Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/177

propagated Language, and accelerated its Progreſs by rendering it every Day more and more neceſſary. Great Inundations or Earthquakes ſurrounded inhabited Diſtricts with Water or Precipices. Portions of the Continent were by Revolutions of the Globe torn off and ſplit into Iſlands. It is obvious that among Men thus collected, and forced to live together, a common Idiom muſt have ſtarted up much ſooner, than among thoſe who freely wandered thro' the Foreſts of the main Land. Thus it is very poſſible that the Inhabitants of the Iſlands formed in this manner, after their firſt Eſſays in Navigation, brought among us the uſe of Speech; and it is very probable at leaſt that Society and Languages commenced in Iſlands, and even acquired Perfection there, before the Inhabitants of the Continent knew any thing of either.