[Baha’u’llah and the New Era by J.E. Esslemont]@TWC D-Link bookBaha’u’llah and the New Era CHAPTER 10: THE WAY TO PEACE 15/32
Ere this, in Our Epistles, have We commanded the Trustees of the House of Justice, either to choose one of the existing tongues, or to originate a new one, and in like manner to adopt a common script, teaching these to the children in all the schools of the world, that the world may become even as one land and one home. About the time when this proposal of Baha'u'llah was first given to the world, there was born in Poland a boy named Ludovic Zamenhof, who was destined to play a leading part in carrying it into effect.
Almost from his infancy, the ideal of a universal language became a dominant motive in Zamenhof's life, and the result of his devoted labors was the invention and widespread adoption of the language known as Esperanto, which has now stood the test of many years and has proved to be a very satisfactory medium of international intercourse.
It has the great advantage that it can be mastered in about a twentieth part of the time required to master such languages as English, French or German.
At an Esperanto banquet given in Paris in February 1913, 'Abdu'l-Baha said:-- Today one of the chief causes of the differences in Europe is the diversity of languages.
We say this man is a German, the other is an Italian, then we meet an Englishman and then again a Frenchman. Although they belong to the same race, yet language is the greatest barrier between them.
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