488 On the Origin and 



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** of letters, in ructe fculpture or painting, and moftly in fymbolical figures- 

 •' of the ark. che eight perfons concealed in it, and the birds, which firfl 

 " were difrfiiffed from it: this fact is probable, but, I think, not fufficiently 

 '*. afcertained." Thirdly; "all ancient Mythology (except what was purely 

 " Sabian) had its primary fourcein thofe various fymbois mifunderflood; fa 

 *' that ancient Mythology Hands now in the place of fymbolical. fculpture. 

 •• or painting, and muft be. explained on the fame principles, on which we 

 '* mould begin to decypher the originals, if they now exifted :" this part 

 of the fyitein is, in my opinion, carreid too far; nor can I perfuade myfelf, 

 (to give one inftance out of many) that the beautiful allegory of Cupid and 

 Psyche had the remoteft allufion to the deluge, or that Hymen fignified. 

 the veil, which covered the patriarch and his family. Thefe proportions,. 

 however, are fupported with great ingenuity and folid, erudition ; but, un- 

 profitably for the argument, and unfortunately, perhaps, for the fame of the 

 work itfelf, recourfe is had to etymological conjecture, than which no 

 mode of reafoning is in general weaker or more dclufive. He, who pro- 

 feffes to derive the words of any one language from thofe of another, muft 

 expofe himfelf to the danger of perpetual errours». unlefs he be perfectly 

 acquainted with both; yet my refpeclable friend, though eminently {killed in 

 the idioms of Greece and Rome, has no fort of acquaintance with any Afeatick 

 dialect., except Hebrew ;, and he has confequcntly made miftakes, which 

 every learner of ' Arabick and Perfian muft initantly detect. Among fifty 

 radical- words (ma, taph, and. ram being included] eighteen are purely ai-Ara* 

 bian origin, twelve merely Indian, and /even teen both Sanfcrit and Arabick, 

 but in fenfes totally different ; while two are Greek only, and one Egyptian, 

 or barbarous: if it be urged, that thofe radicals* (which ought furely to have 

 concluded, inflead of preceding, an analytical inquiry) are precious traces of 

 the primitive language, from which all others were derived, or to which at 



