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EEV. J. IVEEACH MUXKO, M.A., OX 



venture to think the critic's logic is at fault, not mine. "What 

 have the materials which Moses used in his writing of the 

 Pentateuch got to do with his authorship ? The pronoun proves 

 the date. No other name but that of Moses is ever given within 

 the covers of the Bible as the human author of the book of the 

 Law. If the date then is proved to have be^n not later than 

 the time of Moses, that is better evidential value than if he had 

 signed every page. 



I do not detain you further on the point except to say that 

 the literary analysis has become bankrupt and the work founded 

 on it must be thoroughly re-examined. 



Let me now indicate to you in connection with this ancient 

 pronoun what I cannot help regarding as some of the fai thest- 

 reaching factors in philology which have yet come to light. For 

 part of the proof of what I say those especially interested may 

 be referred to my essay on the third personal pronoun published 

 by the Oxford University Press.* 



The investigation of that pronoun has convinced me that 

 Semitic-Indo-European languages were originally one, that the 

 great division of our race at the confusion of tongues, recorded 

 in the Bible, receives remarkable confirmation from the fact that 

 while the original materials are the same, the main differences of 

 these languages are due to mental and other characteristics 

 which come to light in the study of their construction. 

 Everything in Indo-European is subordinated to the Time-Spirit, 

 intense activity and inquisitiveness are its main characteristics. 

 In the verb the pronominal element is always last. In Semitic, 

 on the other hand, everytliing is made to hinge on the kind of 

 action and its connection with the agent, whether it is complete 

 or incomplete, whether the agent acts directly or acts, or is 

 made to act, by another, with a multitude of ramifications all 

 turning on the relation of the agent to tlie action ; and the 

 element of time may be said never to be expressed by the verb. 

 The pronominal element in the verb may precede or follow the 

 verbal noun. These characteristics indicate an original differ- 

 ence of thought and action, and agree with the great philological 

 cataclvsm indicated in the Bible amoncr those who used the 

 original language. Deeper investigation into the causes will 

 probably make plain that the great cause of difference in 

 language was essentially religious. The worldly-minded of that 

 day would be carried one way, the God-fearing another. The 



* A Research into the Origin of the Third Personal Pronoun ^"^n- 

 London : Henry Frowde. Oxford University Press, Amen Corner, E.G. 

 {Is. 6cL net.) 



