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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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in other languages , though I imagine resting on no better authority . Few persons would be able to read a Latin or Greek work without stops ; and we know that the readers of the unpointed manuscripts in the Jewish synagogues go through a tedious course of education to qualify them for reading without such aid . The use of the points in etymological researches has not been insisted upon , because this is a matter of comparatively little importance . But the probability that a letter being changed or suppressed would make a difference in the sound of the word such as the points suggest , may
be adduced as favourable to the Masoretic system . Thus iQM is the representative of iD ? M in two syllables , and this leads us to *) JN as the root . The Dagesh enables us also to trace a connexion with other languages ; thus , a throne in the Arabic , Syriac and Chaldee , is ND * "D , whilst in Hebrew it is HDD , the Resch being omitted in Hebrew , or rather its sound being changed to that of Samech , which is expressed by the points NS > 3 .
But it may be said , We can do without the points now , however useful they may have been , and therefore need not have the trouble of learning them . So much , indeed , is this trouble dreaded , that some recommend learning without points first , and then adding the points . Now , if learned at all , it seems less troublesome to begin with them . They are not as formidable as many imagine . Experience teaches that they may be acquired without
much labour in a few days , and that they offer no difficulties which may not be easily overcome . Those who have not learned Hebrew with points may fancy it disgusting , and speak of it in very harsh terms ; but , compared with the other dead languages , and with most modern languages , especially Oriental ones , it will be found considerably less difficult ; and , indeed , unless learned with points , it will scarcely prove of so much use in acquiring others as to deserve the appellation given to it of Janua Linguarum Orientalium .
May it not be concluded , then , that though the points may not be of as great antiquity , or as high authority , as some would have us to believe , yet that they may be of considerable use in facilitating our knowledge of the language , in making us acquainted with the Jewish mode of understanding it , and in enabling us to extend our critical inquiries ; whilst , wherever
differences between it and the ancient versions occur , we are equally at liberty to depart from them , and to judge according to the rules of criticism , as if we had never learned them ? And if this be so , ought not the points to be universally taught in places of education for the ministry , not as essential parts of Scripture , but as a useful preparation for the exercise of sound Biblical Criticism ? A
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The vast importance of surgical and anatomical knowledge to the wellbeing of the community , has , with the improving intelli gence of the times , acquired universal assent . That this knowledge cannot be obtained by the study of books or of living subjects , so as to enable a student or young
practitioner to undertake difficult and critical operations with a reasonable prospect of success , is almost as self-evident as my first proposition . A sculptor or a designer has only the exterior of the body to examine ; and the relative situation of the parts , the flexibility of the joints , and the tension of the muscles , are subjects better understood by putting them all into varied action , than by any thing a lifeless body can possibly supply ; but it is far otherwise with
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84 Poluntary Dissection .
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VOLUNTARY DISSECTION .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/4/
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