(Vol. vii., p. 363.)
Etymologists are a race who frequently need to be drawn up with a somewhat
tight rein. Our Celtic fellow-subjects will not, perhaps, be much gratified
by MR. CROSSLEY's tracing the first indications of their paternal tongue to
the family of Cain; and as every branch of that family was destroyed by the
deluge, they may marvel what account he can give of its reconstruction
amongst their forefathers. But as his manner of expressing himself may lead
some of your readers to imagine that he is explaining Cain, Lamech, Adah,
Zillah, from acknowledged Hebrew meanings of any parts of those words, it
may be as well to warn them that the Hebrew gives no support to any one of
his interpretations. If fancy be ductile enough to agree with him in seeing
a representation of a human arm holding a sling with a stone in it in the
Hebrew letter called _lamed_, there would still be a broad hiatus between
such a concession, and the conclusion he seems to wish the reader to draw
from it, viz. that the word _lamed_ must have something to do with
slinging, and that consequently _lamed_ must be a slinger. The Hebrew
scholar knows that _lamed_ indisputably signifies to _teach_; and though
perhaps he may not feel sure that the Hebrew consonant _l_ obtained its
name from any connexion with that primary meaning of the root _lamed_, he
will not think it improbable that as the letter _l_, when prefixed to a
noun or verb, _teaches_ the reader the construction of the sentence, that
may have been the reason for its being so named.
As to a legend not traceable to within some thousand years of the facts
with which it claims to be connected, those may take an interest in it who
like so to do. But as far as we may regard Lamech's address to his wives in
the light of a philological curiosity, it is interesting to observe how
naturally the language of passion runs into poetry; and that this, the most
ancient poetry in existence, is in strict unison with the peculiar
character of subsequent Hebrew poetry; that peculiarity consisting of the
repetition of clauses, containing either the same proposition in a slightly
different form, or its antithesis; a rhyme of thoughts, if we may so say,
instead of a rhyme of sounds, and consequently capable of being preserved
by a literal translation.