166 Elementary Principles of 



' restriction, the instrument being strained or rigidly forced 

 into, and retained in the benty or curved form, by the string *. 

 Hence the bow-letter D was adopted as the symbol of restric- 

 tion also. 



But the boiv was the in^imment of smiting, wounding, pier- 

 cing, or infixing with arrows f ; hence it was adopted also as the 

 symbol of smiting, wounding, or infixing generally. 



Thus the representation of a bent bow became the sign or 

 symbol of three general leading ideas, namely — of incurvation, 

 of restriction, and of wounding, infixing, or smiting. 



The bow-letter D, then, had a representative character, and it 

 had also a three-fold ideal character. But it was expressed by 

 a certain sound, of which it also became the sign, (a sound 

 answering to that of the Greek K and Latin C), and that sound 

 is referrible to the palatine class of sounds. The sound by 

 which any letter is expressed may be termed its phonic charac- 

 ter, and every letter which is the sign or symbol of an idea, or, 

 in other words, which is endowed with an ideal character, may 

 be called a significant. 



The several characters of the significant D may, then, be ex- 

 pressed thus : — 



Representative character : a bent Bow. 



rl. Incurvation. 



Ideal - - J II. Restriction. 



[IIL Smiting. 



Phonic - - - Palatine. 



Being thus made the symbol of three general comprehensive 

 ideas, the bow-letter (which, when inverted, becomes the Roman 

 C) was made capable of very extensive application, and it will 

 be found that every word in the Hebrew language which is ex- 

 pressive of incurvation, of restriction, and of smiting or cutting, 

 may be traced to this significant. 



* Thus the noun f. fii:'p, which also is used to denote a bow, signifies 

 rigid, or contracted, from ^p,the derivative of WD, which is formed from 

 a [See Table II. 2. 3. a.] 



t So ntt^p, in Chaldee, is a verb, signifying, to smite with a dart. 



