SKETCH OF DANIEL GARRISON BRINTON. 839 



Byington, edited by Brinton ; Contributions to a Grammar of the 

 Muskogee Language ; The Ancient Phonetic Alphabet of Yuca- 

 tan, describing Lauda's so-called Maya alphabet; The Arawack 

 Language of Guiana, in which the author shows that the nations 

 of the Bahamas and Antilles at the discovery were of the Ara- 

 wack stock ; this essay contains an analysis of the primitive lan- 

 guage of Hayti On the Language of the Natchez, wherein the 

 writer identifies the language of the Natchez as largely a dialect 

 of the Chahta-Muskokee family ; the Names of the Gods, an exe- 

 getical study of the Popol Vuh, or national book of the Quiches 

 of Guatemala ; A Grammar of the Cakchiquel Language of Gua- 

 temala ; American Languages and why we should study them ; 

 The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as set forth by 

 Wilhelm von Humboldt, with the translation of an unpublished 

 memoir by hiin, on the American verb; On Polysynthesis and 

 Incorporation ; Notes on the Manque, an extinct dialect formerly 

 spoken in Nicaragua; The Taensa Grammar and Dictionary, in 

 which are shown the fraudulent claims of the alleged Taensa 

 language, introduced by Parisot ; The Study of the Nahuatl Lan- 

 guage ; The Phonetic Elements in the Graphic System of the 

 Mayas and Mexicans ; The Conception of Love in some American 

 Languages; On the Ikonomatic Method of Phonetic "Writing; 

 and, in 1889, associated with Rev. Albert Seqaqkind Anthony was 

 issued a Lenapd-English Dictionary, based upon a manuscript of 

 the last century, preserved in the Moravian church at Bethle- 

 hem, Pa. 



In general linguistics he has contributed several papers to the 

 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society on the possi- 

 bility of an international scientific tongue, the chief arguments in 

 which were summed up in a pamphlet published in 1889 on the 

 Aims and Traits of a World-Language. 



In the great conflict between scientific thought and religious 

 dogma, Dr. Brinton has always occupied a pronounced position. 

 His volume on the Religious Sentiment begins by an absolute re- 

 jection of the supernatural as such, and explains all expressions 

 of religious feeling as the results of familiar physical and mental 

 laws. These opinions he further emphasized in an address on 

 Giordano Bruno, published in 1890, a philosopher to whose the- 

 ories he had paid considerable attention in early life. 



While singularly devoid of taste or faculty for music which 

 may perhaps be attributed to six generations of Quaker ancestry 

 Dr. Brinton has always cherished an ardent love of poetry. He 

 is Vice-President of and a frequent contributor to the Browning 

 Society of Philadelphia, which numbers nearly seven hundred 

 members ; he is also a friend and disciple of Walt Whitman, and 

 has published an essay explaining his eccentric versifications. 



