Finally, the career of Mendelssohn marks the definite beginning of the Modern Period.

Such a grouping of the facts presents many advantages, but it somewhat obscures the varying conditions prevalent at one and the same time in different countries where the Jews were settled.

Hence some writers have preferred to arrange the material under the different _untries_.

It is quite possible to draw a map of the world's civilization by merely marking the successive places in which Jewish literature has fixed its head-quarters.

But, on the other hand, such a method of classification has the disadvantage that it leads to much overlapping.