"I am constantly reminded of you by the study which I have been rather closely pursuing here for nearly eight weeks, viz. the reading of _Robinson Crusoe_ in Arabic. It is to me often difficult from several causes: (1) It is not pointed, nor even the _Teshdied_ added; (2) I could not bring Golin's with me, and the dictionaries which I have are very imperfect; (3) the writer has most arbitrarily changed the details of Robinson's story, and makes it often incoherent and stupidly impossible; so that neither does the original help me much, nor can I rest on internal congruity to help me out." It should perhaps be remembered here that the Arabs had a great contempt for the Grecian and Roman languages. Their own language was only printed in ancient classical form, of which the Korân is the most famous example, and the characters and symbols proceeded from right to left. In its most ancient form it is named "Kufic." There are only symbols for sixteen out of its twenty-eight consonants. Certain of our own words own patronymity from the Arabic languages--words such as algebra, alcohol, zenith, nadir, etc. These show clearly that the language did influence early intellectual European culture in no small degree. To go on with the letter:-- "I am greatly encouraged by my success in understanding it" [the story of _Robinson Crusoe_ in Arabic], "for it is a far more ambitious style and on far more various topics than I have ever before encountered; and when I get my Golin's I expect to get to the bottom of many words that puzzle me, though others are probably modern developments, especially quadrilaterals and words belonging to special arts. But there is a religious formula which recurs many times, every word of which is easy, and yet the whole of it is to me unintelligible. I suspect it is elliptical and allusive, and it occurs to me that it may be familiar to you; if so, I know you will have pleasure in explaining it to me. Whenever Robinson falls into distress and betakes himself to prayer, I meet these words:-- [Arabic] and then follows the matter of sorrow. I also three times meet [Arabic] at the end of a sentence, where the meaning seems to be _et alia ejusdem generis_. I suppose it is an abridgment by initial letters. Can you help me to a solution? We have stuck here" [at Aberystwith] "longer than we intended; in fact, we should have left nearly a week ago, only that Mrs. N. caught a sharp cold, and the weather became suddenly so severe that I have feared to let her travel.... Probably, like all the world and his wife, you are yourself just now absent from home.... Do you not with me see that the Italians already are showing how vast a benefit L. N. has brought them? It is only the beginning of a vast revolution. "I am, ever your true friend, "F. W. Newman." CHAPTER IX LETTERS TO DR. NICHOLSON