AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 55 



of America. In the first, the study of words was the principal object of attention, 

 for the purpose of detecting similarities of sound and sense with those of other 

 nations. In the second, the radical connection subsisting between the native dialects 

 of the whole continent excited the special interest of inquirers. In the third, the 

 modern linguistic system was adopted, and the philosophy of organization, the 

 grammatical machinery by which ideas are combined, and quality, relation, and 

 action, are indicated, became the prominent subject of investigation. 



Vocabularies were not collected at first with a view to comparison, but to facilitate 

 communication with the natives. Tables of Mexican words with a Spanish trans- 

 lation were printed in Mexico as early as 1571; and there are few early travellers 

 and missionaries who did not preserve similar specimens in their journals, from the 

 different regions they visited. 



When terms and phrases were analyzed for grammatical purposes, the object was 

 still limited to the convenience of intercourse, or the conveyance of religions 

 instruction. Koger Williams, who preceded Eliot in this kind of labor, prepared 

 his "key," "as a help to the language of the natives;" 1 and Eliot's "Grammar 

 begun,"- was "for the help of such as desired to learn, and for the furtherance of 

 the gospel among the Indians." Father Rasle's copious MS. dictionary, commenced 

 in 169U, had no other design. The same may be said of Josiah Cottons Vocabu- 

 lary, compiled in 1707-S. 



It is not until the treatise of Jonathan Edwards appeared, in 1788, that we find 

 the recognition of a different purpose; and in this the same principles of investigation 

 are declared and practised that have given to Schlegel the reputation of establishing 

 a new school of comparative philology. 3 The title of Dr. Edwards's tract deserves 

 to be inserted at length, as significant of the nature and scope of a plan which he 

 suggested and illustrated, but did not attempt to execute upon any extensive scale. 4 

 The principal merit of Edwards undoubtedly consists in the detection of a pre- 

 vailing identity of language among tribes widely separated, and employing words 

 apparently dissimilar. 



Although not fully aware, it may be, of the ethnological importance of a study 

 of the mechanism of language, it must have always been regarded with interest 

 by men of philosophical minds. Maupertuis. the celebrated mathematician, in his 

 "Reflections on the origin of language," first printed about 1750, recommended 

 the study of barbarous languages, " because we may chance to find some that are 



1 Printed in 1643. a Printed in 1666. 



s Schlegel's Essay is thus referred to by Bnnsen : "In 1808 a book appeared, small in extent, and 

 on the whole a mere sketch, but possessing all those properties which constitnte an epoch-making work. 

 I mean Schlegel's Essay on the language and philosophy of the Hindoos. It fully established the 

 decisive importance and precedence which grammatical forms ought to have over single words in prov- 

 ing the affinities of languages. To the impulse given by Schlegel's work we are indebted in a high 

 degree, for the ideas on which the new linguistic school of Germany has proceeded." Phil, of Universal 

 Hist, I, 50. 



4 " Observations on the language of the Muhhekaneew Indians. In which the extent of that language 

 in North America is shown ; its genius is grammatically traced; some of its peculiarities, and some 

 instances of analogy between that and the Hebrew, are pointed out.'' 



