244 Oriental Literature. [Chap. XIV. 



The controversy respecting the vozvel points*, 

 which M^^s begun in the sixteenth century by 

 Ehas Levita, a learned Jew, and which was pur- 

 sued with so much zeal and learning in the 

 seventeenth, by tlie Buxtorfs, Capellus^ Walton, 

 and others, vv^as continued in the eighteenth, and 

 gave rise to much interesting discussion. Early 

 in the century M. Masclef, a canon of Amiens, 

 published his grammar, in wdiich he undertook to 

 teach the Hebrew language without points |. He 

 was opposed by Guarinus, a Benedictine of France, 

 with great learning and warmth ; but defended by 

 his countrymen, the famous father Charles Francis 

 Houbigant, M. dcla Bletterie, and others. The sy- 

 stem of i\fascl^f obtained general credit in France ; 

 but the greater number of German and Dutch cri- 

 tics opposed it. In England it was, with some alter- 

 ations, espoused and introduced by Hutchinson,* 



bly done more tlian any individual now living to promote a taste 

 for Hebrew literature among those intended for the clerical pro- 

 fession in the Ignited States. And though his exertions have not 

 been attended with all the success that could have been wished, 

 owing to the \\-ant of that countenance from the public, and from 

 individuals, which is necessary 5 yet he is, doubtless, entitled to 

 the character of a benefactor of the American churches. 



* The great questions concerning the Hebrew points respect 

 their antiquity and i??7portcf?icc. The first question is, whether 

 they were invented by the Alasorifcs, a set of learned Jews, who 

 are supposed to have lived about the fifth century after Christ, 

 and who are said by the addition of loicds and accents to have 

 fixed the true reading of the sacred text : or whether these vowels 

 were employed by those who first wrote the Hebrew language, 

 and of course made a part of the original writing of the scriptures ? 

 The second question has a respect to the utility and importance of 

 the points ; or how far they are ?ieccssarj/ and useful ? 



t Graminatlca Ihbrua, a pundis aliiiquc Masurcthicis inxaitis 

 lihcra. \y\C). 



