ht, the tower
would tumble about their ears. Gravitation would defeat the cohesion
of morter Why did not God leave them alone? Why did he take so much
unnecessary trouble? The answer is that this "Lord" was only "Jehovah"
of the Jews, a tribal god, who naturally knew no more about the facts
and laws of science than his worshippers who made him.

The Lord carried out his resolution. He "confounded their language," so
that no man could understand his neighbors. Probably this judgment was
executed in the night; and when they awoke in the morning, instead of
using the old familiar tongue, one man spoke Chinese, another Sanscrit,
another Coptic, another American, another Dutch, another Double Dutch,
and so on to the end of the chapter.

According to the Bible, this is the true philology. No language on
the earth is more than four thousand years old, and every one was
miraculously originated at Babel. Is there a single philologist living
who believes this? We do not know one.

The result of this confusion of tongues was that the people "left off
to build the city," and were "scattered, abroad on the face of all the
earth." But why did they disperse? Their common weakness should have
kept them together. Society is founded upon our wants. Our necessity,
and not our self-sufficience, causes association and mutual helpfulness.
Had these people kept company for a short time, they would have
understood each other again. A few common words would have come into
general use, and the building of the tower might have been resumed.

How was their language "confounded?" Did God destroy their verbal
memory? Did he paralyse a part of their brain, so that, although they
remembered the words, they could not speak them? Did he affect the
organs of articulation, so that the sounds of the primeval language
could not be reproduced? Will some theologian kindly explain this
mystery? Language is not a gift, but a growth. Different tribes and
nations have had different experiences, different wants, and different
surroundings, and the result is a difference in their languages, as
well as in their religious ideas, political organisations, and social
customs.

Before we leave this portion of the subject, we beg to introduce Milton
again. In the last Book of "Paradise Lost" he adds from his fertile
imagination to the Bible story, and supplies a few deficiencies about
which the mind is naturally curious. He makes the Archangel Michael tell
poor Adam