PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 41 



The remaining and principal class, is that of verbal languages ; 

 in which ideas are expressed by words, or signs of words ; unless 

 written characters are regarded not as signs of words, but as imme- 

 diate signs of ideas. Telegraphic signals, being confessedly signs 

 of words, in some selected language, may be mentioned here, and 

 referred to their place in the department of Callotechnics. The 

 origin of verbal language is doubtless coeval with that of the human 

 race. Adam, it is recorded, gave names to all animals ; but 

 whether by immediate inspiration, or by his own suggestion, is a 

 point not ascertained ; nor is it of any practical importance. All man- 

 kind, we may infer, spoke one and the same language, in the primi- 

 tive ages : and of course this would be the language of Noah and 

 his family. Many writers suppose that the primitive language was 

 essentially the same as the Hebrew; having been preserved un- 

 changed among the patriarchs. The diversity of languages, now 

 prevailing over the earth, is generally attributed to the confusion of 

 tongues at Babel : though some learned men believe this to have 

 been simply a confusion of counsels or purposes; and that the 

 diversity of languages arose from the subsequent dispersion of 

 mankind, as recorded in the Scriptures. 



The invention of letters, was attributed, by some of the Greeks, 

 to Cadmus, the Phoenician ; who introduced them into Greece, 

 1519, B. C.: but Plato and Sanchoniathon ascribe this "invention to 

 Thaut, the Egyptian ; whom we have already mentioned ; (p. 26) ; 

 and who is said to have carried letters from Phoenicia to Egypt, on 

 removing thither with Mizraim, his father. Some suppose the first 

 letters to have been those written on the tables of stone, on Mount 

 Sinai. Others believe that letters were invented before the flood :- 

 an opinion corroborated by the statement of Josephus, concerning 

 the pillars of Seth ; though this statement has been doubted. We 

 incline to the latter opinion ; and think that the first letters were sug- 

 gested by hieroglyphics : the picture of a sensible object suggesting 

 the shape of the letter ; and the name of that object containing the 

 sound thus represented. This was certainly the case in some of the 

 Egyptian Hieroglyphics ; which would not have been so, had sim- 

 pler letters been previously known in Egypt. 



Hervas, an Italian, published, in 1784, a Catalogue of the Lan- 

 guages then known; to which he appended 150 different vocabu- 

 laries : but J. C. Adelung and J. S. Vater, in their admirable work, 

 the Mithridates, (or " Allgemeine Sprachenkunde"), completed in 

 1817, in Germany, have given the best classification of all known 

 languages ; and the Lord's Prayer in nearly 500 of them. They 

 estimate the total number of languages, and dialects, known in the 

 world, at about 3000: or 1200 in America; 1000 in Asia; 500 in 

 Europe ; and 300 in Africa. Most of these are mere dialects, or 

 variations of other tongues : so that they may be reduced to about 

 80 original languages : and these may be arranged in a few groups 

 or families ; those of each family having doubtless a common origin. 

 The Bible has been translated, wholly or in part, into about 180 

 languages, including those which are deemed the most important. 

 The most valuable languages to our own country, are probably the 

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