In 1849, De Saulcy contributed two memoirs on cuneiform, which seem to have added considerably to the proof.[757] In the first he is said to have shown that the two languages agreed in the feminine termination _t_ and in the relative pronoun ‘sha’; and in the second he identified the particles for ‘and’ and ‘with.’[758] In the following year, Hincks added other forms and words that could be best explained by reference to the Hebrew;[759] and Rawlinson definitely settled the question by an elaborate comparison of its grammatical forms and vocabulary with those of other Semitic languages.[760] Since that time its affinity to the Semitic family has been fully accepted. Rawlinson showed that Babylonian is found in a more primitive state than any other of the Semitic dialects of Asia open to our research. It is held to be the oldest representative of that family yet known, ‘the Ethiopic ranking next in point of antiquity.’[761] Hincks declared that it bears the same relationship to Semitic as Sanscrit to Aryan, an opinion shared by Mr. Sayce and Professor Haupt. It properly belongs to the northern group, which includes Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac and Chaldee; but there is some disagreement as to the degree of relationship.[762] Mr. King describes it as ‘closely akin’ to the northern group, while Mr. Pinches considers the differences are often very great, especially in the verbs.[763] Mr. Boscawen finds striking affinities in grammar to Arabic, one of the southern group.[764] It was some time, however, before these opinions prevailed. M. Luzzato, in 1850, still maintained that Assyrian was an Indo-European language;[765] and Holtzmann that it was a Persian dialect mingled with Semitic elements.[766] Botta long remained in doubt, and Hitzig did not hesitate to deny that it is Semitic.[767] So late as 1858 Ewald, the German Hebraist, entirely refused to accept the grammatical forms of Assyrian as Semitic.[768] M. Renan wrote to the same effect in 1859, and he even retained his doubts in the fourth edition of his ‘Langues Sémitiques,’ published in 1863.[769] The recent discoveries were indeed peculiarly unacceptable to M. Renan. Not long before, he had laid down that monotheism was the special ‘note’ of the Semitic races, and he was naturally extremely disconcerted by the unexpected apparition in the Louvre of a profusion of Assyrian gods, according as they were dug up by M. Botta. In 1865 we are still assured that Assyrian, ‘though of the Semitic type, is only distantly connected with known forms of that language.’[770]