the Chaldaic language, then traveling through Egypt, and establishing
himself in Canaan or Palestine, his language mingled its elements with the
tongues spoken by those nations, and perhaps also with that of the
Phoenicians, who early established commercial intercourse with him and his
descendants. It is probable that the Hebrew language sprung from the
mixture of these elements.

Second. From Moses and the composition of the Pentateuch to Solomon, when
it attained its perfection, not without being influenced by the
Phoenician. This is the Golden Age of the Hebrew language.

Third. From Solomon to Ezra, when, although increasing in beauty and
sweetness, it became less pure by the adoption of foreign ideas and
idioms.

Fourth. From Ezra to the end of the reign of the Maccabees, when it was
gradually lost in the Aramaean or Chaldaic tongue, and became a dead
language.

The Jews of the Middle Ages, incited by the learning of the Arabs in
Spain, among whom they received the protection denied them by Christian
nations, endeavored to restore their language to something of its original
purity, and to render the Biblical Hebrew again a written language; but
the Chaldaic idioms had taken too deep root to be eradicated, and besides,
the ancient language was found insufficient for the necessities of an
advancing civilization. Hence arose a new form of written Hebrew, called
rabbinical from its origin and use among the rabbins. It borrowed largely
from many contemporary languages, and though it became richer and more
regular in its structure, it retained little of the strength and purity of
the ancient Hebrew.