Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/431

 HEBREW LEXICON. 417 plain and candid statement of the source of the work : Le&ori. Exhibeo tibi quinque linguarum, vel potius quinque dialectorum sacrae linguae compendium, quarum primitiae in Hebraica & Chaldaica iam olim a spiritu S. consecratae sunt. Quod eo consilio feci, ut disparentibus maioris voluminis exemplis, haberent studiosi non solum tabulam vocum simplicium interpretandarum, ad authores intelligendos ; verum etiam uberrimum commentarium in totam Scripturam. Our indulgence is strained perhaps, but not strained beyond endurance, by the further re-issue in 1637 of the same sheets with yet a third title- page from which Schindler's name disappears, and on which Alabaster's now appears in full, and no longer as epitomiser, but masquerading as author. But what about the two Thorndike issues ? What share, if any, did Thorndike have in the compilation of the Epitome, and for what reason did the two cancel title-pages bearing his name come to be set up ? Thorndike's biographer, even though he knew nothing of the Alabaster and Schindler issues, was uneasy about the work, of which he writes as follows l : The book itself hardly answers to its title. It is a lexicon certainly of the specified languages, with the addition of the Chaldee, and arranged according to the Hebrew, the triliteral primitives being followed under each letter by the few of more letters than three. But the observations on the Hebrew tongue are none at all ; and those on the Greek amount to less than forty Greek words scattered throughout the Lexicon, mainly (although 1 loc. cit. p. 267.