"So do the antiquaries, I can assure you," returned Mr Cameron, with a smile. "But it is scarce possible to come to a conclusion with any certainty as to the origin of a people of whom we cannot recover the language." "If you please, Sir," said I, "what has the language to do with it?" "It has everything to do with it, Miss Caroline. You did not know that languages grew, like plants, and could be classified in groups after the same manner?" "Please explain to us, Mr Cameron," said Flora. "It all sounds so strange." "But it is very interesting," I said. "I want to know all about it." "If you want to know _all_ about it," answered our friend, "you must consult some one else than me, for I do not know nearly all about it. In truth, no one does. For myself, I have only arrived at the stage of knowing that I know next to nothing." "That's easy enough to know, surely," said Angus. "Not at all, Angus. It is one of the most difficult things to ascertain in this world. No man is so ready to give an off-hand opinion on any and every subject, as the man who knows absolutely nothing. But we must not start another hare while the young ladies' question remains unanswered. Languages, my dears, are not made; they grow. The first language--that spoken in Eden--may have been given to man ready-made, by God; but I rather imagine, from the expressions of Holy Writ, that what was granted to Adam was the inward power of forming a tongue which should be rational and consistent with itself; and, if so, no doubt it was granted to Eve that she should understand him--perhaps that she should possess a similar power." "The woman made the language, Sir, you may be sure," said Angus. "They are shocking chatterers." "Unfortunately, my boy, Scripture is against you. `Whatsoever Adam'-- not Eve--`called the name of every living creature, that was the name thereof.' To proceed:--The confusion of tongues at Babel seems, from what we can gather, to have called into being a number of languages quite separate from each other, yet all having a certain affinity. The structure differs; but some of the words are alike, or at least so nearly alike that the resemblance can be traced. Take the word for `father' in all languages: cut down to its root, there is the same root found in all. Ab in Hebrew, abba in Syriac, pater in Greek and Latin, vater in Low Dutch, pere in French, padre in Spanish and Italian, father in English--ay, even the child's papa and the infant's daddy--all come from one root. But this cutting away of superfluities to get at the root, is precisely what a 'prentice hand should not attempt; like an unskilled gardener, he will prune away the wrong branches." "Then, Sir," I asked, "what are the languages which belong to the same class as ours?"