fpeak diftinct Languages, which bring in the Floods of new Words, and that produce the great and flagrant Changes. But Nations feldom trade much Abroad, or make Invafions upon their Neighbours, or fend forth Plantations or Colonies into remote Countries, till they are pretty well stocked at Home. And this, as I have faid more than once, must have been the Effect of feveral Ages after the Dif perfion.

T

I defire, Sir, that you would now go along with me in the Hiftory of fome Languages with which we are both acquainted. The Roman Language was formed, and very beautiful before Plautus's Time; and though now and then fome Archaifms appear in his Writings, yet any Man that understands Latin may read. the Books written in it, whilft it was ftill a living Tongue, from Plautus down to Theodoric the Goth, in whofe Time Sidonius lived, which was near feven Hundred Years. And had not the barbarous Nations broke into Italy, it would have continued to be an intelligible Language for feveral Ages more, But then the Goths, and after them the Lombards fixed their Settlements in Italy: The Franks and Burgundians in France: the Vandals, Goths, and Moors in Spain: These new Settlements by Degrees introduced new Tongues; which however by their Affinity, at first Sight vifible, difcover the Original from which they fpring. Had not the Normans.

come

come in with William the Conqueror, and fucceffively afterwards as long as our Kings were Dukes of Normandy, the old Saxon and its Dialects would not have been fo foon loft: And yet now that its Grammar is thoroughly known, and we have excellent Dictionaries of this Language, it may be very well underftood in a few Months with tolerable Industry; and we have Treatifes extant in that Language near a Thousand Years old. The Iflanders, who fpeak the Language of the ancient Danes, (who when they over-run this Island seven or eight Hundred Years ago, left great Marks of their Tongue behind them) have suffered very inconfiderable Alterations in their Dialect, as we know by the numerous Monuments still extant in it, which are above five Hundred Years old, which Conftancy in their Language is certainly owing to the very little Conversation which they have with the reft of Mankind.

Look now, Sir, into the Greek, and tell me whether it is not in the main the felf fame Tongue, as to it's Grammar (for I regard not the obfolete Words that are antiquated, or the new ones that have been taken in) as it appears in Homer's Poems, and in the Commentaries of Euftathius, though Homer and Euftathius, lived full two Thousand Years afunder. Indeed when the Turks over-run Greece, Darknefs quickly enfued, and Greek foon became what we now fee it. But ftill what a wide Difference

F 2

Difference is there, betwixt Greek, either ancient or modern, and the Eastern Languages? And as notorious as the Changes are, no Man that understands Etymology can think that one was made out of the other.

In a Word, Sir, confidering the Time that has elapfed fince the Building of the Tower of Babel; and confidering what Progrefs and Alterations fome of the Languages which we know have made in three Thousand Years, others in two Thousand and two Thousand five Hundred Years, and others in a Thoufand ; and confidering that there are fome Tongues, in which, when compared with others, you will find nec volam nec veftigium; the the Variety now actually exifting of Idioms fpoken by the feveral Inhabitants of this our Earth, can I think be no Way poffibly accounted for, without fuppofing fuch a miraculous Formation of Languages as we find recorded in the xith Chapter of Genefis; let any Man look here in Europe into the Finnish Tongue, and its Dialects, the Efthish, and the Lettish; let him examine the Hungarian, which is a Language entirely different from any other fpoken in Europe; let him caft his Eyes upon the many Dialects of the Slavonian, of which we have feveral curious Specimens in your. admirable Collection, and even here we fhall fee the Propofition which I advance fully made

out.

But if we go farther Eaft into China, and the East Indies, or farther Weft into Ame

rica,

rica, the Diverfity is ftill more aftonishing. But then if we recur to Mofes, this Astonishment ceases; he folves this Phaenomenon eafily: And without fuch a Solution, it would, I fear, have given too great a Handle to the FreeThinkers of this Age, to have thrown aside the Mofaic Hiftory, and to have given Credit to the most fabulous Accounts of other Nations, which boast of the greatest Antiquity; if they would have allowed thofe Accounts to have been fufficient.

You fee, Sir, what Ufe I would make of all this. The History of Empires, of Trade, of the Progress of Arts and Sciences do prove demonftrably to an unprejudiced Man, that the World is not likely to be older than the Mofaic Account. If the Hiftory of Language which Mojes gives us be confidered likewife upon this Plan, we fhall fee nothing to contradict it. That divine Hiftorian tells us when it was that Mankind had but one Language, and how new ones were introduced, and what a Difperfion this caufed. And nothing but fuch a Collection as yours, made with fo much Exactness, and which by the Care of our admirable Friend Mr. Reland of Utrecht, is like to be printed with so much Accuracy (in which, though that is the principal Thing, all the other Collections that I have seen have been notoriously deficient) could have fet this Matter in such a Light, as in my Opinion it deferved.

This,

This, Sir, I thought fit to fay concerning your Work: Some other Questions may probably be afked upon this Occafion, concerning which, when I have given you my Thoughts, and answered fome Objections which have been made by a most learned Friend of ours, I fhall close this Difcourfe, which will, I fear, appear tedious to many Readers, and useless perhaps to fome.

Some will afk here which Languages I take to be Original, and whence derived; or in other Words, which are co-eval with the Babylonifh Confufion, and which have by Degrees crept in fince. Now in Answer to this Question, I must acknowledge that it is not eafy, and perhaps in many Cafes impoffible, to give a determinate Answer to it. But as according to my Notion the Difperfion of the Builders quickly followed upon the Confufion of Tongues,; and as the Defcendents of Noah went according to their Families into Regions contiguous to one another, (as the incomparable Bochart has fhewn at large in his Phaleg) fo it is agreeable to Reason as well as Fact, that thofe Colonies or Tribes which lay nearest to one another, and confequently were most likely to have mutual Commerce and Intercourfe with each other, fhould have Languages the nearest akin given them at firft. To form Dialects is a Work of Ages, even now when Trade, and Bufinefs, and War have introduced greater Correfpondences. And we fee there were diftinct Langua