8 



pear the Ids uecefTary when we come to confider certain pieces of the 

 Hebrew verfe. It might be more to our purpofe, though at firft fiqht 

 perhaps not fo obvious, to trace the language from the time it ceafed 

 to be vocal, and became as it were a dead-letter ; that is, from the time of 

 Efdras to the period of the incarnation, a fpace that included fome hun- 

 dreds of years ; and fo fubverfive of the tongue, that during the fway of 

 the Seleucidae, Judasa nearly loft her original language, fpeaking a fort of 

 Syro-Greek, known by the name of the language ofjenifalem. But 

 even this, as well becaufe the learned do not require fuch difcuffion, as 

 for the reafons juft affigned, will alfo be found unneceflary ; notwith- 

 Ibnding the filence of the vowels muft have greatly contributed, not only 

 to embarrafs the fenfe of many paffages in the facred page, but to ren- 

 der it at once uncertain and capricious, I had almoft faid, abfonous and 

 dumb*, not more deftruaive to legitimate meafuref, than to the hap. 

 pinefs of the rhime, fhould it be made appear that rhime is the character 

 of the Hebrew poetry. The learned Volllus indeed, raflily it may be 

 thought, would cut the matter fliort with one fweeping ftroke of his pen, 

 obferving, " Hebrworum qualis fuerit pocfis, adeo nobis ignotum, quam 

 " quod ignotiffimum : nam quscunque de hac fcripfere nonnuUi illius. 

 " modi funt, ut longe' melius fuiffet ea tacuiffe," Vofs. de Fir. Cant. isfc. 



Notwithftanding 



* The Towels, it is juflly obferved by Vofllus, ftrongly exprefs the manners and cha. 

 r.ifler of every nation, which he beautifully illuftrates in the example of the Greek vowels ; 

 " Percurremus poteftatem et efficaciam, quam vocales habcant in fignificandis moribuset gen- 

 " tis cujufque ingenio." Vofs. de viribus Cant, et Ryth. 



t The language of the Poles, though fcarcely poffeffing a vowel, and in this refpefl not 

 much differing from the Hebrew, the natives thought well enough adapted to verfe. " Po- 

 " lonum lingua ferream propemodum habet duritiem, utpote in qua uni vocali feptem vel 

 oQo fa:pe copulantur confonantes. Pene dixeris eos abfque vocalibus loqui. Meniini certc 

 vidiffe me ahquem ex ea gente, qui palam jaflaret ad form^ndam voceni ct explicandos 

 animi fenfus, vel folas fibi confonantes fufficere literas, Qui Polonice callent, facile ct ho- 

 rum fermonem ad pedes et tempora fyllabica poterunt revocare, cum nulla ufquam fit lingua 

 numerorum expers." Vofs. ibid. Withdraw the maforetic vowels, and I much queriioB 

 -.vhether a modern labbi could perform as much in his own tongue. 



