neral use, to such a degree, the practice must have had some other cause than the convenience of the scribe; or the inconvenience to the reader must have diminished its extent. To the inference from what has been presumed of the nature of these languages, another reason for the small number of vowel characters, and the omission of vowel characters, which is so frequent, may be derived from a consideration of the progress, of invention from hieroglyphic to alphabetic character. The first step towards an alphabet must, I conceive, have been a syllabic character. But as all primary attempts are imperfect, the first, in this respect, probably went no farther than to have detected the number of consonants which with vowels make syllables; and the three long vowels, which of themselves constitute syllables, not making any nice distinction between the broad a and e, or between the o and u. In such case each consonant must have represented a syllable, it standing both for the simple consonant together with an adjunct, which was some sound not clearly determined by the ear; or which being short was not at first regarded, as being easily. supplied; nor would an error in a short sound be of any great consequence m the pronunciation of words, the sense whereof mostly depended on the consonants and broad vowels, or in times when a language was not so far cultivated as to make correctness of pronunciation a requisite. In later times the syllabic alphabet may have been brought into the more perfect state, which may be observed in the Ethiopic alphabet; but this required a minute analysis of language, which was probably gradual, and its accomplishment the result either of necessity in applying the original alphabet to another language, or of the labor perhaps of centuries in improving it, according to the improvement of the original language to which it was applied. If then the Hebrew alphabet be considered as syllabic, (but as syllabic in a rude state of the invention of literal character,) it will follow, that the points were a later invention, intended to remedy its imperfection, when the language was in a more cultivated state. Why this mode was adopted, rather than that of adding new characters to the alphabet, as the Greeks did to theirs, it is difficult to imagine, unless it was that the law being originally written according to the system of the imperfect alphabet, it was thought to be irreverent to write it with any additional letters; and as the copies of the law read in the synagogues are not suffered to be written with vowel points, this probably was the real cause why they did not, Even the points themselves must, as your correspondent T. Y. has very justly observed, have been but few originally; and been multiplied by degrees, till they were brought to the state in which they now encumber the text; and I also believe that the simple point was the first employed. Even for this improvement there must have been some necessary cause, somewhat dubious, which it was desirable to ascertain; and that cause I conceive to have been a double power of the jod and vau. For it is very remarkable, that these two letters have in various languages, and from remote times, and probably traditionally, had the double powers of consonants and vowels. The first use of the point was therefore, I conceive, to note either when they were to be read as vowels, or as the consonants with their vowel sound annexed. If the common grammar rules be admitted as traditionally correct, the latter was the original use of the point; and I see no reason to dispute it. This convenience would naturally lead to a more general applica tion of the point, by making a similar use of it so far, as that the point over any other letter should stand for o or u, and under it for i. The point in the vau seems to have been the contrivance of a much later date, and I think properly a dagesh of the vau with its vowel, as, if so contemplated, it is conformable to the general use of the point in the middle of a letter. Moreover, when this use of the point for the vowel became familiar, the convenience of using the point alone and omitting the jod or vau; or more probably, that of annexing the point, where the jod or vau had casually been omitted, in preference to interlineation, would suggest itself; and to the one or the other of these suggestions, the frequent omission of these letters in some copies, where they occur in others, may be attributed. In the Samaritan text of the pentateuch they are seldom, if ever, omitted, where they ought regularly to be found; and hence it may fairly be argued, that the points were not invented previous to the separation of the ten tribes; since, if they had been so, the invention would probably have had the same effect on it, as on the Hebrew copies, and it seems to me that it would therefore be very desirable, that either the Samaritan copy should be printed in Hebrew characters, or, at least, that in an edition of the Hebrew bible the matres lectionis should be restored wherever they are found in the Samaritan text. The invention of some of the points I am inclined to attribute, as many others have done, to Ezra ; and for the same reason, viz. that they then became necessary to enable the priests to read correctly. In the sequel the Jews, like the Greeks, seem to have made a nicety of pronunciation their study, and to have completed the present system of punctua tion before the destruction of Jerusalem. Afterwards they could scarcely have done it; neither would it probably have been so reverentially adhered to, had it not been received as that sanctified by the usage of the temple. I cannot therefore but esteem them, so far as giving a just idea of the manner in which the Hebrew language was spoken, when in its highest state of cultivation; and certainly even to us, the language, when read according to the points, has a pleasing variety of sounds; whereas when read without them, and according to the common rule, the perpetual recurrence of the same vowel sound almost destroys its resemblance to a real lan guage, and is intolerable to the ear; though I must confess that the vulgar mouthing of the aas and ees lately taught are not much less so. One who can read with propriety will be able to distinguish between a long and short a or e, sufficiently without it; and for the press (â or ê) the usual characters of these vowels, when long, would be much less disagreeable to the eye. Hitherto no very satisfactory rule has been given for reading without the points; and it is therefore with great diffidence I venture to propose a method, which may perhaps have some advantages. This is to write the pronouns, and the paradigms of the verbs (omitting the conjugations pihil and pohal) as they are pronounced according to the vowels, and to commit these paradigms, and also the pronouns as so written to memory; and to exercise the memory according to the paradigms in other verbs, till the expression becomes familiar. As to other words, it will suffice where a vowel is necessary to supply the deficiency by any one short vowel, but in all such cases to use the same vowel for this purpose. The constant recurrence of the same sound will thus be avoided, and the mode of reading will be very nearly the true one. This method would, I hope, be found useful, as without the toil of attending to all the minute and troublesome variations of the points, it may enable those who read together to understand each other. That which has principally induced me to offer such a rule, is an advantage which the faculty of reading the Hebrew without points affords to the student. The Hebrew commentaries, and most other Hebrew books that I have met with, are printed without points, and many of these are well worthy of attention, especially to the biblical scholar. Some of these are written in very pure Hebrew, others have a mixture of the languages of the countries in which the writers lived. It has been frequently said, that as there is but the Old Testament in the Hebrew Language, it is not worth while to study the language for the sake of this one book, which is so well translated into other languages. If it is meant by this, that there are no other books of the same ages as any of the books in the bible, this indeed is true; but it is also true, that there are many other books in the language, and for the utility of the Jewish commentators, I may refer to the use made of them by Lightfoot in his Hora Hebraicæ; and any one, who attempts to convert the Jews, ought to learn first from their own writings what their objections are. Llanarmon, D. C. P. R. Cl. Jl. Supp. NO. XVIII. VOL. IX. 2 L NOTICE OF CHRONOLOGICAL RETROSPECT, or MEMOIRS of the PRINCIPAL EVENTS of MAHOMMEDAN HISTORY; from the death of the Arabian Legislator, to the Accession of the Emperor Akbar, and the establishment of the Moghul Empire in Hindustan. From original Persian Authorities, by MAJOR DAVID PRICE, of the East India Company's Service. 2 vols. 4to. (the 3rd not yet published) London, 1811. ALTHOUGH the Work which we here announce has not been yet brought to a conclusion, the merits of those parts which have appeared induce us to recommend them, in the strongest manner, not only to Orientalists, but to the lovers of general history, and of extraordinary anecdotes, and more particularly to those who may be desirous of tracing to its source that torrent of wonderful events which inundated the fairest regions of Asia, and overwhelmed even some portion of the European world, and exposed it to be subjugated by the ferocious and enthusiastic disciples of Mohammed. Our readers will be enabled to form some estimate of the labor employed, and the perseverance displayed, by our ingenious author in the composition of this Work, when we inform them that he has translated, (from a language, which" all who run can NOT read") and condensed into his "Retrospect" every thing instructive or interesting that can be found connected with his subject, in the Great Tarikh, or Chronicle of Abu Jaufer Mohammed Ben Jarir, surnamed Al Tabari, or Tabri, and described by the learned Ockley (History of the Saracens, vol. ii..Intr. xxxiii.) as "the Livy of the Arabians, the very parent of their History" -A Manuscript, of which some copies occupy eight hundred, some a thousand pages, folio, or quarto-he has copiously and judiciously borrowed from the celebrated Persian work, entitled Rouzet al Sefa, or Garden of Purity," composed by Mirkhond, and generally transcribed in seven or eight large volumes-from the Kholauset al Akhbaur, and the Habib asseir of the Historian Khondemir-records of considerable extent-from the Tarikh Guzeideh, or " Select Chronicle,” by Hamdallah Mastowfi of Cazoin-and other rare and valuable annals. 66 From such voluminous manuscript materials, to peruse which, with the attention necessary for the performance of his work, was, in itself, a task of no ordinary magnitude, Major Price has collected a stock of the most entertaining and useful information respecting an occurrence that may be considered as among the most stupendous in the history of mankind-To the feebleness of their opponents, and especially of the enervated Persians, we may attribute in great measure the successes of the Musulmans' arms, and the rapid propagation of their new religion. Our author is of this opinion, and thus expresses it in the opening of his Work-"That there existed in the genius of Mahomedanism something calculated to inspire the most powerful energies and exertions, has been too widely and fearfully exemplified in the unparalleled success of its votaries to be made a question of; but without conceding too far to the opinions of some very distinguished modern authorities on the subject, there are in the experience of succeeding ages sufficient grounds for the belief, that its early and rapid advancement is to be ascribed in an equal degree to the degenerate spirit of its opposers, and to the already corrupted state of Christianity in the sixth and seventh centuries. If, indeed, the gospel of peace and benevolence, delivered in spotless purity by a mild Redeemer, for the welfare and happiness of mankind, had even at that period through human folly and depravity suffered a deplorable perversion; if the minds of men were become already unhinged and embittered by acrimonious controversies, by impious, unavailing, and contradictory attempts to analyze those mysterious properties of the Divine Nature, so far beyond the scope of human faculties to comprehend; if the sole object of pure and rational devotion had been in a manner lost sight of, through the degrading substitution of image-worship, through the cloud of martyrs, saints, and angels interposed before the throne of Omnipotence ;' it is almost impossible to avoid the inference, that, in the state of ignorance which then generally pervaded the mass of society, the world was sufficiently predisposed to embrace any change or innovation that might be recommended for its adoption, under the influence of superior talents and a plausible exterior of sanctity. The surprise will therefore cease that with endowments of no ordinary stamp, and with the united aid of fraud and violence, the self-commissioned and aspiring legislator of the Arabs should have succeeded in engrafting on the minds of his uninformed but ardent countrymen, together with the sublime and eternal truth that there is only one God, an acquiescence at least, if not a belief, in the unconnected rhapsodies of the Korân; and in the fiction necessary, perhaps, to the establishment of his doctrines, and not less. to the views of ambition, that he was the apostle of God. "It would be foreign to the design of these pages to delineate the numerous artifices devised by the Arabian prophet to acquire that unbounded ascendancy which he is known to have established over the minds of his followers: to lay the foundation of that tremendous sys. tem of enthusiasm, which triumphed for a time over the sacred banners of the cross; which scared the Roman eagle from the towers of the city of Constantine; and which, had it not been seasonably arrested on the banks of the Loire, just one hundred years after the death of its author, by that providence which directed the battle-axe of Charles Martel, would, to borrow for once the glowing language of the eloquent Gibbon, peradventure long since have reared the emerald standard of the race of Fatima on the pinnacles of St. Paul's Cathe dral." p. 2. : The History before us commences with the eighth year of the Hid |