AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 57 



ing the opinion, based upon his own philological researches, that the Americans 

 do not derive their origin from any people now existing in the ancient world. 1 



The great names that have given lustre to the modern school of comparative 

 philology are mostly German ; and the number of American dialects collected and 

 analyzed by the two Adelungs, Vater, and William Von Humboldt, caused our own 

 distinguished philologists, Duponceau and Pickering, to unite in an expression of 

 astonishment and admiration towards them as their masters in a knowledge of the 

 customs, manners, and languages of the aborigines of this country .'- 



Frederic Adelung ascribes to the Empress Catharine II, of Russia, the honor of 

 commencing, personally, the solid foundation on which philological science now 

 rests. For her private gratification and amusement, she had formed the plan of 

 procuring vocabularies of all the languages in the world; and directed her Secretary 

 of State to write for that purpose to the powers of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

 Application was made to President Washington for our Indian languages, and 

 several specimens were furnished. The empress pursued her studies of comparison 

 in solitude for many months ; but at length growing tired of this hobby, she sent 

 for Professor Pallas, and "after a full confession" (as she says in a letter to a friend) 

 of the manner in which she had been occupied, it was agreed between them that* 

 the translations she bad made of a list of Russian words into more than two hun- 

 dred languages or dialects, should be printed for the benefit of those who were 

 willing to engage in such labors. 3 



' Hist, of Mexico, first printed in 1780. 



9 Mass. Hist. Col., 2d se., IX, 232. 



3 Catherinens der Grossen Verdienste urn die Vergleichende Sprachenkunde. Mini, of Am. Acad., 

 IV, 321. 



The Russian Empress and Eugene Aram are singular persons to lie brought together in this con- 

 nection ; yet they both appear to have entertained views upon philological subjects somewhat in advance 

 of their contemporaries. The following note, received through Professor Henry, from Col. C. A. Alexan- 

 der, of Washington,, will be found to possess more than a merely scientific interest. It will increase the 

 regret that the eminent abilities of Aram could not have been employed in pursuits that might have 

 proved honorable to himself, and useful to mankind. 



" In any work treating of the affinities of language, it would seem to be unjust to overlook the claims 

 of the remarkable but unfortunate Eugene Aram, to be considered as an early (if not the earliest) culti- 

 vator of this branch of philological science, upon the right principle, and with anything like an adequate 

 comprehensiveness of purpose. Some account of his labors may be found in the Annual Register 

 (Dodsley's) for 1159, page 360, where we are told that having discovered a surprising affinity through- 

 out the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Chaldee, Arabic, and Celtic languages, 'he resolved to make 

 a Comparative Lexicon, and, at the time of his trial aud death, had collected for that purpose above 

 one thousand notes.' He had observed that all previous lexicographers had limited their views to 

 tracing such accidental derivations as might have sprung from commerce or occasional intercourse, 

 without adverting to the radical affiliation which a more profound inquiry discloses. ' Yet,' as he well 

 remarks, 'it is not to be thought of, much less concluded, that the multitude of English words which 

 are certainly of Latin, Greek, and Phoenician origin, are all the relics of the Roman settlements in 

 Britain, or the effects of Greek or Phoenician commerce; on the contrary, the resemblance was coeval 

 with the primary inhabitants of the island. How nearly related is the Cambrian, how nearly the Irish, 

 in numberless instances, to the Latin, the Greek, and even the Hebrew, and both possessed this con- 

 similarity long ago, before Julius Csesar and the Roman invasion. I know not but the Latin differed 

 more from itself in the succession of six continued centuries, thnn the Welsh and Irish at this time 

 S 



