Note 50 — Chapter I · THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.
Reading edition
Renan, p. 85. See an eloquent passage of Schlegel’s to the same effect, quoted in Wiseman’s Lect. i. 108. Pythagoras probably had some vague sentiment of the kind when he said that “the name-giver” was both the most ancient and the most rational of men. The Egyptians worshipped Theuth as the Regulator of Language; and the Chinese referred its origin to their great mysterious King Fohi. See Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 28. Lersch, die Sprachphilos. der Alten. Bonn, 1838, i. 23-29.