PROGRESS 01' LANGUAGE. 133 



subject, much light has been thrown by the researches of the learned 

 since his day. 



The view which he presents, was substantially that of many dis- 

 tinguished men, and may yet prevail to some extent. Yet no one who 

 examines attentively the lights upon this subject, which are now pre- 

 sented, can continue to entertain that view. This view is in substance 

 as follows, viz : Language, (if it deserves the name,) originally, was 

 extremely defective. Jn the progress of society men discovered its de- 

 fects, and made the improvements which the nature of the case required. 

 Thus, during the lapse of years, improvement was added to improve- 

 ment, until language became one of the most powerful and subtil agents 

 in the control of man ; capable of rousing and allaying the storm of 

 human passion, and of exhibiting thought the most abstract and refined. 

 And now it is an instrument not merely of communicating ideas neces- 

 sary for the ordinary intercourse of society, but of the highest refine- 

 ment and luxury; so that, next to spiritual joys, are those which spring 

 from language, the purest and most elevating. 



I need not say that this view is erroneous, having no foundation in 

 the history of language^ in reason^ or in revelation. 



My design is to show, that language was originally one and co7n- 

 plete., i. e. It had all the parts of speech, gender, number, and injlection; 

 and, although it passed through changes, those changes did not neces- 

 sarily benefit or improve it. 



The study of comparative philology (by which is meant a com- 

 parison of the difiereut languages of ibe earth, for the purpose of tra- 

 cing their resemblances and noting their discrepancies,) is of recent 

 origin. Infidels employed against the Mosaic account of the creation 

 of a single pair as the progenitors of the human race, the argument de- 

 rived from the multiplicity and apparent dissimilarity in the languages 

 of the human race. This objection imparted a powerful impulse to in- 

 vestigation into the resemblances observable in language. The friends 

 and the enemies of revelation were alike active in this investigation, and 

 the result of it, like that of every other inquiry into the truth of reve- 

 lation, has given, if possible, additional strength to the word of God. 

 The eaily part of this investigation, 1)ecause it was only partial and lim- 

 ited, threw a gloom over the minds of the lovers of the bible, and, as is 

 loo often the case, they resorted to vague and sometimes silly theories 

 for the purpose of removing the obstacles which were in their way. If, 

 for example, they found a i'ew words alike in several languages, the in- 

 ference was made at once, that they were derived from the same origin. 

 Thus, Goropius Bccanus, as quoted by Wiseman, accounts for the word 



