Note 44 — Chapter I · THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.

St. Gregory of Nyssa has expressed himself on this subject with startling freedom of thought. He alludes with ironic pity to those who speak of the Deity as the fabricator of Adam’s language, an opinion which he expressly calls a sottish and ridiculous vanity, quite worthy of the extravagant presumption of the Jews. And on the subject of Babel, he says, “The confusion of tongues must be necessarily attributed to the will of God according to the theologic point of view, but according to the truth of history it is the work of man.”—Contra Eunomium, Or. xii. p. 782. Nodier, p. 56. St. Augustin distinctly implies the same thing.—De Ord. ii. 12.