ower, it is not to be
denied that the Supreme Being must possess in himself, and in himself
alone, both a generative and a prolific power. This idea, which was so
extensively prevalent among all the nations of antiquity,[133] has also
been traced in the tetragrammaton, or name of Jehovah, with singular
ingenuity, by Lanci; and, what is almost equally as interesting, he has,
by this discovery, been enabled to demonstrate what was, in all
probability, the true pronunciation of the word.

In giving the details of this philological discovery, I will endeavor to
make it as comprehensible as it can be made to those who are not
critically acquainted with the construction of the Hebrew language; those
who are will at once appreciate its peculiar character, and will excuse
the explanatory details, of course unnecessary to them.

The ineffable name, the tetragrammaton, the shem hamphorash,--for it is
known by all these appellations,--consists of four letters, _yod, heh,
vau_, and _heh_, forming the word [Hebrew: yod-heh-vau-heh]. This word, of
course, in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language, is read, as
we would say, backward, or from right to left, beginning with _yod_, and
ending with _heh_.

Of these letters, the first, _yod_, is equivalent to the English _i_
pronounced as _e_ in the word _machine_.

The second and fourth letter, _heh_, is an aspirate, and has here the
sound of the English _h_.

And the third letter, _vau_, has the sound of open _o_.

Now, reading these four letters, [Hebrew: yod], or I, [Hebrew: heh], or H,
[Hebrew: vau], or O, and [Hebrew: heh], or H, as the Hebrew requires, from
right to left, we have the word [Hebrew: yod-heh-vau-heh], equivalent in
English to IH-OH, which is really as near to the pronunciation as we can
well come, notwithstanding it forms neither of the seven ways in which the
word is said to have been pronounced, at different times, by the
patriarchs.[134]

But, thus pronounced, the word gives us no meaning, for there is no such
word in Hebrew as _ihoh_; and, as all the Hebrew names were significative
of something, it is but fair to conclude that this was not the original
pronunciation, and that we must look for another which will give a
meaning to the word. Now, Lanci proceeds to the discovery of this true
pronunciation, as follows:--

In the Cabala, a hidden meaning is often deduced from a word by
transposing or reversing its letters, and it was in this way that t