6.  Dr. Thomas Hartwell Horne, in commending a work by Dr. Ellis, concerning the origin of human wisdom and understanding, says:  “It shows satisfactorily, that religion and language entered the world by divine revelation, without the aid of which, man had not been a rational or religious creature.”—­Study of the Scriptures, Vol. i, p. 4.  “Plato attributes the primitive words of the first language to a divine origin;” and Dr. Wilson remarks, “The transition from silence to speech, implies an effort of the understanding too great for man.”—­Essay on Gram., p. 1.  Dr. Beattie says, “Mankind must have spoken in all ages, the young constantly learning to speak by imitating those who were older; and, if so, our first parents must have received this art, as well as some others, by inspiration.”—­Moral Science, p. 27.  Horne Tooke says, “I imagine that it is, in some measure, with the vehicle of our thoughts, as with the vehicles for our bodies.  Necessity produced both.”—­Diversions of Purley, Vol. i, p. 20.  Again:  “Language, it is true, is an art, and a glorious one; whose influence extends over all the others, and in which finally all science whatever must centre:  but an art springing from necessity, and originally invented by artless men, who did not sit down like philosophers to invent it.”—­Ib., Vol. i, p. 259.

7.  Milton imagines Adam’s first knowledge of speech, to have sprung from the hearing of his own voice; and that voice to have been raised, instinctively, or spontaneously, in an animated inquiry concerning his own origin—­an inquiry in which he addresses to unintelligent objects, and inferior creatures, such questions as the Deity alone could answer: 

   “Myself I then perused, and limb by limb
    Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran
    With supple joints, as lively vigor led: 
    But who I was, or where, or from what cause,
    Knew not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake;
    My tongue obeyed, and readily could name
    Whatever I saw.  ‘Thou Sun,’ said I, ’fair light,
    And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay,
    Ye Hills and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains;
    And ye that live and move, fair Creatures! tell,
    Tell, if ye saw, how came I thus, how here? 
    Not of myself; by some great Maker then,
    In goodness and in power preeminent: 
    Tell me how I may know him, how adore,
    From whom I have that thus I move and live,
    And feel that I am happier than I know.’”
                  Paradise Lost, Book viii, l. 267.

But, to the imagination of a poet, a freedom is allowed, which belongs not to philosophy.  We have not always the means of knowing how far he literally believes what he states.