and therefore was rationally concluded by Mr. Pocock (whose opinion was followed by Dr. Hammond *) both from the signification of the original word, and those words it is rendered by in Syriac and Arabic, to be a kind of trident made use of after the thrashing was over, by raising or tossing up the straw and chaff, to separate them from the corn; or else a sort of shovel, which would produce the same effect by throwing the whole heap in small parcels, to a good distance, through the air. Such remarks as these, so useful for understanding the sacred text, he was careful to make as he met with convenient opportunities for them. But another business there was, in which he daily employed himself, and which indeed took up the greatest part of that time which he could spare from the necessary duties of religion; and that was, the labouring to arrive at what perfection he could in the knowledge of the eastern languages. Soon after his coming to Aleppo, he endeavoured, by the assistance of the Jews. he found there, to obtain greater accuracy in Hebrew, entertaining one Rabbi Samuel for this purpose, to whom he allowed a good stipend by the month, and afterwards applying himself to some others. But it was not long before he was fully convinced, Dr. Hammond's Annotation on Matt. iii. 12. that that this attempt would be altogether fruitless: for the stupidity of some of those wretched people was so great, that they could not, and the envy of others so mischievous, that they would not, afford any considerable direction. It appears too, from some papers written by him in this place, that he made use of such opportunities as he there met with, of improving his skill in Syriac: for they contain several gramma tical collections relating to that language, as also a praxis in it on some parts of Holy Scripture. The same way it is also manifest, that he then studied the Ethiopic tongue, and furnished himself, either from masters or books, with proper rules whereby to understand it. But Arabic, the most learned and general language of the east, was the subject of his greatest industry and application; for farther instruction in which, he agreed with a sheich or doctor, called Phatallah, to come to him frequently, and entertained, as a servant, by the year, one Hamet, chiefly for this end I suppose, that he might on every occasion converse familiarly in it. With this assistance, to obtain exactness in a tongue so very difficult, he furnished himself, as appears from his papers, with many grammatical observations, and made sundry collections out of lexicographers and other authors which he there met with. He also read the alcoran of that impostor Mahomet, Mahomet, with great care and a critical diligence; a book, the contrivance of which was held to be so great a miracle* by the author of it, and is so still by his followers; and which indeed, as a very good judge informs us, †bating the folly, the confusedness and incoherency of the matter contained therein, is, as to the style and language, the standard of elegancy in the Arab tongue. Another very useful exercise for the same purpose, on which he then bestowed much pains and time, was the translating several Arabic books. And the chief of these was a vast collection he there procured of six thousand proverbs, containing the wisdom of the Arabians, and referring to the most remarkable passages of their history. This he turned into Latin, adding some notes for explication, with a design, as he seemed to tell his friend Ger. Vossius‡, to publish the whole after his return into England. By such a continued labour and study, he at length overcame, in a great measure, all the difficulties of this copious language; and that to such a degree, that he spake it with as much ease as his mother-tongue, and so well understood the criticism and niceties of it, that his sheich pronounced Dr. Pocock's Specimen Histor. Arab. p. 191. him. him a master in it, in no sort inferior to the mufti of Aleppo. Though what has been already mentioned was a great deal of work, it was not the only employment he had at this place. As he now resided on a factory, so he was concerned in a sort of merehandize: not that of buying up silks and other ornaments to furnish the pride and luxury of Eu rope, or any other traffic that might issue in a plentiful increase of wealth; but the purchasing far more precious and valuable wares, even the learning and knowledge contained in the books of those eastern nations. Jacobus Golius, a very learned professor of Arabic and mathematics in the university of Leyden, was now very lately returned out of Syria, bringing with him a great many manuscripts of good account, which he had procured in those parts; and though Mr. Pocock had the disadvantage of coming after, he resolved that if diligence could effect it, his abode there should not be of less use to the commonwealth of learning. He bought up whatever manuscripts of any value in that language, he could meet with at Aleppo, and employed his friends there to procure the like from other places, waiting the opportunities of the caravans from Persia, and other countries. When he could not obtain the books themselves, he took care to have them exactly transcribed. And because amongst the rubbish, as as he called it, of the Jews, there were many considerable things, especially such as had been formerly written by their learned men in Anbic, when that tongue was more in request among them: he employed several brokers to get some of these out of their hands. For he was well assured, that though the Jews were either so ignorant as not to understand them, or else so sotish as not to make use of them, they would not purt with them to one whom they knew to be a christian. As he thus dealt in books for his own privae use, and at his own expence, so he had a commission from Bishop Laud (in a letter, dated Oct, 30, 1631) then of London, desiring he would buy for him such antient Greek coins, and such manuscripts, either in Greek or the Oriental languages, as in his judgment may best befit an uni versity library. From whence it appears, that this excellent man (as Lord Clarendon deservedly stiles him) had then designed those noble benefac tions, which he afterwards bestowed on the Bod leian library at Oxford. Whether the Arabic Persian, Hebrew, Armenian, Ethiopic, and other manuscripts given by him to that university in the years 1635 and 1636, were any of them procured by Mr. Pocock, I am not able certainly to say. I find a letter of that prelate's, then made Archbishop of Canterbury, dated May 21, 1634, to Mr. |