Forlong - Rivers of Life

xl
Preface.
the confusion and diverse spellings we notice in so many words, as in Elohim for
A l ê i m, Jehovah for Y h u ê, Mecca for M b k b, Muhommed, &c., for M h m d, until
Arabik has become one of the most distracting of languages. The evil is far reaching,
for it veils or protects, as indeed was often intended, various old deities from
invidious comparisons.
Elohim seems to cut off all possible connection with Allah, Ilios, &c., and by
doubling the d in Budha, for the sage of Buda Gayâ, we get still further from the
old Nature God of India, the Bud or Bod. 1 The Aryan had already elevated him by
an h when his attributes rose to be ethereal in the Mercury of the heavens, and
another d has been deemed necessary m the West, when he became “Wisdom,”
moral and spirituaI. Yet we must here remember that the base lies in Toth the
Pillar-God, who also became “Wisdom and Learning.”
It is, of course, necessary in instituting comparisons between words in different
languages, and especially in different classes of tongues, to seek for the very oldest
forms and sounds, and know how to reach them, that is, to remember the Iaws—so
familiar to every speaker of different Eastern tongues-which govern all ordinary
interchange. For instance, the Chinaman has difficulties with a B and dh, and calls
Budh or Badh, Foh or Fo, and Di or De(us), Ti or Thi; the Indian prefaces a vowel
to our English word stew, calling it êstû, the Bbrmbn makes the s, into t or th, and dislikes
r’s, saying Bymb, Iydwbdt and Yakain, where the Bengali says Barma, Irawâdy
and Arakan, and the half-caste (dropping the initial in the latter) is usually content
with Rakain.
All these matters have been carefully considered, and it is hoped, borne in mind
throughout these volumes though like more important subjects seldom referred to,
because the reader’s attention could not profitably be distracted from points requiring
his undivided consideration. In so large a work, extending over several years, and
written as well as printed amid many interruptions, there must of course be many
imperfections. The author is conscious not only of unequal writing (a matter of little
moment where he has made his meaning clear), but of not having supported his
arguments as strongly as might have been. In arrangement also he would wish to
have broken up the long chapters into sections and subsections, but the marginal headings,
tables, &c., will, it is hoped, in this respect, render some assistance to the reader.
In conclusion the author offers his grateful thanks to the many European and
1 See Bud in our Indexes, and Vol. II. p. 409. This and like subjects will be fully treated of in
the Glossary.