as fhall be observed hereafter. 3. The nouns, which are derived from the verbs, do many of them confift of the very fame letters with the verbs themselves; probably all the nouns did fo at first, and the difference there now is in fome of them is owing to improvements made in the language. If we look into the Hebrew tongue in this manner, we shall reduce it to a very great fimplicity; we shall bring it to a few names of things, men, and actions; we shall make all its words monofyllables, and give it the true marks of an original language. And if we confider how few the radical words are, about five hundred, such a paucity is another argument in favour of it. But there are learned writers, who offer another argument for the primævity of the Hebrew tongue, and that is, that the names of the perfons mentioned before the confufion of Babel, as expreffed in the Hebrew, do bear a juft relation to the words from whence they were derived; but all this etymology is loft, if you take them in any other language into which you may tranflate them: thus the man was called Adam, because he was taken from the ground; now the Hebrew word TN, Adam, is, they say, derived from N Admah, the ground. So again, Eve had her name because the was the mother of all living; and agreeably hereto , Hevah, is derived from the verb 7, Hajah, to live. The name of Cain was fo called, because his mother thought him gotten from the Lord; and agreeably to this reason, for his name Kain, is derivable from, Kanah, to get: the fame might be faid of Seth, Noah, and several other words; but all this etymology is deftroyed and loft, if we take the names in any other language, befides the original one in which they are given. Thus for inftance, if we call the man in Greek, 'Avǹp, or "Av≈pwños, the etymology is none between either of these words, and y, the earth, out of which he was taken. If we call Eve, Eva, it will bear no relation to v, to live; and Kaiv bears little or no relation to any Greek word, fignifying to get. To all this Grotius answers', t In Gen. xi. et not. ad lib. i. de Verit. n. 16. that that Mofes took an exact care not to use the original proper names in his Hebrew book, but to make fuch Hebrew ones as might bear the due relation to a Hebrew word of the fame fense with the original word from whence thefe names were at firft derived. Thus in Latin, Homo bears as good a relation to Humus, the ground, as Adam, in Hebrew, does to Admah; and therefore if Adam were tranflated Homo in the Latin, the propriety of the etymology would be preserved, though the Latin tongue was not the language in which the firft man had his name given. But how far this may be allowed to be a good anfwer, is fubmitted to the reader. There is indeed another language in the world, which feems to have some marks of its being the first original language of mankind; it is the Chinese: its words are even now very few, not above twelve hundred; the nouns are but three hundred and twenty-fix; and all its words are confeffedly monofyllables. Noah, as has been obferved, very probably fettled in these parts; and if the great father and reftorer of mankind came out of the ark and fettled here, it is very probable that he left here the one univerfal language of the world. It might be an entertaining fubject for any one that understood this language, to compare it with the Hebrew, to examine both the tongues, and ftrip each of all additions and improvements they may poffibly have received, and try whether they may not be reduced to a pretty great agreement with one another. But how far this can be done, I cannot fay. However, this I think looks pretty clear; that whatever was the original of the Chinese tongue, it feems to be the first that ever was in thofe parts. All changes and alterations of language are commonly for the better; but the Chinefe language is fo like a first and uncultivated effay, that it is hard to conceive any other tongue to have been prior to it; and fince I have mentioned it, I may add, that whether this be the first language or no, the circumftance of this language's confifting of monofyllables is a very confiderable argument that the first language was in this respect like it; for though it is natural to think that mankind might begin to form fingle founds firft, and afterwards come to enlarge their speech by doubling and redoubling them; yet it can in no no wife be conceived, that, if men had at first known the plenty of expreffion arifing from words of more fyllables than one, any person or people would have been fo ftupid as to have reduced their languages to words of but one. We have ftill to treat of the confufion of the one language of the world. Before the confufion of Babel, we are told that the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. Hitherto the firft original language of mankind had been preferved with little or no variation for near two thousand years together; and now, in a little space of time, a fet of men, affociated and engaged in one and the fame undertaking, came to be fo divided in this matter, as not to understand one another's expreffions; their language was confounded, that they did not understand one another's speech, and fo were obliged to leave off building their city, and were by degrees fcattered over the face of the earth. Several writers have attempted to account for this confufion of language, but they have had but little success in their endeavours. What they offer as the general causes of the mutability of language does in no wife come up to the matter before us; it is not fufficient to account for this first and great variation. The general caufes" of the mutability of language are commonly reduced to these three; 1. The dif ference of climates; 2. An intercourse or commerce with different nations; or, 3. The unfettled temper and difpofition of mankind. 1. The difference of climates will infenfibly cause a variation of language, because it will occafion a difference of pronunciation. It is easy to be observed, that there is a pronunciation peculiar to almost every country in the world, and according to the climate the language will abound in aspirates or lenes, guttural founds or pectorals, labials or dentals; a circumftance which would make the very fame language found very different from itself, by a different expreffion or pronunciation of it. The Ephraimites, we find, could not pronounce the letter Schin as their neighbours did. There "Bodinus in Method. Hift. c. 9. * Judges xii. 6. is a pronunciation peculiar to almost every province, fo that if we were to fuppofe a number of men of the fame nation and language difperfed into different parts of the world, the feveral climates which their children would be born in would fo affect their pronunciation, as in a few ages to make their language very different from one another. 2. A commerce or intercourfe with foreign nations does often caufe an alteration of language. Two nations, by trading with one another, shall infenfibly borrow words from each other's language, and intermix them in their own; and it is poffible, if the trade be of large extent, and continued for a long time, the number of words fo borrowed shall increase and spread far into each country, and both languages in an age or two be pretty much altered by the mixture of them. In like manner, a plantation of foreigners may by degrees communicate words to the nation they come to live in. A nation's being conquered, and in fome parts peopled by colonies of the conquerors, may be of the fame confequence; as may alfo the receiving the religion of another people. In all thefe cafes, many words of the fojourners, or conquerors, or instructors, will infenfibly be introduced, and the language of the country that received them by degrees altered and corrupted by them. 3. The third and laft caufe of the mutability of language is the unfettled temper and difpofition of mankind. The very minds and manners of men are continually changing; and fince they are fo, it is not likely that their idioms and words should be fixed and ftable. An uniformity of speech depends upon an entire consent of a number of people in their manner of expreffion; but a lasting confent of a large number of people is hardly ever to be obtained, or long to be kept up in any one thing; and unless we could by law prescribe words to the multitude, we fhall never find it in diction and expreffion. Ateius Capito would have flattered Cæfar into a belief, that he could make the Roman language what he pleased; but Pomponius very honestly affured him he had no fuch power. Men of learning and obfervation For this reafon the great orator obferves, Ufum loquendi populo con ceffi, feientiam mihi refervavi. Cic. de Oratore. may may think and fpeak accurately, and may lay down rules for the direction and regulation of other people's language, but the generality of mankind will ftill exprefs themselves as their fancies lead them; and the expreffion of the generality, though supported by no rules, will be the current language; and hence it will come to pafs, that we shall be always fo far from fixing any stability of speech, that we shall continually find the observation of the poet verified: Multa renafcentur quæ jam cecidere, cadentque Language will be always in a fluctuating condition, fubject to a variety of new words and new expreffions, according as the humour of the age and the fancies of men fhall happen to introduce them. These are the general reasons of the mutability of language; and it is apparently true, that fome or other of thefe have, ever fince the confusion of Babel, kept the languages of the world in a continual variation. The Jews mixing with the Babylonians, when they were carried into captivity", quickly altered and corrupted their language, by introducing many Syriacifms and Chaldeifms into it. And afterwards, when they became subject to the Greeks and Romans a, their language became not only altered, but as it were lost, as any one will allow, that confiders how vaftly the old Hebrew differs from the Rabbinical diction, and the language of the Talmuds. The Greek tongue in time suffered the same fate, and part of it may be afcribed to the Turks over-running their country, and part of it to the translation of the Roman empire to Conftantinople: but fome part of the change came from themselves; for, as Brerewood has obferved, they had changed many of their ancient words long before the Turks broke in upon them, of which he gives several instances out of the books of Cedrenus, Nicetas, and other Greek writers. z Walton. Prolegom. a Id. ibid. b Walton. in Prolegom. de Linguarum Natura, &c. The |