traditions are silent as to the manner in which man came in
possession of his earliest thoughts and words. Nothing, no doubt,
would be more interesting than to know from historical documents
the exact process by which the first man began to lisp his first
words, and thus to be rid forever of all the theories on the origin
of speech. But this knowledge is denied us; and, if it had been
otherwise, we should probably be quite unable to understand those
primitive events in the history of the human mind. We are told that
the first man was the son of God, that God created him in His own
image, formed him of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. These are simple facts, and to be
accepted as such; if we begin to reason on them, the edge of the
human understanding glances off. Our mind is so constituted that it
cannot apprehend the absolute beginning or the absolute end of
anything. If we tried to conceive the first man created as a child,
and gradually unfolding his physical and mental powers, we could
not understand his living for _one_ day without supernatural aid.
If, on the contrary, we tried to conceive the first man created
full-grown in body and mind; the conception of an effect without a
cause, of a full-grown mind without a previous growth, would
equally transcend our reasoning powers. It is the same with the
first beginnings of language. Theologians who claim for language a
divine origin, ... when they enter into any details as to the
manner in which they suppose Deity to have compiled a dictionary
and grammar in order to teach them to the first man, as a
schoolmaster teaches the deaf and dumb, ... have explained no more
than how the first man might have learnt a language, if there was a
language ready made for him. How that language was made would
remain as great a mystery as ever. Philosophers, on the contrary,
who imagine that the first man, though left to himself, would
gradually have emerged from a state of mutism and have invented
words for every new conception that arose in his mind, forget that
man could not, by his own power, have acquired _the faculty_ of
speech, which is the distinctive character of mankind, unattained
and unattainable by the mute creation. It shows a want of
appreciation as to