250 GRAMMAR OP THE LENNI EENAPE LANGUAGE. 



[concluding note.] 



thoughts of men better qualified than himself to trace it to all its impor- 

 tant consequences. 



To what degree nature and art have respectively contributed to the 

 formation of languages, or their improvement, appears to me to be a ques- 

 tion highly deserving of deep consideration ; I am afraid the part of na- 

 ture will be found to be the lion's share. If it be true that the poems 

 attributed to Homer were composed at a time when the Greeks were 

 ignorant of the art of writing, we have the true measure of nature's share 

 in the formation of this beautiful language. The Romans, who could 

 write, did not prove by their idiom the superiority of art. 



Many observations, arising from the details of this Grammar, and which 

 would considerably tend to the elucidation of its contents, have suggest- 

 ed themselves to my mind while this volume was passing through the 

 press ; some of them I have subjoined in the form of notes, and the rest 

 I must reserve for another opportunity. 



I ought to observe, however, before I finally conclude, that the Author 

 writes the termination of the third person plural of the Perfect Tense of 

 the Indicative, indifferently pannik or pannil, without any apparent rule of 

 discrimination. This was noticed by Vater, who published a few Delaware 

 conjugations (under the name of Chippeway) from some loose sheets of 

 Zeisberger's own manuscript, which I had transmitted to him. The learn- 

 ed professor was of opinion that pannik was the correct reading, and I 

 have, in consequence, adopted it throughout this Grammar. Perhaps 

 the difference arises from the variety of dialects. See Analekten der 

 Sprachenkunde, Zweytes Heft, p. 50, in note. 



