FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 985 
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 ae- 
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, m 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 im 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 
