tained
that the three syllables I Hi Wei, were meant for _Je-ho-vah_. According
to him, the three characters employed in this name have no meaning in
Chinese; they are only signs of sounds foreign to the Chinese language;
and they were intended to render the Greek {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}, the name which, according
to Diodorus Siculus, the Jews gave to their God. Remusat goes on to remark
that Lao-tse had really rendered this Hebrew name more accurately than the
Greeks, because he had preserved the aspiration of the second syllable,
which was lost in Greek. In fact, he entertained no doubt that this word,
occurring in the work of Lao-tse, proves an intellectual communication
between the West and China, in the sixth century B. C.

Fortunately, the panic created by this discovery did not last long. M.
Stanislas Julien published in 1842 a complete translation of this
difficult book; and here all traces of the name of Jehovah have
disappeared.

"The three syllables, he writes, "which Abel Remusat considered as purely
phonetic and foreign to the Chinese language, have a very clear and
intelligible meaning, and have been fully explained by Chinese
commentators. The first syllable, I, means without color; the second, Hi,
without sound or voice; the third, Wei, without body. The proper
translation therefore is:--"

"You look (for the Tao, the law) and you see it not: it is colorless.

"You listen and you hear it not: it is voiceless.

"You wish to touch it and you reach it not: it is without body."

Until, therefore, some other traces can be discovered in Chinese
literature proving an intercourse between China and Judaea in the sixth
century B. C., we can hardly be called upon to believe that the Jews
should have communicated this one name, which they hardly trusted
themselves to pronounce at home, to a Chinese philosopher; and we must
treat the apparent similarity between I-Hi-Wei and Jehovah as an accident,
which ought to serve as a useful warning, though it need in no way
discourage a careful and honest study of Comparative Theology.

IV.

ON SPELLING.

The remarks which I venture to offer in these pages on the corrupt state
of the present spelling of English, and on the advantages and
disadvantages connected with a reform of English orthography, were written
in fulfillment of a pro