258 Oriental Literature* [Chap. XIV. 



the acquisitions of such are generally made by 

 their own unassisted industry, or by means of pri- 

 vate tuition *. 



In 1779 the office of instruction in the Hebrew 

 langaagc was added to a professorship, then held 

 in the university of Pennsyh ania, by the reverend 

 Dr. Kunze : but few availed themselves of the op- 

 portunity thus afforded for gaining a knowledge of 

 this ancient tongue; and the professorship was 

 continued only for a short time. In 17S4 pro- 

 fessor Kunze removed to the city of New York, 

 and was soon appointed to a station in Columbia 

 college, similar to that which he had held in the 

 university of Pennsylvania f. This professorship 



■* About the year 1760 the reverend J. G. Kals, a German 

 clergyman, who had an uncommon stock of Hebrew learning, 

 came to America. Anticipating the want of Hebrew types in 

 this country^ he brought with him a large edition of a voluminous 

 Hebrew grammar, which he had composed, and sometime before 

 published j and many copies of a dictionaiy, also his own produc- 

 tion, together with many other books of a similar kind. He ex- 

 pected, by the Side of these works, and by the encouragement which 

 he should meet with as an instructor of this language, to gain an 

 •ample support. But he soon found tliat Hebrew hterature was 

 jiot 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 considered as a 

 diaqualificatiou for the sacred office, he rose and made a speech, 

 filled with reproaches, in which he denoimced his brethren as 

 '• a gcmraiion o/'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 tlijs sarcastic remark, '' I am Elijah ; the ravens 

 must feed me." 



t Professor KunzC; soon after roctjiving this appointment iu 



