PREFACE. V 



Greeks and Eomans and the great scholars 

 of the last three centuries; as, ignorant of 

 it, the former were even unable to decipher 

 the earliest remains of their own language, 

 and the latter could only supply its place 

 by conjectural guesses. 



One of the most successful workers in 

 this new field of criticism is Dr. Daniel 

 Chwolson, Professor of Hebrew in the Uni- 

 versity of St. Petersburgh, who first made 

 himself known to Oriental scholars by the 

 publication of one of the most able and pro- 

 found works connected with the history and 

 literature of the East which has ever ap- 

 peared. Die Ssabier and der Ssabismus — the 

 Sabians and Sabian Worship — has for ever 

 settled many doubtful and long-disputed 

 points in religion ; has thrown new and 

 irresistible light upon earlier Eastern his- 

 tory; and placed its author at once in the 



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