On the Origins or the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language

—them. I pass over in silence those gifts of Punic books with which you endowed me at the beginning of this year; those, indeed, were so dear to you as they were, and rare in Gaul before our Arabic library had arrived, and offered to you by a rare and most learned friend who is also most worthy of being observed, and repaid with such a gift that if he were to estimate your liberality from that thing, he could truly say that he gave you the cloak of Syloson original: "συλόσινος χλαμύδα". So that I might also show some sign of my spirit toward you for that gift of yours, I wanted, as a most prepared supporter of languages, to present you with these our childish observations, and that for a triple reason: first, so that these small things, which are in need of a singular patron, might have such a one as neither various languages, nor letters, nor the learned recognize a greater one after the most liberal and munificent Prince, to whom you assist with no common recommendation as much as you are able, and who, besides the highest benefits, is also accustomed to vindicate them from the bites of slanderers. Second, so that I might signify to you this little gift of my observance toward you, if not for the sake of my own affairs, at least for the sake of the Republic, into which you confer all your work. The third is that which I have already said, so that I might give thanks for these our vigils, such as they are, for your singular love toward us. You will not estimate the thing by its own mass, which is otherwise small, but in the manner of that Persian drawing water from the hand of a rustic, from the spirit of the giver. For as I do not want to contend with anyone regarding things, so certainly I do not want to yield in benevolence from the heart, or be inferior to any. If the book's diction will sometimes seem harder, I do not doubt that you will easily tolerate it when you take into account the age in which I wrote. For I could have brought these to light even six years ago.