to a person thoroughly acquainted with the present state of mankind, the prodigious diversity of human manners and customs may probably appear almost as difficult to be accounted for, as the diversity of languages only."
The late Dr. G. Gregory has observed on this subject, that it is impossible to say what was the nature of the confusion of language at Babel; whether it consisted in the invention of new terms, or in the improper use of the old. The miracle at Babel, he adds, might be only a temporary confusion,[1] sufficient to set aside that useless and absurd undertaking: and it is more natural to suppose, that the consequent dispersion of mankind was the effect of dissentions occasioned by having misunderstood each other, than that they could not live together, because they did not all continue to speak the same language.
II. The origin of alphabetical writing is involved in as much doubt as that of the diversity
- ↑ This conjecture, as Dr. Gregory states in a note, is confirmed by a criticism of Mr. Bryant, who remarks, in his analysis of Ancient Mythology, that שפה really signifies lip, and that consequently the miracle was not any alteration in the language, but a failure or incapacity in labial utterance, which, soon after their separation, they recovered.
