1856. The author summarizes his purpose for this text in his own words: ...and though I was then as it were, only feeling my way, I was not the less convinced that the discovery to which I laid claim was real; and however strange it may now appear, I cannot help still entertaining the same opinion. In that work I showed, as well as I could, how man must have first acquired the use of speech; and by the knowledge thence derived I was enabled to account for the ancient belief in the Divine origin of language, to trace letters to their birth, to discover the primary forms and meanings, hitherto unknown, of many words; and finally, to prove that the fables of the heathen mythology, as well as those of religion and ancient history, were first suggested by the several meanings that a name had at different times obtained. Both Volume I and II are contained in this edition.