But the period which intervened between Leibnitz and this
modern development was a period of philological chaos. It began
mainly with the doubts which Leibnitz had forced upon Europe, and
ended only with the beginning of the study of Sanskrit in the
latter half of the eighteenth century, and with the comparisons
made by means of the collections of Catharine, Hervas, and
Adelung at the beginning of the nineteenth. The old theory that
Hebrew was the original language had gone to pieces; but nothing
had taken its place as a finality. Great authorities, like
Buddeus, were still cited in behalf of the narrower belief; but
everywhere researches, unorganized though they were, tended to
destroy it. The story of Babel continued indeed throughout the
whole eighteenth century to hinder or warp scientific
investigation, and a very curious illustration of this fact is
seen in the book of Lord Nelme on _The Origin and Elements of
Language_. He declares that connected with the confusion was the
cleaving of America from Europe, and he regards the most terrible
chapters in the book of Job as intended for a description of the
Flood, which in all probability Job had from Noah himself.
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