by God's grace, translated with perfect
accuracy from the primeval speech. But Colenso very justly remarks that
the original documents do not allude to a process of translation, and
that we have no right to assume it. He also adds that "if the authority
of Scripture is sufficient to prove the fact of a primeval language, it
must also prove that this language was Hebrew."

Yet the Bible is wrong, for Hebrew could not have been the primitive
speech. It is only a Semitic dialect, a branch of the Semitic stem.
Sanscrit is another stem, equally ancient; and according to Max Mueller
and Bunsen, both are modifications of an earlier and simpler language.
Neither has the least affinity with Chinese, which again, like them,
differs radically from the native dialects of America. As Hosea Biglow
sings,

"John P. Robinson, he
Says they didn't know everything down in Judee."

And most certainly they did not know the true origin and development of
the various languages spoken by the nations of the earth.

The people who dwelt on the earth after the Deluge, and all spoke one
language, journeyed from the east, found a plain in, the land of Shinar,
and dwelt there. Shinar is another name for Babylon. After dwelling
there no one knows exactly how long, "they said one to another, Go
to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for
stone, and slime had they for morter." The writer of this story was very
fond of short cuts. It took men a long time to learn the art of making
bricks; and the idea of their suddenly saying to each other "let us make
brick," and at once proceeding to do so, is a wild absurdity.

Having made a lot of bricks, they naturally wished to do something with
them. So "they said, Go to, let us build us 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." How could making
a name, for the information of nobody but themselves, prevent their
dispersion? And how could they resolve to build a "city," when they had
never seen one, and had no knowledge of what it was like? Cities are not
built in this manner. "Rome wasn't built in a day" is a proverb which
applies to all other places as well. London, Paris, and Rome, are
the growth of centuries, and the same must have been true of ancient
capitals.

The reason assigned by Scripture for the work of these primitive
builders is plainly inadequate. A more p