CoUated with parallel Passages of the Hebrew Scriptures. 57 



Recapitulation and Revisal. 



Such Is the solution which my best consideration has led me to propose, of 

 what may be called the Punic Problem — a problem which the scantiness of its 

 data renders of difficult, and but for a condition attending it, which I shall pre- 

 sently advert to, of dubious solution ; — the data consisting of a meagre abstract, 

 in the shape of what is called the Plautine Latin, and of the Libyan version, more 

 obscure, perhaps, than the Punic passage of which it is supposed to be a transla- 

 tion. 



On the other hand, however, as the Punic, the Libyan, and the Latin purport 

 to give for the same meaning a triplicate form of expression, I persuade myself 

 that not only the problem is capable of solution, but of a solution capable of 

 being proved to be the true one ; the Latin version, with such subsidia as may 

 conduce to illustrate its meaning, being made use of in decyphering the Punic 

 as a clue, and to verify our reading and interpretation of the Punic, the I>ibyan 

 being made use of as a test and criterion. 



In exemplifying and applying our criterion, as the first Punic line seemed to 

 be so plain, and its signification so generally agreed upon, as to supersede the 

 necessity of any analysis in this Essay, we shall begin with the second. 



Of the second line, the Latin indicates the principal subject to be a journey, 

 and the success or consummation of it through the divine tutelary /avor ; and one 

 of the words in Hebrew for journey, supplied by our lexicography, being m'lach 

 (Chaldec lac), and in the very head and front of the Punic line, the vocable 

 m'lach being found, we adopt that as the true reading. The Latin clue having 

 led us to adopt, we next look out for a test by which to try it, a Libyan cri- 

 terion. Accordingly we detect the Chaldee lac, or loc, in the Libyan loc \uti'\ of 

 the corresponding line. In the same way, the next Punic vocable but one, 

 {ythmu), is obviously nothing but the third person plural future of a'>nn 

 (Hiphil conjugation), to consummate, "may they consummate, or accomplish," 

 and is accordingly by our Latin guide indicated as the Punic reading. And on 

 the other hand, that reading is verified by the Libyan ytum :^ythmu, cohering 

 locally and grammatically with the Libyan locuti, journey, as the Punic ythmu 



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