Oriental Literature. 5Y 



tained general credit in France; but the neater 

 number of German and Dutch critics opposed it. 

 In England it was, with some alterations, espoused 

 and introduced by Hutchinson, who was followed 

 by Bate, and Parkhurst, and more recently by 

 Professor Wilson, of the University of St. An- 

 drews, in North-Britain. 



The antiquity and importance of the Points have 

 also been maintained, during the period in ques- 

 tion, by the great Albert Schultens, of Leyden; 

 by the learned Professor James Robertson, of 

 Edinburgh; and by the celebrated orientalist, 

 Professor Tychsen, of Germany. On the other 

 hand, the points have found zealous opponents in 

 the same period, in Sharps, of Great-Britain; in 

 Dupuy, a learned Frenchman; and in the cele- 

 brated John David Michaelis, of Germany.* 

 The result of this controversy seems to be a general 

 impression, among those most competent to judge, 

 that the points cannot boast of that antiquity which 

 Schultens and Robertson would assign to them;* 

 but that they were invented by men deeply skilled 

 in the language; that they serve as a good com- 

 mentary, and are therefore of great utility, and 

 deserve to be respectfully regarded. 



In 1136 Bishop Hare published a plan for as- 

 certaining and restoring the Hebrezv Metre} He 

 supposed that he had revived the knowledge of 

 the true versification of this language, and that 



2 Professor Michaelis, In the former part of his life, was favourable 

 to the points ; but afterwards changed his opinion. He was one of the 

 most stupendous oriental scholars of the age, and probably one of the 

 greatest that ever existed. 



a Clavis Pentateuchi: sivt Analysis Omnium Vocum Hebraicarum y &C. 

 Auctore Jacobo Robertson, S. T, D. Ling: Orient, in Acad. Edin. fro/I 

 8vo. 1770. 



* Psalmorum Liber, in Verskulos Metrics divisus, et cum aliis Cr it ices Sub* 

 sidus, turn pracipus Metrices ope, multis in locis inte^ritati sua restitute. 

 Ed ldt t Franciscvs Hare, S. T. P. Episcopm Ckutrmiu Tom, 3, $y., 

 1730. 



VOL. IT, T 



