"In examining the history of mankind, as well as in examining the phenomena of the material world, when we cannot trace the process by which an event has been produced, it is often of importance to be able to show how it may havo been produced by natural causes. Thus, although it is impossible to determine with certainty what the steps were by which any particular language was form. ed, yet if we can show, from the known principles of human nature, how all its various parts might gradually have arisen, the mind is not only to a certain degree satisfied, but a check is given to that indolent philosophy which refers to a miracle whatever appearances in the material and moral worlds it is unable to explain."-DUGALD STEWART. |