The confusion of tongues has given rise to many curious speculations among divines as to the primitive speech of man.  Some have thought that the language of Adam consisted altogether of nouns, that they were monosyllables, and that the confusion was occasioned by the introduction of polysyllables.  But these learned men must surely have overlooked the numerous conversations reported in Genesis, such as those between the Almighty and Adam, the serpent and Eve, etc.  In these all the various parts of speech occur.  There was, however, a coincidence of opinion that the primitive language was Hebrew.  On the general principles of patristicism, it was fitting that this should be the case.

The Greek Fathers computed that, at the time of the dispersion, seventy-two nations were formed, and in this conclusion St. Augustine coincides.  But difficulties seem to have been recognized in these computations; thus the learned Dr. Shuckford, who has treated very elaborately on all the foregoing points in his excellent work “On the Sacred and Profane History of the World connected,” demonstrates that there could not have been more than twenty-one or twenty-two men, women, and children, in each of those kingdoms.

A very vital point in this system of chronological computation, based upon the ages of the patriarchs, was the great length of life to which those worthies attained.  It was generally supposed that before the Flood “there was a perpetual equinox,” and no vicissitudes in Nature.  After that event the standard of life diminished one- half, and in the time of the Psalmist it had sunk to seventy years, at which it still remains.  Austerities of climate were affirmed to have arisen through the shifting of the earth’s axis at the Flood, and to this ill effect were added the noxious influences of that universal catastrophe, which, “converting the surface of the earth into a vast swamp, gave rise to fermentations of the blood and a weakening of the fibres.”

With a view of avoiding difficulties arising from the extraordinary length of the patriarchal lives, certain divines suggested that the years spoken of by the sacred penman were not ordinary but lunar years.  This, though it might bring the age of those venerable men within the recent term of life, introduced, however, another insuperable difficulty, since it made them have children when only five or six years old.

Sacred science, as interpreted by the Fathers of the Church, demonstrated these facts:  1.  That the date of Creation was comparatively recent, not more than four or five thousand years before Christ; 2.  That the act of Creation occupied the space of six ordinary days; 3.  That the Deluge was universal, and that the animals which survived it were preserved in an ark; 4.  That Adam was created perfect in morality and intelligence, that he fell, and that his descendants have shared in his sin and his fall.