Page:Mythology Among the Hebrews.djvu/81

Rh of Sight; the excitement of which also gives the first impulse to the formation of language. But the notion of Time demands more than a mere sensuous perception. We need not therefore be surprised if the notion of Space, both in the individual and in history, is older than that of Time, nor that, as language teaches, all the finer distinctions of opposite terms emanate from the notion of Space, and the very distinctions of Time itself were originally conceived from the point of view of Space. To verify this, we only need to observe the expressions still in daily use, which can be applied to time, such as, before, after, thereafter, space of time, short or long time. The Semitic is very instructive on this point. The Hebrew shâm, originally used of place (there) is found applied to time (then); in Arabic these two significations are divided between thumma 'then' and thamma 'there.' Hebrew words, such as liphenê 'before' and acharê 'after,' ḳedem, ḳadmôn, 'old, olden time,' bring before our eyes a very clear view of the transition from local to temporal distinctions, when we take into consideration their original significations. The Arabic beyna yedeyy, or beyna eydî, is also especially instructive. This phrase signifies 'between the hands,' and is used very commonly for 'before,' of space. But even in early classical texts (e.g. in the Ḳorân) it passes over into the 'before' of time. 'Between the hands of the Prophet,' thus means either standing before him as to place, or preceding him in time. Now that which we meet thus at every step in the Semitic and Aryan, is found also in the third great stock of languages. The time-particles of the Anaric languages often go back to relations of space; and what the German Zeitraum 'space of time,' and the Arabic muddâ (properly 'extension,' but generally in the sense of a 'period of time') exemplify to us, we see also e.g. in the Finnish kausi,