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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 .

• Citation
  • 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/