Professor Moore's Lecture.

Professor G. F. Moore, of Andover Theological Seminary, gave the third lecture in the course on Semitic Languages and Literature, in Sever 5, last evening. The subject of the lecture was "Aramaic."

The name, Aramaic, said Professor Moore, is given by modern scholars to one great branch of the Semitic languages. The earlier seats of Aramaic are unknown. It is first recognized in the country stretching north from the Euphrates to the mountains of Armenia. It is probable that Aramaic did not spread westward until 1200 B. C.

Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the Assyrian empire in its western provinces. At the fall of the Assyrian empire it overspread Asia, except Arabia, and supplanted the Semitic languages. The reason it spread is unknown; but the conquest was almost as complete as was that of Arabic later at the time of the Moslem conquest.

The Aramaic literature is almost wholly, either Jewish or Christian. The Jewish is represented by some parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel. The Christian form is commonly called Syriac. No pre-Christian literature exists. Such a literature probably arose with the pagan culture; but with the translation of the Bible into the Aramaic dialect of Odyessa, it disappeared.

Aramaic is distinguished by its dentals, its post-positive articles, and its paucity of vowels. All Aramaic dialects borrowed foreign words freely. Many translations were made of Greek works, but very little original writing was attempted. There is hardly any Semitic literature of so little intrinsic interest.