in-
fancy of the child of fame. Denuded of these fanciful addi-
tions, the mere facts would, in the majority of cases, possess
but little interest; nine out of ten of those whose genius and
talent illustrate the age in which they live, and stamp on the
indelible page of history the name of then: possessor, have had
as uninteresting and prosaic a childhood as the host of their
less gifted contemporaries. The interest we take in the early
days of Rachel arises, not from her having been a street-sing-
er—we daily meet those little itinerant warblers or screechers
without bestowing a thought on their past, present, or future
—but from her having subsequently attained pre-eminence in
a far higher sphere. As for the thousand and one anecdotes
that have been circulated of her former life, few are founded
on reality, and, even if we grant them all to be deserving of
credit, they are such as might find their counterpart in the
lives of the common run of mortals.

The elements that afford an insight into the character, the
feelings, the source of inspiration, the modus operandi of the
mind—these are the points that interest the judicious observ-
er, these are the really valuable traits which we would record,
the surcharged history of our heroine of all incidents



	MEMOIRS OF RACHEL

	CHAPTER I. Parentage.—Abraham Felix and Esther Haya.—Characteristics of the Father reflected in the Daughter.—Nomade Life.—Birth-place, early Childhood, and Pnranits.......................................Page IS WHENEVER it happens that an individual of low birth and obscure origin springs into notoriety by the power of genius, aided by fortuitous circumstances, the anecdote-mongers and scandal-purveyors of an insatiate public stretch their inventive faculties to the utmost verge of probability, and even of pos- sibility, in order to invest with all the hues of romance the in- fancy of the child of fame. Denuded of these fanciful addi- tions, the mere facts would, in the majority of cases, possess but little interest; nine out of ten of those whose genius and talent illustrate the age in which they live, and stamp on the indelible page of history the name of then: possessor, have had as uninteresting and prosaic a childhood as the host of their less gifted contemporaries. The interest we take in the early days of Rachel arises, not from her having been a street-sing- er—we daily meet those little itinerant warblers or screechers without bestowing a thought on their past, present, or future —but from her having subsequently attained pre-eminence in a far higher sphere. As for the thousand and one anecdotes that have been circulated of her former life, few are founded on reality, and, even if we grant them all to be deserving of credit, they are such as might find their counterpart in the lives of the common run of mortals. The elements that afford an insight into the character, the feelings, the source of inspiration, the modus operandi of the mind—these are the points that interest the judicious observ- er, these are the really valuable traits which we would record, the surcharged history of our heroine of all incidents