Ixiv 



casionally conversed, at least. Of late years, the Chinese, in two or three of its dia- 

 lects, had engaged my lamented friend's attention ; and he gave some labor to the 

 Cochin-Chinese ; and paid great attention to the progress of discovery in regard 

 to the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The adaptation of his system of expression of 

 sounds by our own alphabet (of which he published a Memoir in the Transactions 

 of the American Academy) excited no small interest. Our missionaries adopted 

 his views in reducing to writing that dialect or derivative of the Malay which is 

 spoken in the Sandwich Islands, having effected the translation into it of the whole 

 Bible. This single thing is highly honorary to our country ; and I have wondered 

 that so little has been said respecting it by literary men among us. It must also 

 have a considerable effect. For, as the languages of the Pacific are mostly of 

 Malay origin, it can hardly be predicted to how great an extent the influence of it 

 may reach. 



" In regard to ethnology, his attention was drawn to it almost necessarily by the 

 rapid progress made of late years in that branch of information. Indeed, living 

 as he had done in the midst of your Salem merchants and intelligent navigators, — 

 situated as he was, in connection, on the one hand, with the Academy, and pre- 

 siding in its researches, the results of which became familiar to him, — and on the 

 other, no inattentive observer of the progress of missionary enterprise, in which his 

 own labors, as regards the philosophy of language, were brought so often into 

 practical operation, — ethnology became, of necessity almost, a subject of indispen- 

 sable attention. It was so to me ; and it was, therefore, of course, most frequently 

 the theme of our conversations, when we could pass together any portion of our 

 much occupied time. More especially has this been the case in the formation and 

 progress of our American Oriental Society, — an institution happily effected by his 

 consent to become its President, and giving it his valuable labors, influence, and 

 reputation. How it can live and flourish without him remains still to be seen, al- 

 though, as I hope, his example will have given an impulse, the effect of which may 

 continue. 



" One thing should be remembered in respect to classical literature in connec- 

 tion with the late Dr. Pickering. It is this; — his attachment to that literature 

 had a practical object. He did not become a critical scholar for the purpose of 

 vaunting his accuracy in taste, acuteness, or memory. He was ardently and pa- 

 triotically desirous of raising the scholarship of his country, and qualified himself, 

 and was preparing means for others, to the accomplishment of that end. Hence 



