_Christian._ Having in my last article traced language and religion to
their necessary and only possible source, I am now ready to hear any
objections that may be entertained. Mr. Skeptic, if you have any,
present them.
_Skeptic._ Suppose that I admit all that you say, it would, in the
nature of the case, account for the origin of one language only, while
facts show that there are an unnumbered variety. So your argument is at
fault. The same difficulty belongs to your conclusion concerning the
origin of religion. Can you remove this difficulty?
_Christian._ Yes but while I am pleased with your frankness, I must say,
the difficulty is only apparent, not real. Look at yonder tree. There is
but one main stem, or trunk, and many leading branches. These principal
branches are each also divided into several minor branches, and these
also throw out many lesser limbs and twigs. So it is with languages. As
the smallest twig at the extreme end of either of those limbs can be
traced to the trunk through the main branches, so all the various
languages that are in use to-day, can and may be traced to a few older
ones, and these, again, to one principal or parent language. The English
language of the present time differs widely from the English of three or
four centuries ago. Its number of words have more than doubled. And this
has not been the result of the creation of new words, but of borrowing
from other and older languages. So extensively has this been carried on,
that Dr. Webster says, that in gathering and arranging material for his
dictionary, he found himself under the necessity of consulting thirty
European and Asiatic languages. Our language may be called an
amalgamation from a great many other languages. It is not an original
language. We, like the ancient Greeks, have been borrowing extensively,
and, like them, we have been careful to keep all that we borrowed. What
is true of our language is equally true of all modern languages.
Wherever there is commercial or other free intercourse, each party is
found borrowing words from the other, and thus their vocabularies are
lapping and continually increasing. _I am now ready to introduce the
important consideration_, it is this, all modern languages are shaded by
a few ancient ones. The English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, etc.,
are deeply shaded through borrowing from the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and
ancient languages, while these last, as well as other ancient languages,
have never borrowed from the former. This shows that Greek, Latin and
Hebrew are older than the others. I shall now take for granted _that_
which all real linguists declare to be true, viz: that the smaller
number of languages from which we and our contemporaries have so freely
borrowed, are all shaded by their borrowings from one; and, as the
younger always borrows from the older, that one must of necessity be the
parent language of all languages. This conclusion accounts for the word
"babel" in our language, and its equivalent in all others, as well as
for the existence of a multitude of words too tedious to mention.