Chap. V. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 349 



Thus, I think, I have proved, that there was once upon the earth 

 but one language, from which all the languages that are now fpoken, 

 or were I'poken in antient times, are derived. If the reader is not 

 yer fatisfied, concern' ng this original language, by wdiat I have faid 

 of the fnnilarity betwixt fo many different languages, I can direft 

 him to books, where the fimilitude, betwixt particular languages, is 

 demonllrated to be fuch as could not happen by accident. There is 

 particularly Sheringhame, JJc Angloriim Orighie, from p. gg. to no. 

 •w'.iei"e he has proved a wonderful iikenefj betwixt the Welch and 

 Greek languages. And the fame author, in the fame work, p. 359. 

 has proved a furpriling conformity betwixt the Saxon language and 

 the Greek : And, as 1 have faid *, there is a late German writer, 

 who has difcovered a great affinity betwixt the Teutonic, and the 

 language of Japan. If the reader. is not fatisfied with all thefe au- 

 thorities, I would have him read what I have written in vol. i. of 

 tlie Origin of Language "f", where I have faid a good deal of the 

 migration of languages from one country to another, and parti- 

 cularly of the Celtic, which not only fpread itfelf over the greateft 

 part of Europe, but found its way to the north-eaft parts of Afia, 

 and even to America. 



Thus, I think, I have proved the opinion of M. Bullet and Ge- 

 belin, that there was once an original and primitive language, frcHii 



which 



* F-ige 339- 



f Book 3. clmp. 12. p. 587. and following, of 2d edition. In this chapter, (p. 585.) 

 it is obferved that language is the moil: lafting of all the memorials of men ; and of 

 the language itfslf, the names of places are more lafting than any other words of the 

 language ; for they are preferved when the language itfelf is no longer a living lan- 

 guafre, nor preferved in any written monuments. In this way I have faid that the Cel- 

 tic is preferved in France and Spain, and I might have added in England and the low 

 countrv of Scotland, where the Celcic language has long ceafed to be Ipoken or writ- 

 ten. And I obferve that M. Bullet has very properly made ufc of the ilmil:a-ity of 

 names of places, in proving languages, that are now very different, to have been origi- 

 nally the fame. 



