I end with an extract from one of the most distinguished of living naturalists:—“The antiquarian recognizes at once the workings of intelligence in the remains of an ancient civilization. He may fail to ascertain their age correctly, he may remain doubtful as to the order in which they were successively constructed, but the character of the whole tells him they are works of art, and that men like himself originated these relics of by-gone ages. So shall the intelligent naturalist read at once in the pictures which nature presents to him, the works of a higher Intelligence; he shall recognize in the minute perforated cells of the coniferæ, which differ so wonderfully from those of other plants, the hieroglyphics of a peculiar age; in their needle-like leaves, the escutcheon of a peculiar dynasty; in their repeated appearance under most diversified circumstances, a thoughtful and thought-eliciting adaptation. He beholds, indeed, the works of a being thinking like himself, but he feels, at the same time, that he stands as much below the Supreme Intelligence, in wisdom, power, and goodness, as the works of art are inferior to the wonders of nature. Let naturalists look at the world under such impressions, and evidence will pour in upon us that all creatures are expressions of the thoughts of Him whom we know, love, and adore unseen.”
Hervas (Catalogo, i. 37) mentions the following works, published during the sixteenth century, bearing on the science of language:—“Introductio in Chaldaicam Linguam, Siriacam, atque Armenicam, et decem alias Linguas,” a Theseo Ambrosio. Papiæ, 1539, 4to. “De Ratione communi omnium Linguarum et Litterarum Commentarius,” a Theodoro Bibliandro. Tiguri, 1548, 4to. It contains the Lord's Prayer in fourteen languages. Bibliander derives Welsh and Cornish from Greek, Greek having been carried there from Marseilles, through France. He states that Armenian differs little from Chaldee, and cites Postel, who derived the Turks from the Armenians, because Turkish was spoken in Armenia. He treats the Persians as descendants of Shem, and connects their language with Syriac and Hebrew. Servian and Georgian are, according to him, dialects of Greek.
Other works on language published during the sixteenth century are:—“Perion. Dialogorum de Linguæ Gallicæ origine ejusque cum Græca cognatione, libri quatuor.” Parisiis, 1554. He says that as French is not mentioned among the seventy-two languages which sprang from the Tower of Babel, it must be derived from Greek. He quotes Cæsar (de Bello Gallico, vi. 14) to prove that the Druids spoke Greek, and then derives from it the modern French language!
The works of Henri Estienne (1528-1598) stand on a much sounder basis. He has been unjustly accused of having derived French from Greek. See his “Traicté de la Conformité du Langage français avec le grec;” about 1566. It contains chiefly syntactical and grammatical remarks, and its object is to show that modes of expression in Greek, which sound anomalous and difficult, can be rendered easy by a comparison of analogous expressions in French.
The Lord's Prayer was published in 1548 in fourteen languages, by Bibliander; in 1591 in twenty-six languages, by Roccha (“Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana,” a fratre Angelo Roccha: Romæ, 1591, 4to.); in 1592 in forty languages, by Megiserus (“Specimen XL. Linguarum et Dialectorum ab Hieronymo Megisero à diversis auctoribus collectarum quibus Oratio Dominica est expressa:” Francofurti, 1592); in 1593, in fifty languages, by the same author (“Oratio Dominica L. diversis linguis,” cura H. Megiseri: Francofurti, 1593, 8vo.).
At the beginning of the seventeenth century was published “Trésor de l'Histoire des Langues de cet Univers,” par Claude Duret; seconde edition: Iverdon, 1619, 4to. Hervas says that Duret repeats the mistakes of Postel, Bibliander, and other writers of the sixteenth century.
Before Duret came Estienne Guichard, “l'Harmonie Etymologique des Langues Hebraique, Chaldaique, Syriaque—Greque—Latine, Françoise, Italienne, Espagnole—Allemande, Flamende, Anglaise, &c.:” Paris, 1606.
Hervas only knows the second edition, Paris, 1618, and thinks the first was published in 1608. The title of his book shows that Guichard distinguished between four classes of languages, which we should now call the Semitic, the Hellenic, Italic, and Teutonic: he derives, however, Greek from Hebrew.
I. I. Scaliger, in his “Diatriba de Europæorum Linguis” (Opuscula varia: Parisiis, 1610), p. 119, distinguishes eleven classes: Latin, Greek, Teutonic, Slavonic, Epirotic or Albanian, Tartaric, Hungarian, Finnic, Irish, British in Wales and Brittany, and Bask or Cantabrian.
Hermathena Joannis Goropii Becani: Antuerpiæ, 1580. Origines Antverpianæ, 1569. André Kempe, in his work on the language of Paradise, maintains that God spoke to Adam in Swedish, Adam answered in Danish, and the serpent spoke to Eve in French.