260 Oriental Literature. [Chap. XIV. 



rica ; and especially that a few individuals have 

 displayed some zeal for its promotion, which only 

 required public patronage to have been more suc- 

 cessful. 



SECTION 11. 



ARABIC LITERATURE. 



Though something was said in the preceding 

 section of the Hebrew language having been more 

 successfully studied in modern times, on account 

 of the increased knowledge of Arabic literature ; 

 yet the subject is worthy of more particular no- 

 tice. 



Scarcely any oriental language was so well un- 

 derstood in Europe, at the close of the seventeenth 

 century, as the Arabic. The excellent publica- 

 tions of Erpenius and Golius, of Holland, for faci- 

 litating and recommending this branch of east- 

 ern literature, had been then laid before the 

 world, and were of so superior a character that, 

 by means of these helps, sir William Jones assures 

 lis we may understand the learned Arabic better 

 than the deepest scholar at Constantinople or at 

 Mecca *. The Bibliotkcgue Orientate of M. d'Her- 

 belot, a very learned and entertaining work, may 

 also be mentioned among those aids which had 

 been furnished in the preceding century, for the 

 attainment of the same object. Since that time 

 further light has been thrown on the literature of 



* See Sir William Jones's Works, vol. i, p. 39. 



