62 Oriental Literature. 



derstood and appreciated by those who have any 

 knowledge of the subject. The labours of Re- 

 land and Schultens, in Holland; ofREiNEccEius, 

 the Michaelises/ (especially the last of that 

 name) Stock, Eichorn, Bode, Storr, and Ad- 

 ler, in Germany; of La Croze, in France; of 

 De Rossi, in Italy; and of Durell, Ridley, 

 Woide, and White, in Great-Britain, to illustrate 

 these auxiliary languages and dialects, or to pre- 

 sent the public with various readings, and versions 

 from them, are well known, and have often been 

 the subjects of high praise. 



The collection and collation of ancient Hebrew 

 Manuscripts, which were pursued in the eighteenth 

 century to an extent greatly beyond any former ex- 

 ample, may be considered as among the distin- 

 guishing honours of the age. In 1707 Dr. John 

 Mill, a learned English divine, published an 

 edition of the New Testament, with the various 

 readings, collected from many different manu- 

 scripts, to which he had devoted the unwearied 

 labour of thirty years. In 1752 the celebrated 

 Wetstein, of Germany, whose talents and erudi- 

 tion are well known, published a work on the 

 same plan, but, as many suppose, executed with 

 greater judgment. He, like his predecessor, ex- 

 pended much time and labour in his work, and 

 travelled into foreign countries to examine all the 

 manuscripts that could be procured. 7 ' These pub- 



g Tn 176a that illustrious orientalist, John David Michaelis, pub- 

 lished a number of curious and interesting questions, relating to Arabic li- 

 terature, which he had directed to a number of learned men, sent by the 

 King of Denmark into Arabia, and to which he desired their attention. 

 These queries not only led to much inquiry, and produced much informa- 

 tion, from the persons to whom they were immediately addressed ; but they 

 also led to a more general study of the Arabic language, as an auxiliary to 

 the Hebrew, than had before taken place in the colleges and universities of 

 Germany. 



h The collations and various readings of Mill, Kugter, Wetstein, 

 Greisbach, Matthjei, and others, will be noticed more particularly 

 when the Literature of the Christian Church shall come under consideration^ 

 in the fourth and last part of this work. 



