UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



is a dialect of the Chaldean. This language 

 has twenty five letters , the forms of which arc 

 very different from the Hebrew.' It is in like 

 manner wrote from the left to the right. 



The Syriac is alib confidered as a dialect of 

 the Hebrew. It has twenty two letters, which 

 have the fame names with the Hebrew, but arc 

 of very different forms. 



The Arabic, or tht language of the Arabians, 

 is in like manner a dialed of- the Hebrew. Ic 

 has twenty eight letters, the names of which 

 have a good deal of refernblance to the Hebrew, 

 but their characters are alib very different. 



The Coptic is the ancient language of the E- 

 gyptians, but mixed in procefs of time with 

 much of the Greek. We have already laid, in 

 the preceding chapter, that the late M. de la 

 Crofe has in a manner re-eftablifhed this lan- 

 guage, when we fcarce knew more than the name 

 of it ; and that he has compofed a Coptic gram- 

 mar and dictionary . F. Kircher, it is true, had 

 before publifhed a Coptic vocabulary and kind 

 of grammar, but very incomplete. There are thirty 

 two letters in its alphabet, but the characters 

 are almoft entirely Greek. There has been no 

 book found in this language but tranflations of 

 the Holy Scriptures, or ecclefiaftic offices, &c. 



VIII. The Samaritan is another dialect of the 

 Hebrew. The Samaritans v/ere Jews, and their 

 city Samaria was in Judea. They followed the 

 law of Mofes with more rigour, more after the 



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