Arabic and Persian Lexicography [pp. 190-195]

0 arabic and Persian Lexicography.
that the writer is offended at my meddling with politics, but
that I have meddled on the wrong side. Had the same mediocrity of talent been exerted in eulogizing the measures of
ministry, his greetings would have been as loud as his invective is bitter." If the system is false, let this be made to appear,-let its errors be exposed-but until this is done, let
no arrangement of divine truth be decried as injurious. In
conclusion, we apprehend no evils to our rising theologians
from scholastic systems, for the best of all reasons-they know
nothing of them. The literature of the day has extended its
influence to the domain of theology, and the weekly, monthly, and quarterly receptacles of religious discussion, consume
too much of our attention, to leave opportunity for poring
over the works of our ancestors.
ART. IV.-ARABIC AND PERSIAN LEXICOGRAPHY.
. Dictionary Persian, adrabic, and English, with a dis sertation on the language, literature, and manners of
eastern nations. By John Richardson, Esq. F. S. A., of
the Middle Temple, and of PWadham College, Oxford.
Revised and improved by Charles Wilkins, Esq. LL. D.
F. R. S. a new edition, considerably enlarged by Fran cis Johnson. London, 1829, quarto.
A TRULY splendid specimen of British typography, and an
invaluable addition to the apparatus of the Oriental scholar.
Richardson's Dictionary has been long known to the public.
The original form was folio. The quarto edition of 1806
was superintended by the famous Orientalist, Charles Wilkins, who added twenty thousand Persian words from native
dictionaries, reformed the orthography, and had type east under his own inspection. There can be no doubt, that the
work received immense improvement by passing through his
hands. Richardson was a laborious compiler —-Wilkins a
philological genius and a finished scholar, who takes precedence of Jones, in point of general depth and accuracy, as well
as of chronological priority in Sanscrit learning. In his edition of Richardson, however, he betrayed one weakness. He
applied to that vast work his awkward plan for representing
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