It now began to be felt more and more, even among the most
devoted churchmen, that the old theological dogmas regarding the
origin of language, as held "always, everywhere, and by all,"
were wrong, and that Lucretius and sturdy old Gregory of Nyssa
might be right.
But this was not the only wreck. During ages the great men
in the Church had been calling upon the world to admire the
amazing exploit of Adam in naming the animals which Jehovah had
brought before him, and to accept the history of language in the
light of this exploit. The early fathers, the mediaeval doctors,
the great divines of the Reformation period, Catholic and
Protestant, had united in this universal chorus. Clement of
Alexandria declared Adam's naming of the animals proof of a
prophetic gift. St. John Chrysostom insisted that it was an
evidence of consummate intelligence. Eusebius held that the
phrase "That was the name thereof" implied that each name
embodied the real character and description of the animal concerned.
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