in the preface of his second edition, says, "Whatever difficulty there may be in explain"ing this, or that, or a few particular words in "Hebrew, yet it will be demonstratively evi"dent to any one that will attentively consider "the subject, that the Hebrew language is "ideal; or, that from a certain, and that no

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great, number of primitive, and apparently "arbitrary words called roots, and usually expressive of some idea or notion taken from nature; i.e. from the external objects around us, or from our own constitutions, by our senses or feelings, all the other words of that "tongue are derived or grammatically formed; "and that WHEREVER the radical letters are the "same, the leading idea or notion runs through "all the deflexions of the word, however nume"rous or diversified, due allowance being made "for such radical letters as are dropped, and “consequently are to be supplied by the rules "of grammar."

O different colours, Gen. xxx. 32. II. Agnus, A young sucking

lamb, which, by natural instinct, is tacked or joined to the "dam." It would be easy to refer the reader to instances in which his rule was absurdly acted upon, or in which he confessed his inability to apply it at all. Perhaps it may be sufficient to mention Nos. 824, 865, and 876-if not, a few minutes employed in turning over his Concordance will furnish plenty

more.

This is indeed a most formidable declaration of war against common sense; and most valiantly, and perseveringly, did the lexicographer carry on his attack. Is it not obvious that such a principle must lead to infinite absurdity, and to the entire destruction of all clear ideas of the meaning of language? Yet, I believe, that without a specimen or two, the reader can have no idea of the extent to which this childish and mischievous doctrine is carried. Out of many that might be quoted from Parkhurst, let us take N.

"I. In Kal, to disturb, trouble, put into disturbance or disorder.

"II. In Kal, to trouble, make turbid, as water mixed with mud.

“III. As a noun,

an epithet or name for wine,

for its effects in disturbing the faculties both of body and mind.

“IV. As a noun, is applied to several substances, from their turbid motion or condition.

1. Mortar for building.

2. Mire of the streets.

3. Potters' clay.

4. It appears from Job xxxviii. 14, that they anciently used clay instead of wax for sealing, as they still do for sealing up doors in Egypt.

5. As a noun, ¬ bitumen, lxx. aapaλros, a kind of slime usually produced by a turbid effervescence from the earth.

no V.As a noun, and an ass, male or female, (see 2 Sam, xix. 26,) but generally the male, so called (however dull and sluggish his usual appearance) from his extraordinary turbulence when moved by rage or lust.

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« VI. As a noun, a Chomer, or Homer, the largest measure of capacity, in which consequently many things were frequently jumbled together.

VII. As a noun, the buffalo, so called from his turbulent disposition.”

Now I would ask the reader whether he ever saw such a farrago of childish nonsense? Can it have any other effect than to puzzle, and mislead, those who are ignorant enough to suppose that it has any foundation except in the morbid fancy of an enthusiastic theorist? But let us take another specimen-": it denotes levity, lightness," &c.

❝IV. As a noun, voice, sound, noise, articulate or inarticulate, from its lightness, or the swiftness with which it moves.

"VIII. To roast, parch, fry, that is, to evaporate the fluids, and so make light by roasting, parching, &c. “IX. As a noun with a formative, ♫ a parching, feverish heat."

Again we find,

"occurs not as a verb in Hebrew, (unless, perhaps, in Job xl. 25, or xli. 6, Will the companions, or associated merchants,, surround him, or

it here, where I am speaking of the difficulties or impediments that lie in the way of a right understanding of the Word of God. One of these, and a very considerable one, I believe, is a vague idea that there is some kind of mystery

from their being used as ornaments for the head, and also as marks whereby to distinguish the head, chief, or principal officers in an army, or the like. It seemeth to have been most commonly used to express such feathers as men write withal; and this may be because such was the chief or principal use of them (that before-mentioned being only ornamental); or, because in that commercial nation most persons were tradesmen, and such (as appears by many testimonies) were wont to carry them on their heads, setting them fast by the ear.

"II. As a noun substantive. Penny (with diminutive termination, as John, Johnny, &c.) signifieth a little head: hence it came to mean commonly a small coin bearing a head stamped thereon, and usually the head of the king, or chief, or principal person, who was considered the head of the Government by which the coin was struck. Hence, also, I take it, that at one period this coin was called penny-royal [see Royal, under the root OYL the title given to those who were anointed to the kingly office], in like manner as we know that another coin was called a spur-royal. Thus, penny-royal will come to signify 'the little, anointed, head;' and this seemeth to me so clear, that I cannot be of a mind with those who, from one or two ob. scure passages, will have it that penny royal was some kind of plant or herb. If they are right, however, it was, no doubt, so called from its having a seed-vessel like the head of a poppy, and, like it, containing oily seeds.

"III. As a noun substantive. Pennyworth. It is compounded

something undefinable, not translateable, not even quite comprehensible, in the Hebrew language itself. It is an "ideal" language; a sort of something by which one understands a something that one does not understand.

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of the foregoing, and the noun substantive worth [see under the root ORT, the High Dutch for a place], and signifieth something given, or received, or set forth, in place (fr. en lieu) of a penny ; as, when a man having laid down a penny on a shop-counter, and the dealer or chapman, having inquired what sort [see again, under ORT: different sorts of things, being such as should be, and, therefore, in an ideal language are supposed to be, kept or reposited in different places,] of merchandize he wishes to purchase, lays down a certain quantity thereof on the counter, in place of the penny,which he takes up. Some lexicographers, however, place worth under the quadriliteral root wort, which occurs not as a verb, but the philosophical and ideal meaning whereof, I have shown at large in its proper place, to be,' to emanate, or spring from, or out of, or to be originated, by, or from, some other matter or thing'- -as sweetwort, which seemeth to have been a kind of drink, springing forth, or emanating from, or originated by, the boiling of malt and water. It seemeth also to have been the name of several plants-as St. John's wort, colewort, and others, which were so called because they were wont to spring forth, or emanate from, the earth, or from the seed, or what not. If, then, worth be to be derived from this root (whereof let the learned and judicions reader form his own. opinion), then penny-worth will signify something springing out of, or emanating from, a penny, which makes an easy sense, and one which the word will bear exceeding well in all places, wherein I have found it."