liii 



The preparation of a scheme for reducing spoken languages to 

 written forms, contained in his " Essay on a Uniform Orthography 

 for the Indian Languages of North America," communicated to the 

 American Academy in 1820, was, perhaps, of all his labors, the most 

 characteristic of his philological and philosophical genius and skill, 

 and, in its practical consequences, of the highest interest and value. 

 While it facilitates, in a simple and beautiful manner, the formation 

 of written languages and the study of comparative philology, it af- 

 fords an instrument of incalculable advantage in civilizing and Chris- 

 tianizing the barbarous nations of the earth. It has already been 

 sufficiently tested in Africa, and especially in some of the South 

 Sea islands, as well as among the North American Indians, to rank 

 its author among the distinguished benefactors of mankind.* 



In Mr. Pickering's learned article on Adelung's Survey of all 

 the Known Languages and their Dialects, published in the North 

 American Review, in 1822, he represents the present age as the 

 epoch of a new science, — " the comparative science of languages," 

 which is to be studied, " as we study other parts of human knowl- 

 edge, by collecting facts, — by ascertaining what languages there 

 are on the globe, and collecting vocabularies, or specimens of 

 them all." According to his estimate of the number of dialects 

 on the globe, they amount to about four thousand. Into this 

 ocean of languages he plunged too deep for me to follow him. 

 I lose sight of him entirely. I cannot fathom his research or enu- 

 merate his acquisitions. 



We are now brought to the seventh class of Mr. Pickering's lit- 

 erary labors, embracing those which relate to comparative philolo- 

 gy and ethnography, and, as connected therewith, the Oriental 



• Note K. 



