NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 445 



" Jehovah wrote these first two documents ; the first containing 

 the history of the Creation, and the second the revelation of 

 man's redemption, . . . for Adam's and Eve's instruction ; and it 

 is evident that he wrote them in the Hebrew tongue, because 

 that was the language of Adam and Eve." But this was only a 

 flower out of season. 



And finally in these latter days Mr. Gladstone has touched the 

 subject. With that well-known facility in believing anything he 

 wishes to believe, which he once showed in his connection of Nep- 

 tune's trident with the doctrine of the Trinity, he floats airily 

 over all the impossibilities of the original Babel legend and all 

 the conquests of science, makes an assertion regarding the results 

 of philology which no philologist of any standing would admit, 

 and then escapes in a cloud of rhetoric after his well-known 

 fashion. This, too, must be set down simply as a survival ; in the 

 British Isles as elsewhere the truth has been established. Such 

 men as Max Muller and Sayce in England ; Steinthal, Schleicher, 

 Weber, Karl Abel, and a host of others in Germany ; Ascoli and 

 De Gubernatis in Italy; and Whitney, with the scholars inspired 

 by him, in America, have carried the new science to a complete 

 triumph. The sons of Yale University may well be proud of the 

 fact that this old Puritan foundation was made the headquarters 

 of the American Oriental Society, which has done so much for the 

 truth in this field.* 



It may be instructive, in conclusion, to sum up briefly the his- 

 tory of the whole struggle. 



First, as to the origin of speech, we have in the beginning the 

 whole Church rallying around the idea that the original language 

 was Hebrew; that this language, even including the mediaeval 

 rabbinical punctuation, was directly inspired by the Almighty; 

 that Adam was taught it by God himself in walks and talks ; and 

 that all other languages were derived from it at the " confusion 

 of Babel." 



Next, we see parts of this theory fading out : the inspiration of 

 the rabbinical points begins to disappear ; Adam, instead of being 

 taught directly by God, is " inspired " by him. 



Then comes the third stage: advanced theologians endeavor 

 to compromise on the idea that Adam was " given verbal roots 

 and a mental power." 



Finally, in our time, we have them accepting the theory that 

 language is the result of an evolutionary process in obedience to 



* For Mr. Gladstone's view, see his Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, London, 1S90, 

 p. 241 et seq. The passage connecting the trident of Neptune with the Trinity is in his 

 Juventus Mundi. To any American boy who sees how inevitably, both among Indian and 

 white fishermen, the fish-spear takes this three-pronged form, this utterance of Mr. Glad- 

 stone is amazing. 



