[55] Cf. Prof. Rhys’s Arthurian Legend, passim.
[56] Academy, Nov. 17, 1877, p. 472.
[57] Mythology among the Hebrews, and its Historical Development (London: Longmans), 1877.
[58] Goldziher, p. 392 ff.
[59] Ibid., p. 103.
[60] The following paragraph from Professor Huxley’s Observations on the Human Skulls of Engis and Neanderthal is extracted from Lyell’s Antiquity of Man, p. 89 (4th edition).
“The most capacious healthy European skull yet measured had a capacity of 114 cubic inches, the smallest (as estimated by weight of brain) about 55 cubic inches, while, according to Professor Schaaffhausen, some Hindu skulls have as small a capacity as about 46 cubic inches (27 oz. of water). The largest cranium of any gorilla yet measured contained 34.5 cubic inches.”
Commenting on this paper Sir Charles Lyell remarks that “it is admitted that the differences in character between the brain of the highest races of man and that of the lowest, though less in degree, are of the same order as those which separate the human from the Simian brain,” and that the statements of both Professor Huxley and Dr. Morton show “that the range of size or capacity between the highest and lowest human brain is greater than that between the highest Simian and the lowest human brain.”
[61] Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, p. 147.
[62] The peculiar feature of the Semitic languages is that the consonants are everything and the vowels nothing, every word consisting, in the first instance, merely of three consonants, which form, so to speak, the soul of the idea to be expressed by that word. And as in ancient times the consonants only were written, the name Jehovah appeared as JHVH. Its exact pronunciation is utterly lost, and such veneration gathered round it, that when the Jews came to it they substituted some other name—usually Adonai. Afterwards, when vowels were added to the Hebrew text, those in Adonai, or its phonetic form Edona, were inserted between the letters of the sacred name, and thus JHVH was written Jehovah.