“That Language the Hebrews say is the same as theirs—the Syrians say it is the same as theirs. It may be asserted, with more truth, that the Primitive Language is not extant in a pure state anywhere, but that its _remains exist in all languages_!” Of the conclusion thus expressed by this celebrated writer—a conclusion dictated by the intuitive sagacity of a great mind—the facts developed in the following pages will be shown to be confirmatory. All existing languages, when viewed separately, are _fragmentary and irregular_. But when a wide and extensive comparison is instituted, the “disjecta membra” are found to reunite, and the irregularities to disappear! Assuming the various languages of the Globe to have been derived from one Original Speech, it will be established that the formation of numerous distinct languages from that one Primitive Tongue admits of a complete explanation, by means of causes of which the agency can be traced within the range of the Historical era. The influence of those causes will be shown within a limited period of time to have produced dialects which display—not a _destruction_—but a _dispersion_ of the elements of the Parent languages from which _they are known to have arisen_. In other words, these dialects manifest the _same relative features_ as are exhibited by those languages which were formed _anterior to the period of History_. The only distinction is, that in the latter case the differences are more numerous and extensive—a result which is obviously a necessary consequence of a longer period of time. Agreeably to an interpretation which has received very high sanction, the event described in the passage referred to in the title-page cannot be pronounced to have had any considerable share in the production of Human Languages, for, according to eminent authorities,(1) the changes thereby caused probably consisted in mere Dialectic differences, not materially affecting the Words or Structure of Language. Moreover (it is inferred) the influence of that event did not extend to the whole Human Race, but merely to that small portion of it who were the ancestors of the Semetic or Syro-Phœnician nations. In these pages are embodied proofs, from Language, of the two following propositions:—1. That the various nations of our Globe are descended from one Parent Tribe. 2. That the introduction of the Human Species into the system to which it belongs, cannot be referred to an epoch more ancient than the era indicated as the date of that event by our received systems of chronology. These propositions, of which the Philological evidence is developed in this volume, are supported not only by the testimony of History, Sacred and Profane, but also by the highest Scientific authorities.