ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 139 



I. Errata Recepta in letters and numerical symbols : 

 1. Letters. 



To begin at tbe very beginning — with the elements themselves of 

 ■words — the alphabet itself: what is this, in modern languages at least, 

 but a series of errata — departures from original forms and intentions ? 

 Errata Recepta now, which there is neither need nor desire to cor- 

 rect. The mind fond of analysis, is, nevertheless not disinclined to 

 recover the original forms, where it is possible to do so ; and dwells 

 with some interest on the idea that A, for example, is the head of an 

 ox, only inverted; that Alpha, i.e. Aleph, is ox, and survives in that 

 sense in Eleph-as, i.e. Aleph-as, elephant, that animal being desig- 

 nated in early unscientific days as a bos, somewhat in the same way 

 as we call the great amphibious creature of the Nile a horse. That 

 B, beta, is beth — a house — a hut — two wigwams, in fact, now, when 

 you lay the letter on its face. And let it be at once well understood, 

 that the attitudes and postures of letters have been almost infinitely 

 varied. The Easterns generally (the users of Sanskrit excepted) write 

 from right to left ; the Westerns (the Etruscans excepted) from left 

 to right : each turning the character accordingly. Hence we must 

 often reverse letters before we can trace their identity. The scribes 

 of intermediate races or tastes, wrote sometimes one line one way, and 

 the next line the other way, — reversing perhaps the letters, as they 

 reversed the direction of the reed. Others, again, arranged their 

 words vertically — column-wise — like the modern Chinese. 



From these and other like causes, it is not sufficient even to re- 

 verse the letters : we must, in certain instances, lay them on their face 

 — ^lay them on their back — sustain them at uncomfortable angles — 

 and humour them in other ways, discreetly and patiently, if we would 

 trace the connection between them and their reputed congeners or 

 originals. It is thus that we may, perhaps, at length detect that 

 not only does aleph betoken an ox, and beth a booth ; but that G {i.e. 

 hard c), is a camel's head and neck ; D, a triangular tent door-way ; 

 E, a hand in a certain dactylological posture ; F (bau), a hook or 

 tent-pin ; H, a garth, perhaps a temenos, or sacred enclosure ; I (J 

 and Y), again, a hand in proper position ; as is also K (C) ; L, an 

 ox-driver's goad or whip ; M, rippling water, the element of its neigh- 

 bour, N, which is a fish : O (connected with ayin), the human eje ; 

 P, the mouth seen in profile ; Q, the ear ; R, the head (also s^en in 



