: 
298 Greek Verbs—Derivation of Babel. 
Hugh Peters in this fentence,was evidently 
fuggelted by Mr. Burke’s inveétive ; and 
the heat excited by that performance may 
be an excufe for the editor’s ftepping out 
of his way for a ftroke of party rancour-. 
With Peters, whom I take to have been a 
fanétified knave, I have nothing todo. But 
Dr. Price, who did not yield to Hooker, 
or to any man, in true piety and philan- 
thropy,calls for a vindication,which, how- 
ever, is an eafy tafk. His application 
of the recited words is, indeed, fufficiently 
different from Hooker’s, but furely not 
leis proper or dignified. Hooker applied 
them under a ftrong impreflion of the pub- 
lic importance of his own work—a work 
of controverfial divinity! Dr. Price ap- 
plied them under the warm emotions of 
gratitude and triumph, for having lived to 
fee the communication of light and liberty, 
the beft of human bleffings, to thirty mu- 
lions of people. That his judgment on 
the effects of the French Revolution was 
premature and over-fanguine, and that 
his expetations have been cruelly falfi- 
fied by the event, makes no moral diffe- 
rence in the cafe; his feelings were right, 
though his reafon was deceived. Had the 
Revolution really been what he, with 
many others, at that time fuppofed it to 
be, cold and contraéted muft have been 
that heart which could forbear to rejoice 
init, becaufe it was neceflarily attendedwith 
the overthrow of fome ancient eftablith- 
ments ;—and ftill more contra&ed, if the 
caufe of refufing to fympathife in fo ex- 
tenfive a benefit, was the lurking fear left 
perfonal interefts fhould be endangered 
by the example. How far the latter was 
the cafe with many, who man'fefted their 
diflike of the principles of the French Re- 
volution from’ its very commencement, 
impartial obfervers may determine for 
themfelves. Your’s, &c. 
ORTHOPHILUS. 
— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
A is fufficiently apparent that fome 
Greek verbs, the index of which is 
yin the prefent tenfe, admit » before the 
termination Jas in the 3 per. fing. per. 
pafs.; but it may feem extremely quef- 
tionable ‘whether any other verbs form 
this perfon in the {ame manner. Dr. 
Blackwall, however, in his “* Sacred Claf- 
fics,” conceives that AcAvylas is fingular 
in Hom. I]. Lib. 2, v. 135: 
Kas on depa ceonme vey uae oTaplee 
Acatvlast. 
This he maintains in oppofition to Harry 
* 
[May 15 
Stephens, becaufe, if plural, it would not 
accord with the general practice of the 
Greek Claffics, by which neuter fubltan- 
tives plural govern verbs of the fingular 
number. It would be prefumption in me 
to pretend to decide between thefe two 
learned critics; but I may be permitred + 
to remark that the rule is not fo abfolute, 
ipfoBlackwaliio teftimonium producente,as to 
preclude AcAvrlas in the pafiage above-cited 
from being of the plural number, to 
which prima facie it appears to belong, and 
to which therefore I cannot but think it 
does appertain. Your’s, &e. 
Hanflope, W. SINGLETON. 
March 29, 1803. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE gentleman who wifhes to know 
where he may meet with Dr. Rufh’s 
Obfervations on Claflica] Learning, is in- 
formed, that the eflay alluded to, is con- 
tained in an octavo volume, publifhed by 
the Doétor at Philadelphia, in the year 
1798, intitled, ‘* Effays Literary, Mcral, 
and Philefophical.’’ Should the gentie- 
man be unable to find the book in London, 
I will, with much pleafure fend it, for 
his perufal, to the Editor of the M-nth- 
ly Magazine, to whom I have communi- 
cated my addrefs. Your’s, &c. 
=e 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
heated not difpofed to acquiefce in the 
derivation of the word Babel, from 
baba door, or court, as propoied in your 
Magazine for January 1802, I beg, Mr. 
Editor, to offer another, which from its 
fimplicity and internal evidence feems 
ftamped with the mark of truth. The 
Hebrew word beth, fignifying a temple, 
is in other dialeéts of the Chaldee jan- 
guage foftened into be or ba, efpecially 
when, being compounded, a confonant 
follows it, asin Babybtaces. “This, alfo, 
the names of cities, and places, more con- 
nected with Judea, are fometimes diffe- 
rently written, as Ba/han, and Betb-/han; 
Bafhemajb, and Beth-fhemafh, &c. FI 
am not miftaken, the Periian word baz 
has, in compofition, the fame import as — 
baamong the ancient Chaldeans. I would, 
therefore, conclude that what the Hebrews 
would have exprefled by the compound 
word, beth-baal, the Chaidees would have 
written babel, fignifying the manfion, 
tower, or Temple of Belus. 
Feb, 233 1802. M. W. 
Jo 
