OF THE LENNI LENAPE INDIANS. (ill 



and dialects. The late M. Malte limn, in a review to which 

 he affixed his name*, spoke favourably of this performance. 

 If well executed, it will afford considerable aid to the 

 learned. 



It is very doubtful whether philology has yet reached that 

 degree of advancement that will allow of its various parts 

 being methodized and reduced to a general system. There 

 are yet, perhaps, too many unsettled opinions to be fixed, 

 too many prejudices to be dispelled, before we can lake a 

 clear, distinct, and comprehensive view of the various modes 

 by which mankind communicate their perceptions and ideas 

 to each other, through the medium of the senses, and trace 

 with a steady eye their origin and progress. New and 

 important facts are daily exhibited to us by the unwearied 

 labours of learned men, which overthrow long established 

 theories and turn in a great measure the current of our ideas. 

 By means of the light afforded in the works of Morrison, 

 Marshman, Abel Remusat, and l)e Guignes,we have acquired 

 a clear conception of the nature and character of the writ- 

 ing of the Chinese, about which so many fatties have been 

 disseminated by missionaries and others, who echoed the 

 boastings of the literati of that countryf. We no longer 

 believe it to be an original written language, unconnected 



* Journal des l> bate, 1st December I^2i;. 



f Les caracterea chinoia sonl signes immediate des idees qu'ils cx- 

 priment. On ilirait <|iie cette ecriture aurait ct<- invent) e par dea muets 

 qui ignorent I'usagedes paroles. Nous pouvons comparer lescaract* " 

 qui la enmpuseni a\ee nos clulVres uiimeraux, avec lea signea algebriques 

 qui expriment lea rapports dans nos livres de mathematiques, & i <Aue 

 I'oji presente nne demonstration de geometrie exprimee en caract< res 

 aJgebriqaes aux yeux de dix mathematiciens de pays differents; ils en- 

 tendront la m me chosi i n< anmoina ces dix hommea Bonl supposes parler 

 dea languea dlfferentes, et ils ne comprendronl rien aux termes par les- 

 quels ils exprimeront ces idees en parlant. C'est la meme chose a la 



Chine; I'ecrituie est non seulement comn ■ I toua lea peuplea de ce 



grand pa\s, qui parlent des dialeetes ms differents, mais encore aux 

 japonais, aux tonqutnois, « t aux cochinchinois, donl lea languea Bont to- 

 talemenl distingueea du chinoia. — Rtflexiona bw lea principei gin rmta 

 rfe Fart tTfcrire, & c. p:ir M. Fr< ret, in ili< Memoirs of the \cademy ol 

 Inscriptions and Belles Li ttres. Vol. VI. p. I 



VOL. III. S 



