LETTER ON THE USE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. DEAR SIR, NAYLAND, OCT. 29TH, 1795. You will want little persuasion to the Study of the Hebrew Language, when you know how valuable it is in itself, and what help you will find from the use of it in your other studies: for it will be of service to you as a critic, a mythologist, an antiquarian, a philosopher, and a divine. If the Hebrew were the original language (which, however, is disputed, as all other things are) the different languages of the world must partake of it more or less; and consequently they may be traced up to it. Unless a scholar is able to do this, he will be wanting in a very material part of his business: and, though I would not affront any man of learning, who is an able critic in Greek and Latin, as if he were a person of no knowlege, I am nevertheless VOL. XII. Q nevertheless very certain he would see much farther, and find great satisfaction, if the Hebrew were added to his other learning. 1 must leave it to the compiler of the Lexicon to collect the various instances in which later languages may be traced up to this original: but I will give you a few examples, to show how easily it may be done, and to tempt you to find others for yourself at a future time. The word Aurum, Gold, is Latin; which can be traced up to no Latin original: but in Hebrew the word Aur expresses a kindred idea; it signifies Light, to which Gold is more nearly allied than any other substance, from its colour and its splendour; and, in the symbolical language of the chemists, Gold stands for the Sun. When we have once obtained a leading idea in Hebrew, it is pleasant to see how other words in abundance will fall in with it: for hence we have the word Aurora, for the light of the morning; Horus, a name of the sun with the Egyptians; Orion, the bright constellation, the brightest in the hea véns; wpa and ωραιος, beautiful; because the light is the most beautiful of all things; oupavos, the heaven; and many others. So simple is the Hebrew, and so perfect in its construction, that even light itself is not an original sense; for for is from, a biliteral root, which signifies to flow; light being in perpetual flux, and the most perfect of all fluids; perhaps the only absolute fluid in nature. Nothing is more common than for large families of words to arrange themselves under some simple root in the Hebrew. Thus the words fruit, fertilis, fructus, fero, in Latin, pw in Greek, Freya the Northern goddess of fertility (whence our Fryday) all come from the Hebrew FERA, to bear fruit. Even in the English tongue, where you would little suspect it, the Hebrew word will account for the English. What is the word Sweat but the nyt Zet of the Hebrew? Cypher in English, is 50 SePheR in Hebrew: dumb in English, is 1 to be still: Shiver in English is in Hebrew a דרך זעת ארץ Earth is from Sheber or Shever, to break in pieces: Hush, be still, is from HaSHaH, to be silent: Track is from the Hebrew DRACH a way, which in Arabic is taracq: ARETZ or ERETZ, a word of the same sense. Is in English, and 1 in Greek, and esse and est in Latin, are all from the Hebrew Substance: Shed is from the Hebrew, to pour out. In Latin words, which have no affinity with any other word, the like agreement is frequently Q 2 quently discovered with the Hebrew. The word Olim, hereafter, or long ago, is not a word of a Latin form, but is the same with word χιτων but כתן y Olem an age, ever, &c. Thus in Greek the XITO tunica, admits of no Greek derivation, CheTeN in Hebrew has the same sense. In multitudes of Greek words, where the Lexicons force an etymology upon them, their deduction from the Hebrew is evident and natural. In their mythology nothing is more common than for the Greeks to use terms of which their own language knows nothing. Their religion was more antient than themselves; and so has many names which their own language was not antient enough to interpret; though they often attempt it in an absurd and ridiculous manner. What can we make of the word Zepnes, Sirens, first mentioned by Homer, as Nymphs that enchant and destroy men with their singing? The Lexicons derive it from pa a chain, which is nonsense; but go to the Hebrew, and you find that SYeR is a Song, and will therefore very naturally give a name to Singers. Mulciber, one of the names of Vulcan, the god of fire (the same in character with the Moloch of the East) which the Latins account for from from mulcendo ferrum, because they will needs have it from their own language: but it is such Latin as never was used; and besides, ƒ never changes into b, in the syllable ber, but the change is the contrary way. All is plain enough, if we go back to the original Vulcan, which is Moloch; for then the word Mulciber becomes ,Abir, the Mighty King אביר Melech מלך which is Moloch. All the deities, which are Saturnus, the god Saturn, and the Satyri of the woods, are names to which the Latin can give no interpretation: but if Saturn, according to his physical character, be taken for that secret first matter of Nature, out of which all forms arise, and into which they are again resolved; and if Satyrs are considered as beings hiding themselves in woods and mountains; then they are all accounted for from the Hebrew D SaTaR, to hide : and even the discourse called a Satire, in which the meaning is always Q 3 |