this morning read the first chapter of Genesis in three-quarters of
an hour. It is rich, beyond all comparison, in inflexions; and the
difficulty arises from the extreme multiplicity of all its forms:
e.g. each verb having not only active, middle, and passive voices,
but the primitive active having not less than thirty-five derivative
forms and the passive thirteen. The "noun of action,"--infinitive
with article (to akonein) of the Greek--is again different for each
voice or form; and the primitive can take any of twenty-two forms,
which are not compounded according to any rule. Again, there are
twenty-eight sets of irregular plurals, which are quite arbitrary.
No grammarian has ever given any explanation about them. All mere
matters of memory. The very alphabet shows the richness of the
language. There are twenty-nine letters, besides vowel points; and
each letter is written in four different ways, so that it is
different when isolated, when in the beginning, middle, or end of a
word. It took me some hours to learn them. In very many respects,
it is closely allied to the Hebrew, so that everybody who writes
Hebrew grammars and lexicons necessarily has much to do with Arabic;
and a knowledge of it may be of great use in clearing up difficulties
in the Bible. My year in Oxford will enable me to go on with it, for
in three weeks more I hope to be able to go on alone. To-morrow I
begin the Koran. My lessons will not in all exceed 31; and I really
should have gone on, perhaps, not much faster with Hebrew if I had
worked it exclusively; and it is hard to read so many hours at one
thing: and I may say, now without doubt, that I have laid the
foundation for a study of Oriental languages, if I have time and
opportunity that may be fairly given to them. Think what one hour a
day is, and the pleasure to me is very great, and I feel that I have
a knack rather (if I may say so) of laying hold of these things.
Don't mention it to anyone.'