106 HOEATIO HALE ON LANGUAGE 



again to greet and thank.' A word of six syllables, easily pronounced (and in the Onon- 

 daga dialect reduced to fiye), expresses fully and forcibly the meaning for which eight 

 not very euphonious English words are required. The notion that the existence of these 

 comprehensive words in an Indian language, or any other, is an evidence of deficiency in 

 analytic power, is a fallacy which was long ago exposed by the clear and penetrative 

 reasoning of Duponceau, the true father of American philology. As he has well explained, 

 analysis must precede synthesis. In fact, the power of what may be termed analytic 

 synthesis — the mental power which first resolves words and things into their elements, 

 and then puts them together in new forms — is a creative or co-ordinating force, indicative 

 of a higher natural capacity than that of mere analysis. The genius which framed the 

 word teskenonhiceronne is the same that, working with other elements, produced the steam 

 engine and the telephone." 



The name of Duponceau recalls us to the special point of discussion — the true expla- 

 nation of the origin of this remarkable wealth of forms and these evidences of discrimin- 

 ating power, which are found in many languages spoken by barbarous tribes. This 

 eminent writer^ distinguished alike as a scholar and a man of affairs, was (as has been 

 said) the first to make a profound and philosophical study of the American languages and 

 to compare them with other idioms in such a manner as to disclose the true principles of 

 the science of comparative philology. Born in France in 1760, his talents and learning 

 had secured him, at the early age of seventeen, the position of secretary to the well-known 

 Court de Gébelin, author of many important works on philosophy, religion, and language. 

 From this position he passed to that of secretary and aide-de-camp to Baron Steuben, and 

 repaired with him to America, where, after the war of independence, he held an important 

 office under the Federal Government. Admitted to the bar, he became so eminent in his 

 new profession that he was offered the dignity of Chief Justice of Louisiana. In later 

 life he returned ardently to scientific pursuits, became President of the American Philoso- 

 phical Society of Philadelphia, and devoted himself especially to the study of the aboriginal 

 languages. His best-known work on this subject is his " Memoir on the Grammatical 

 System of certain Indian Nations of North America," which, written in French, was 

 presented to the French Institute in 1835, and received the '' Voluey prize " for linguistic 

 science. This memoir, which has been justly styled by an eminent and certainly not 

 partial critic, " a most valuable and brilliant work," ' had been preceded by others less 

 known, and particularly by a translation of Zeisberger's " Grammar of the Language of 

 the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians." To this translation, published by the American 

 Philosophical Society in 1827, the translator prefixed a preface of considerable length, in 

 which his view of the scope and principles of comparative philology is set forth, and is 

 illustrated by many examples and much clear and powerful reasoning. Some passages 

 of this essay which refer to our present subject may be cited. After referring to the great 

 variety in the structure of languages, he remarks : 



" It has been shown that the American languages are rich in words and regular in 

 their forms, and that they do not yield in those respects to any other idiom. These facts 

 have attracted the attention of the learned in Europe, as well as in this country ; but they 

 have not been able entirely to remove the prejudices that have been so long entertained 



' Farrar : " Chapters on Language," chap. 4, p. 44, footnote. 



