As, very generally, each nation believed its own chief
divinity to be "a god above all gods,"--as each believed itself
"a chosen people,"--as each believed its own sacred city the
actual centre of the earth, so each believed its own language to
be the first--the original of all. This answer was from the first
taken for granted by each "chosen people," and especially by the
Hebrews: throughout their whole history, whether the Almighty
talks with Adam in the Garden or writes the commandments on Mount
Sinai, he uses the same language--the Hebrew.
The answer to the third of these questions, that regarding
the diversity of languages, was much more difficult. Naturally,
explanations of this diversity frequently gave rise to legends
somewhat complicated.
The "law of wills and causes," formulated by Comte, was
exemplified here as in so many other cases. That law is, that,
when men do not know the natural causes of things, they simply
attribute them to wills like their own; thus they obtain a theory
which provisionally takes the place of science, and this theory
forms a basis for theology.
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