The title page of the standard work on Volapuk, a language discovered by a German monk within a ball of light that appeared inside his cell halfway to the end of the last century. Contrast this with its rival Esperanto, that rational language designed by a south Russian Jew before the pogroms, a true fruit of secular Judaism, and perhaps, for a time, counter-trend to Zionism (not all preRevolution Russian Jews wanted an Israel... many just wanted a world which would let them live in peace). The two languages were rivals, with button wars erupting at the end of the century (supporters of each were know for wearing label buttons supporting their own cause).     In my youth, I studied Volapuk, rival of Esperanto, the artificial language of international peace; and reconstructed the language of Cain, spoken at the Tower of Babel.