Blair Collection > History of the Celtic language

32 HISTORY OF THE
narration ? Now the inhabitants of all parts were
of one similar profession in religious matters; but a
number of persons who had quitted the Noahieal
residence, and journeyed westward, forsook the
true Deity of their great ancestor, and proposed as
their metropolis, a city and a tower ivhich should be
sacred to some heavenly jioiver" We did not, how-
ever, say this was a solitary instance of this unhappy
rendering. One other instance at least is Psalm
Ixxxi. C, where, as Bate justly observes, God is the
speaker, and the words must be rendered "I heard,
{not 'a language I understood not,' but) a religious
confession, / approved not."
But allowing a confusion of language, literally
speaking, to have taken place, it refers only to such
as were engaged in the tower. Noah was in life,
and did he head the faithless crew ? No ; he at-
tends to his vineyard, which he planted far east
from Shinar. Therefore, take either view of it, the
first speech still remains unconfounded — the stream
of language may be still traced without a break up
to the fountain of paradise ! And here, for the time
being, drop we the subject.
That the appellations here introduced by the
Abbot are descriptive, and resolvable by the
Cabala, or hieroglyphics, we shall show in proper
place. To assert, at this stage of the work, that
they are but different terms expressive of one and
the same thing — namely, the various religions of