Ixxvii 



World, the ingenious Chinese who were civilized and had a national literature 

 even before the glorious days of Greece and Eome, have for four thousand years 

 had an extremely simple, not to say rude and inartificial, language, that, according 

 to the common theories, seems to be the infancy of human speech. This phenom- 

 enon well deserves the consideration of the philosophical inquirer, and especially 

 of those speculatists who have assumed a certain necessary connection between 

 what is considered the refined or artificial state of a language and the cultivation 

 of the human race." 



In reference to " the able and philosophical investigations of Mr. Du Ponceau, 

 and the interesting work of his experienced and worthy fellow-laborer, the Rev. 

 Mr. Heckewelder," Mr. Pickering, in his memoir just now mentioned, says: — 

 " For my own part, I acknowledge that they have occasioned my taking a deeper 

 interest in this apparently dry and barren subject, than I would have believed to 

 be possible in any one, however devoted he might be to philological pursuits ; 

 and I have in consequence been for a time allured from old and favorite studies, 

 to which I had intended to allot the whole of that little leisure which I could 

 spare from the duties of my profession." 



The original manuscript of the dictionary of Father Rasles or Rale (for his 

 name is spelt both ways) was found among his papers after his death in 1724, and 

 came into the possession of Harvard College. " Of all the memorials of the abo- 

 riginal languages in the Northern Atlantic portion of America," observes Mr. 

 Pickering, in his introductory memoir, " the following Dictionary of the Abnaki 

 language (or Abenaqui, as it is often called, after the French writers) is now among 

 the most important." Mr. Pickering spared no labor in its publication. It may be 

 found in the first volume, new series, of the Memoirs of the American Academy, 

 extending over more than two hundred quarto pages. 



Of " the printed books relating to these languages," adds Mr. Pickering, " the 

 wonderful work of Eliot, ' the apostle,' I mean his entire translation of the Old and 

 New Testaments, and his Grammar of the Massachusetts Indian language, are in 

 every respect the most remarkable." Mr. Pickering's admirable republication of 

 this grammar was entitled, — "A New Edition with Notes and Observations, by 

 Peter S. Du Ponceau, LL. D., and an Introduction and Supplementary Observa- 

 tions by John Pickering." It first appeared in the Massachusetts Historical Col- 

 lections. So also did the " New Edition, with Notes by John Pickering," of Dr. 

 Edwards's Observations on the Mohegan Language. 



