ON THE ARABIC LANGUAGE, 357 xnous letters, such as ]q and ( with jj . r, with \ . with . and J with . with 'T . l5 with S and r- an d P withi.

Besides these, there are other letters, whose power is extremely difficult to be acquired by an European, because no language in Europe possesses sounds similar to the Arabic letters P* p >r-, nor has any language, except, perhaps, the English, a letter with the power of the Arabian . Those who travel into Asia or Africa scarcely ever become sufficiently masters of the Arabic to speak it fluently, which radical defect proceeds altogether from their not learning, while studying it, the peculiar distinction of the synonymous letters No European, perhapSy ever Jcnew more of the theory of this language than the late Sir William Jones, hut still he could not converse with an Arabian ; a circumstance of which he was not conscious until he went to India. This great man, however, had he been told that his knowledge of this popular eastern language was so far deficient, that he was ignorant of the separate powers of its synonymous letters, and consequently inadequate to converse intelligibly with a native Arab, he would certainly have considered it an aspersion, and have disputed altogether that such was the fact. Considering how much we are indebted to the Arabians for the presei*vati6n of many of the works of the ancients, A A 3