That those which are formed out of the same parent tongue should all resemble it and another, and yet should all be different, is not more wonderful, than that children and their parents should be marked with a general family likeness, and each distinguished by peculiar features. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and a great deal of the English Tongue, are derived from the Latin; with the addition of many new modes of termination and syntax which were introduced by the northern nations. And, therefore, all these languages resemble the Latin and one another; and yet each is different from it and from all the rest. But, if we could compare two original or primitive tongues together, the Hebrew for instance with the Gothick or the Cletick, of the language of China, with that of the Hurons in North America, we should not discern, perhaps, the least similitude: which, considering that all mankind are of the same family, could not be fully accounted for without supposing that some preternatural events like that at the confusions of Babel, had some time or other taken place. But this history solves all difficulties."[1]
- ↑ Beattic on Language, in his Dissertations, pp.304-206, 4°.
