UNKNOWN TONGUES. 243 



light of the moon rests dreaming on the bosom of the ocean, 

 and gentle breezes, laden with fragrance, come cooling and 

 calming from distant homes, it opens its bright-colored lips, 

 and pours forth its mild, melancholy music, that the breakers 

 on shore are heard no longer, and the heart of man is 

 moved. 



It was surely not said in vain, nor was it a mere figure of 

 speech, when the Psalmist exclaimed: "All thy works 

 praise thee, oh Lord !" For all creation unites in the vast 

 hymn of praise that daily rises to His throne on high. The 

 morning stars ever sing in the heavens, the mountains echo 

 back the voice of thunders : the earthquake replies to the 

 roar of the tempest ; and even the tiny insect, in its mazy 

 dance, adds a feeble note that is heard by Him . 



Thus we have a thousand voices around us, sending up 

 their great, never-ceasing anthem. But proud man has little 

 heeded, heretofore, the countless accents of nature. Infant 

 nations hear them and comprehend them not; the higher 

 races listen to their own words only, and their ear is closed 

 to the humbler voices around them. Thus they are truly 

 Unknown Tongues. Quite recent researches, however, have 

 thrown some faint light on this strange and attractive province 

 of knowledge. 



As the unfortunate child, that is born deaf, can neither, 

 hear the sweet voice of its mother, nor learn the mystery of 

 language, so animals also cannot have speech unless they 

 have hearing. For ages, all the lower tribes were curtly 

 classed among dumb creation. Mollusks, it was said, had 

 neither eyes nor ears, the cuttlefish only excepted ; their life 

 was a mere dream ; they were doomed to eternal silence. 



