OF THE L.ENNI LENAPE INDIANS. 73 



and for that must trust to the labours of others in the 

 shape of grammars, dictionaries, vocabularies, and other 

 w«nks of detad. This is enough to occupy a whole life. 

 Bui it is not all. The single branch of philology which 

 relates to oral languages lias its subdivisions, eacli of which 

 may be consideied as a separate science: There is phono- 

 liigy. which teaches us to distinguish the various sounds 

 produced by die human voice, with their tones, accents, and 

 inflections, to analyze, class, and compare them with each 

 other, and represent them, as much as possible, by visible 

 sign>* ; etymology, or the knowledge of those constituent 

 paits of language that we call xvords. by means of which we 

 are enabled to trace the affinities of the different idioms of 

 the earth, and the filiation of the numerous races and fami- 

 lies of men who inlianit it ; and lastly, ideology, or the com- 

 parative stiidv 01 the grammatical forms and idiomatic con- 

 struction of languages, by which we are taught to analyze 

 and d >tingu s i the different shapes in which ideas combine 

 themselves in order to fix perceptions in our minds, and 

 transmit them to those of others; while we observe with 

 wonder the effects of that tendency to order and method 

 and that natural logic which God has implanted in the mind 

 of every man. A considerable time must elapse before we 

 shall have collect d a sufficiency of facts to enable us to 

 generalize (o a certain extent our ideas on these various 

 subjects, the attempting of which too soon has hitherto been 

 the great error of philologists. It is astonishing to see what 

 efforts have been made by men of superior as well as those 

 of inferior talents, to discover the origin of human speech, 

 to trace an original or primitive language in those which 

 now exist, to invent a universal or- philosophical idiom, a uni- 

 versal grammar, a universal alphabet, and so many other 

 universal.?, while the particulars are yet to be learned. 



* I lin\ «■ treated of this nibjecl separately, merely in its application to 

 the English language, in the lir-i volume ol the present si rii - <>! these 

 Transactions, |>. 228. A reference to that essaj will shew the- iromenw 

 extent of this branch of the philological science. 



