The Discovery of Genesis (14 page)

,
words, speech, to talk
, are formed by vapor or breath rising from the
mouth.

, a
companion or mate
, uses
to mean a
person.
Two
persons
joined together are
mates
and when qualified with
man
indicate
human companions.

,
dawn or morning
sees the
sun
emerging above the horizon of the
earth
.

Most of the characters selected for this book are exact and clever in their structure. They reveal the philosophy and wit of the inventors of the language and are worthy of our careful scrutiny. Time is needed to study, appreciate, and learn the Chinese characters so beautifully preserved from antiquity. They provide enough material to preach a hundred sermons to all people still occupying the earth more than 4,000 years later.

The characters with which we will be dealing in this book are very ancient, but through the past 2,000 years there has been scarcely any change in their constituent radicals, since the identical characters are also used in the other Oriental countries, such as Japan and Korea.
²