The author of this just and sagacious remark—­much surpassing what the other writers quoted in the Appendix say—­was a Jew who died at Perpignan in or near 1370, named Levi Ben Gerson or Gersonides.  An interesting account of this man, eminent as a writer and thinker in his age, will be found in a biography by Dr Joel, published at Breslau in 1862, ‘Levi Ben Gerson als Religions—­philosoph.’  He distinguished himself as a writer on theology, philosophy, and astronomy; he was one of the successors to the free speculative vein of Maimonides, and one of the continuators of the Arabic Aristotelian philosophy.  He both commented on and combated the doctrines of Averroes.  Dr Joel thinks that he died earlier than 1370.]