From the same source we learn, that, till the year of the world 1844, "The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech."-- _Gen._, xi, 1.[22] At that period, the whole world of mankind consisted only of the descendants of the eight souls who had been saved in the ark, and so many of the eight as had survived the flood one hundred and eighty-eight years.

Then occurred that remarkable intervention of the Deity, in which he was pleased to confound their language; so that they could not understand one an other's speech, and were consequently scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.

This, however, in the opinion of many learned men, does not prove the immediate formation of any new languages.
14.

But, whether new languages were thus immediately formed or not, the event, in all probability, laid the foundation for that diversity which subsequently obtained among the languages of the different nations which sprung from the dispersion; and hence it may be regarded as the remote cause of the differences which now exist.

But for the immediate origin of the peculiar characteristical differences which distinguish the various languages now known, we are not able with much certainty to account.