Note 16 — Chapter I · THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.

Raumer, Gesch. der Hohenstaufen, iii. 491, quoted by Baehr, Herod. l. c. For some other theories on the primitive language, see Cardinal Wiseman’s Lectures on Science, i. 19. Becanus supposed seriously that Low Dutch was spoken in Paradise. Hermathena, lib. ix. p. 204. “That children naturally speak Hebrew,” is one of the vulgar errors which had to be exploded even in the time of Sir T. Browne. Vulg. Err. v. ch. 26. When James IV. of Scotland repeated the experiment of Psammetichus, the infants were shut up with a dumb man, and spoke Hebrew spontaneously! Basque, Swedish, Russ, &c., have all had their advocates. Charma, Essai sur le Langage, p. 242, seqq. Leibnitz, Lettre à M. de Sparvenfeld, § 8.