Excerpt from Address Delivered at the Opening of the Columbian College in the District of Columbia, January 9, 1822 But who shall assume this responsible service It appears to have been first undertaken by Jehovah himself. The elements of language were, probably, from Divine suggestion. Created in the image of God, the progenitor of our species must not only have been upright and holy; but, to a considerable extent, have been blest With an intuitive capacity of discovering truth, independently of the slow and wavering process of observation and inference. When probably, at most, his lamp of existence had burned but a few days, the Lord God brought every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air unto Adam, to see what he would call them. Yet, so accurate Were the names assigned to the animals - descriptive, it is likely, of their dispositions and habits, that whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. But, through what channels, and to what extent soever the Divine Majesty im parted knowledge to our common parent, in relation to the ordinary modes and pursuits of popular edu cation, man is ordained to be the instructer of man. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.