Oriental Literature. 67 



this kind of knowledge was possessed by very few 

 in any other part of our country. Accordingly the 

 colleges of Harvard, in Massachusetts, and of Yale, 

 in Connecticut, it is believed, are the only semi- 

 naries of learning in the United States in which 

 the Hebrew language has been, for any consider- 

 able portion of time, regularly taught; and at the 

 present period they are the only American semina- 

 ries in which there are regular oriental instructors.' 

 A few of those destined for the clerical profession 

 in our country, make themselves acquainted, to a 

 small extent, with this language, so inestimably im- 

 portant to every biblical critic; but the acquisitions 

 of such are generally made by their own unassisted 

 industry, or by means of private tuition/ 



In 1779 the office of instruction in the Hebrew 

 language was added to a professorship, then held 

 in the University of Pennsylvania, by the Rev, 



j If the author does not mistake, the Hebrew language has been taught 

 in Harvard College for nearly a century, and during the greater part of 

 that time by a professor regularly appointed for the purpose. In Yale Col- 

 lege, there has been, for many years, more or less attention devoted to 

 Hebrew literature; but it was not until the autumn of 1802 that a profes- 

 sor for this branch of instruction was appointed. The gentleman selected 

 to fill this office is the Rev. Ebenezer G. Marsh, who has the character 

 of an excellent Hebrew scholar. 



t About the year 1760 the Rev. J. G. Kajls, a German clergyman, 

 who had an uncommon stock of Hebrew learning, came to America. An- 

 ticipating the want of Hebrew types in this country, he brought with hira 

 a large edition of a voluminous Hebrew grammar, which he had composed, 

 and some time before published; and many copies of a dictionary, also his 

 own production, together with many other books of a similar kind. He 

 expected, by the sale of these works, and by the encouragement which he 

 should meet with as an instructor of this language, to gain an ample sup- 

 port. But he soon found that Hebrew literature was not a very saleable 

 article in America; and that all his zeal was not sufficient to inspire even 

 his clerical brethren with a general taste for its cultivation. Being present 

 at a meeting of the clergy, when some candidates for the gospel ministry 

 were examined, and finding that ignorance of this language was not con- 

 sidered as a disqualification for the sacred office, he rose and made a speech, 

 filled with reproaches, in which he denounced his brethren as " a generation 

 of vipers" and left them with disgust. When the members of the same 

 ecclesiastical body afterwards heard of his being in distress, and made a 

 liberal collection for his relief, he received it with this sarcastic remark, 

 " I am Elijah ; the ravens must feed me." 



