the Jews, and is contained in the Old Testament. The Bible is the only book that is written in Hebrew.

And is it, asked Wilmer, the first language?

Professor Cadmus smiled, and said-You ask a disputed question. Some think it is: others think it is not. I am inclined to believe, my son, that the first language has long since perished from the earth, and, like the wild rose, exists under the hands of culture in some three thousand varieties The Hebrew language may be looked upon as one of the oldest daughters of the lost mother-tongue of the human race. It is not a spoken language. There are some nations now living in the world that have languages a good deal like it. These are the Arabians and Syrians.

The Hebrew language, continued Professor Cadmus, is a small language. The English language, on the other hand, is a great language, and contains some seventy thousand words. The Hebrew language does not contain more than five hundred root-words, and nearly all of them are names of actions.

Father, said Wilmer, it cannot be difficult to learn the Hebrew language.

No, said Professor Cadmus, it is not difficult.

Wilmer was pleased with these new thoughts, and smiled.

Professor Cadmus continued. The people who spoke this language did not have so many things to think about as we have, and had no need of so many words. They were a farming people. When they thought of building the great temple of Solomon, they sent to Tyre to get men to assist them in building it. The Jewish people understood some of the arts, it is true. They knew how to carve on wood, stone, metal, but not so well as other nations.

They had no words for many things in nature and art, because they had no need of them.

It is curious, said Professor Cadmus, to trace the words of the first language, and find so many of them in every language now on earth. Our words, father, mother, sister, brother, babble, hall, cover, and many others, have undergone very little change, in coming down to us, from the language spoken in Eden.

How beautiful, exclaimed Wilmer, must be the study of language! To trace some of our words up to Eden, and think of them as spoken by Adam and Eve!

The study of language, my son, is one of the noblest studies in which we can engage. It is full of history and poetry. But these things you will learn in due season.

INSTRUCTION XII.

THE THREE THOUSAND LANGUAGES OF EARTH.

HARD QUESTIONS.

WILMER never would pass from one thing to another without understanding it. He gathered knowledge carefully. Sometimes he met with hard questions. The last conversation brought some difficult things to his mind. He could not see how the English language grew so large. He could not see how the three thousand languages of earth grew out of the first language, which God taught Adam in the garden of Eden.

Professor Cadmus entered the study as the clock struck seven. Well, Wilmer, he exclaimed, you are waiting for me! Father, I have felt the day to be very long. I have wished it was seven o'clock a thousand times.

You must be patient, my son, said the Professor. It will not do to become overheated at any thing.

THE THREE. THOUSAND

LANGUAGES.

Father, said Wilmer, I wish you to tell me how the first language grew into three thousand languages.

I will try and do so, said Professor Cadmus. The history of it is a very short and very plain one. About eighteen hundred years after man was created, and about two hundred years after the flood, Jehovah confounded human speech. From that time new languages began to be spoken on the earth, but they all seem to be the offspring of the first language.

The Bible account of this strange event is simple and striking. The whole earth was of one language and of one speech, or lip, as the Hebrews called it. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick aud burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence, upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of the earth; and

from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

There are various ways in which this confounding of the first language may have taken place. An immediate change in the pronunciation of the words would have prevented the builders from knowing what each other meant. Various meanings may have been attached to the words. Perhaps new words were uttered; words brought to their minds by new resemblances of things. One thing is certain, the persons who were engaged in the building of Babel could not understand each other so as to carry on the work.

Father, said Wilmer, what a dreadful event! They lost their language.

No, my son, said the Professor; they did not lose their language. It was only confused, or rolled together, so that they could not understand each other. They seemed to one another to be babbling. I say, babbling, for this is the meaning of the word confound; and the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.

I do not understand it, said Wilmer. Did he cause the three thousand languages to spring up then?

Oh no, my son! said Professor Cadmus. The Bible does not say so. It only says that the first language was confused so that they appeared to each other as babblers. This was the way which God adopted to form new languages. He scattered them about upon the face of the earth. New objects and pursuits called for new names. change of climate produced a difference in the speaking of the old words, and they became different. In these and similar ways, man, after his dispersion, began to change the

A

first language. It has now grown into three thousand varieties.

Father, said Wilmer, I am delighted to know the origin of the many languages of earth. It is very simple.

Professor Cadmus continued: Very soon after the great event of confounding the first language, the foundations of many empires were laid. Families emigrated into different places; some to the far East, or distant South, and some to the fertile valley of the Nile. Streams of colonies began to flow into all parts of the earth; and finally, the isles of the sea, including Great Britain, were peopled. One thing is worthy of notice here. The farther they wandered from the first home of man, the more their language changed from the first speech of earth. Arts soon arose, and with them, new changes in language; and now we find in our noble tongue only root-words that have come down to us from Eden, and the most of them occur as fragments.

Father, I am delighted with these things. I am happy to have something from Eden.

It is a happy thing, said Professor Cadmus. It is like a revived memory of some cradle joy. We have now, then, some three thousand languages. I look upon them, my son, as varieties, just as I look upon the one hundred and fifty dahlias of the gardener, Mr. Hudson. These have all been produced, by culture, from the single wild yellow dahlia of Peru. So, the three thousand languages have been produced from the speech of Eden. Some of these are only spoken by rude tribes; others are both spoken and written by vast empires. The English language is spreading itself into all parts of the earth. It is a sister to the noble German. It claims a close relationship with the