FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 285 



the limits of their territory, the voice of strangers would be* 

 unintelligible, and his own sounds unmeaning. The acqui- 

 red language of man therefore differs, in this respect, from 

 the natural sounds of the inferior animals. In each species, 

 unless controlled by human agency, all the individuals ac- 

 quire the same notes, and utter the same sounds. But the 

 acquired language of man differs with the country in which 

 he lives, and even in the same country it is ever varying, 

 To what causes are we to refer these differences and 

 changes in human speech ? 



It is generally supposed, that the volume of Inspiration 

 gives a solution to the question, in the history given by 

 Moses, of the confusion of tongues, in the eleventh chapter 

 of Genesis. But amidst some variety of interpretation of 

 which the passage is susceptible, there is reason to conclude, 

 that the building of Babel was the undertaking of the des- 

 cendants of Ham only, and that the confusion of languages 

 which there took place, was by the special interposition of 

 Heaven, for the purpose of frustrating the ambitious schemes 

 of Nimrod and his followers, and of preventing them from 

 congregating in excessive numbers in the plains of Shinar, 



Before attempting to enumerate those circumstances 

 which have operated in producing the great diversity of 

 speech among the different nations of the earth, it may be 

 necessary to state, that the sounds expressed by the con- 

 sonants, are more permanent than those indicated by the 

 vowels. We perceive more clearly the mechanical action 

 requisite in the production of the former, while the changes 

 on which the different sounds of the latter depend, are too 

 minute for our comprehension, and their effects frequently 

 too obscure to be properly appreciated by the ear. Hence 

 there is frequently, even in the same country, a substitu- 

 tion of these vowel sounds. The sounds of the consonants 

 being more definite and a substitution of one of these for 

 another does not so frequently take place. When these 



