"rally, that the Almighty was afraid of 66 men, and reduced to the neceffity of faving himself by a miracle." But that this is a real hiftory, muft neceffarily be admitted, as the confufion of Babel is the only known fact that can reconcile facred and profane history.

And this leads us to confider the diverfity of languages *. If the common language

*As the focial ftate is effential to man, and fpeech to the social state, the wifdom of Providence in fitting men for acquiring that neceffary art, deferves more attention than is commonly beftowed on it. The Oran Outang has the external organs of fpeech in perfection; and many are puzzled to account why it never fpeaks. But the external organs of speech make but a small part of the neceffary apparatus. The faculty of imitating founds is an effential part; and wonderful would that faculty appear, were it not rendered familiar by daily practice: a child of two or three years is able, by nature alone, without the leaft inftruction, to adapt its organs of speech to every articulate found; and a child of four or five years can pitch its windpipe fo as to emit a found of any elevation, which enables it, with an ear, to imitate the fongs it hears. But, above all the other parts, fenfe and understanding are effential to speech. A parrot can pronounce articulate founds, and it has frequently an inclination to speak; but, for want of understanding, none of the kind can form a single sentence. Has an Oran Outang understanding to form a mental pro

position?

guage of men had not been confounded upon their undertaking the tower of Babel, I affirm, that there never could have been but one language. Antiquaries conftantJy fuppofe a migrating fpirit in the origi nal inhabitants of this earth; not only without evidence, but contrary to all probability. Men never defert their connections nor their country without neceffity: fear of enemies and of wild beafts, as well as the attraction of fociety, are more than fufficient to reftrain them from wandering; not to mention, that favages are peculiarly fond of their natal foil *. The

firft

pofition has he a faculty to exprefs that propofition in founds and fuppofing him able to express what he fees and hears, what would he make of the connective and disjunctive particles?

With refpect to the fuppofed migrating fpirit, even Bochart muft yield to Kempfer in boldness of conjecture. After proving, from difference of language and from other circumftances, that Japan was not peopled by the Chinese, Kempfer, without the leaft hesitation, fettles a colony there of those who thought of building the tower of Babel. Nay, he traces most minutely their route to Japan; and concludes, that they must have travelled with great expedition, because their language has no tincture of any other. He did not think it neceffary to explain, what

temptation

commerce.

first migrations were probably occafioned by factions and civil wars; the next by Greece affords inftances of the former, Phoenicia of the latter. Unlefs upon fuch occafions, members of a family or of a tribe will never retire farther from their fellows than is neceffary for food; and by retiring gradually, they lofe neither their connections nor their manners, far lefs their language, which is in conftant exercife. As far back as hiftory carries us, tribes without number are discovered, each having a language peculiar to itself. Strabo (a) reports, that the

temptation they had to wander so far from home; nor why they settled in an island, not preferable either in foil or climate to many countries they must have traverfed.

An ingenious French writer obferves, that plaufible reasons would lead one to conjecture, that men were more early polished in islands than in continents; as people crowded together foon find the neceffity of laws to restrain them from mifchief. And yet, fays he, the manners of islanders and their laws are commonly the latest formed. A very fimple reflection would have unfolded the mystery. Many many centuries did men exist without thinking of navigation. That art was not invented till men, ftraitened in their quarters upon the continent, thought of occupying adjacent islands.

(a) Book 2.

VOL. I.

L

Albanians

Albanians were divided into feveral tribes, differing in external appearance and in language. Cæfar found in Gaul feveral fuch tribes; and Tacitus records the names of many tribes in Germany. There are a multitude of American tribes which to this day continue diftinct from each other, and have each a different language. The mother-tongues at prefent, though numerous, bear no proportion to what formerly exifted. We find original tribes gradually enlarging; by conqueft frequently, and more frequently by the union of weak tribes for mutual defence. Such events leffen the number of languages. The Coptic is not a living language any where. The Celtic tongue, once extenfive, is at prefent confined to the Highlands of Scotland, to Wales, to Britany, and to a part of Ireland. In a few centuries, it will share the fate of many other original tongues: it will totally be forgotten.

.

If men had not been fcattered every where by the confufion of Babel, another particular must have occurred, differing no lefs from what has really happened than that now mentioned. As paradife is conjectured to have been fituated in the

heart

heart of Afia, the furrounding regions, for the reason above given, must have been first peopled; and the civilization and improvements of the mother-country were undoubtedly carried along to every new fettlement. In particular, the colonies planted in America and the South Sea islands, must have been highly polished; because, being at the greateft diftance, they probably were the lateft. And And yet these and other remote people, the Mexicans and Peruvians excepted, remain to this day in the original favage ftate of hunting and fishing.

Thus, had not men wildly attempted to build a tower whose top might reach to heaven, all men would not only have had the fame language, but would have made the fame progrefs towards maturity of knowledge and civilization. That deplorable event reverfed all nature: by fcattering men over the face of all the earth, it deprived them of fociety, and rendered them favages. From that ftate of degeneracy, they have been emerging gradually. Some nations, ftimulated by their own nature, or by their climate, have made a ra

pid