29 



from thefe tongues, may we not, by a parity of rcafon, infer, that it did 



not exclude it from the parent poetry, though, for certain reafons not 



now difcoverable, as well as from the peculiar caft and indoles of the 



language, the rhime in that tongue might be laid afide when the alpha- 



betic order was obferved ? Yet, fliould it be allowed to Garofalo that 



the whok of the Threni are in rhime, while the four firft chapters are 



acknowledged to be alphabetic ; and fliould the remark of Openheimer 



appear well founded ; what will become of the profeflbr's argument ? 



And thus, I hope, enough has been faid to ellablifla the priority of 



rhime in the oldefl language of which we have any knowledge. It? 



pra;antiquity has been argued at fome length, becaufe fo many learned 



men had difputed the faft of the rhime. It is not, however, contended 



that the Hebrew rhime is the progenitor of teleutic harmony, further 



than as that language may be the parent of every other. That which 



is univerfal, cannot be partial, and that which belongs to all, is the ex- 



clufive property of none. From the lifp of the infant to the lyre of the 



bard, the rhime has been a note in the voice of man. 



Of the ancient ^Egyptian poetry not a veftige can be found, unlefs 

 perhaps the fong of IMofes in the wildernefs may have been compofed 

 in that laguage. But we have feen " illam linguam vel Ebrieam, vel 

 " Ebrsas fimillimam." " In that day fliall five cities in the land of 

 " ^gypt fpeak the language of Canaan," Qfaiah Chap. 19. v. 18.) 

 What, therefore, is true of the rhime in the Hebrew poetry, will be 

 found true in the Egyptian : and thus the rhime, familiar in the former, 

 could not be abhorrent to the latter. Yet, if we concede that Mofes 

 compofed his fong in the iEgyptian, we eftablifli the rhime in that Ian- 

 guage, and prove that it was familiar to the Ifraelites under the bon- 

 dage, who would not have endured, murmuring and difcontented, as they 

 were, the introduftion of a fpecies of compofition altogether novel and 

 unknown. 



The Ethiopians, we know, who mofl: probably are the dcfcendants 

 of the old ^Egyptians, that fpread therafelves fouthward, continue even 

 to this day the ^Oi,.wnumi^ in their verfe ; not much unlike the rhiaies of 



the 



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