A GRAMMAR OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE, COMPRISED IN A SERIES OF LECTURES; COMPILED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES, AND DRAWN PRINCIPALLY From Oriental Sources, DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITIES. BY THE REV. S. LEE, B.D. D.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HALLE, HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF PARIS, SECOND EDITION, ENRICHED WITH MUCH ORIGINAL MATTER THE LONDON: PRINTED FOR JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW; J. & J. J. DEIGHTON, AND T. STEVENSON, CAMBRIDGE; J. PARKER, OXFORD; 1832. DEDICATION. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE BARON BROUGHAM AND VAUX, LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND. MY LORD, The very munificent and disinterested manner, in which your Lordship has been pleased to notice my labours, (devoted as they have been for many years to the advancement of sacred and oriental literature in this country,) has made it a duty to seize the earliest opportunity in my power, publicly to express my obligations for the favours so unexpectedly, and I will say so unusually, conferred. I will not affirm that our public institutions are generally not well endowed, but I may, that to have performed the duties of both Hebrew and Arabic Professor in the University of Cambridge with some public credit, for nearly the last dozen years with a salary of forty pounds,* was not very likely to impress any one so circumstanced with the idea, that his pluralities were such as to render him an object of public animadversion, or to buoy him up with the notion, that his services had been met by his country In addition to this, Lord Liverpool allowed me to draw annually upon the Treasury for the sum of 100l., upon producing a certificate of having delivered lectures. with more than ordinary encouragement. How these particulars first found their way to your Lordship's notice, I have not the means of knowing: but I do know that the very handsome manner, in which you have been pleased to meet them, has left me no alternative but that of gratefully acknowledging the obligations which I owe and feel, and of assuring your Lordship, that I shall ever consider it my duty to endeavour to deserve the distinction. I have the honour to be, MY LORD, Your Lordship's most obliged, Humble Servant, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE first Edition of this Grammar having been entirely sold off, and having been requested by the Publisher to prepare another, I avail myself of this opportunity to state why the Work appears in its present form, and how the Learner may most profitably use it. After all, then, that has been said about it, either publicly or privately, (and I here beg to offer my acknowledgments for all the favours thus done me,) my conviction is, that to present the Student with both the Synthetical and Analytical methods, at the same time, is by far the most likely to give him an interest, and to ground him, in the study of the Hebrew Language. To cultivate the memory, as well in this as in every other sort of study, I hold to be good; but then I must insist upon it, that to interest and inform the mind is infinitely better. A very learned and deservedly celebrated opponent of mine, on this question, has argued that to give naked rules in Grammar, is always the most likely to insure the progress, and to advance the truth: while, however, he has not hesitated to advance reasons, analytically, in support of his own rules, whenever he thought fit to do so. My opinion has been, and still is, that where we have Men, and not mere Children, to study any Language or Science, it is our duty to lay before them at once, both the rule and the reasons for it: and thus, at one and the same time, to present the grounds * This edition consisted of 1,500 copies; and I cannot help looking upon the circumstance as a proof that Hebrew Literature is on the increase among us. |