UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



facred authors moreover had not occafion to 

 treat on all fubjects. ^The Hebrew language 

 however is fufceptible of all the ornaments of 

 diction, and is very expreffive. It is not, befide, 

 fo difficult to learn as fome have imagined. 

 The ftyle of the Pfalms, of the book of Job, 

 and of all that is wrote in a poetic manner, is 

 the moft difficult to underftand. That of Ifaiah 

 is noble and elegant, worthy of an author who 

 was of the houfe of David, and the nephew and 

 grandfon of a king. But, notwithftanding all 

 the labours of the learned for fo many centuries, 

 we are very far from having a perfect knowledge 

 of the Hebrew language : this inconvenience 

 is the greater, as it gives occafion to many im- 

 perfect tranflations, which disfigure the true 

 fenfe of the original text , and, what is ftill more, 

 they have founded, on thefe paffages wrong inter- 

 preted, a belief of events that have never ar- 

 rived in the manner predicted , and even fome- 

 times religious dogmas. It is to be wifhed 

 that a fociety of men, the moft learned in thefe 

 matters, were formed in order to perfect the 

 knowledge of the oriental languages, and of the 

 Hebrew in particular. 



VI. The Hebrew language had originally no 

 vowels. They are marked in the maflbrets by 

 points under the confonants. This language is 

 wrote and read from the left to the right : it has 

 thirteen letters, which grammarians divide into 

 gutteral, palatic, dental, labial and gingival. 



They 



