His father, Johann Reinhold Forster, a man of great scientific attainments but an intractable temper, was at that time pastor of the place; the family are said to have been of Scottish extraction.
Besides his mastery in the traditional Law, which added much to the growing reputation of the Rabbinic Academy of his native town, Samuel was famed for his scientific attainments.
Recent criticism has been far more impartial, and almost too much respect has been paid to his attainments, especially in the matter of metre, though Lydgate himself, with offensive lightheartedness, admits his poor craftsmanship.
Lotze was a man of considerable attainments in special science; perhaps he reveals here the bias of the scientific mind, and possibly even its limitations.
These academies were organized on both scholastic and popular lines; their constitution was democratic. An outstanding feature was the Kallah assemblage twice a year (in Elul at the close of the summer, and in Adar at the end of the winter), when there were gathered together vast numbers of outside students of the most heterogeneous character as regards both age and attainments.