124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN' INSTITUTE. 



with two words, each of the lattei- requires five, which yet represent a 

 smaller number of ideas. To which of these grammatical forms," asks 

 Mr. Duponceau, " is the epithet ' barbarous ' to be applied t " 



He then proceeds to express his conclusion on the whole question 

 in measured but weighty words. The astonishing art and method 

 which have presided over the formation of these Indian languages are 

 not, in his opinion, to be considered a proof (as many have been 

 inclined to believe) that this continent was formerly inhabited by a 

 civilized race of men. It is more natural, he holds, to suppose that 

 men were endowed from the beginning with a natural logic, which 

 leads them, as it were, by instinct, to such methods in the formation 

 of their idioiiis as are best calculated to facilitate their use. He is 

 brought to this decision because he finds that " no language has yet 

 been discovered, either among savage oV polished nations, which was 

 not governed by rules and principles which nature alone could dictate, 

 and human science never could have imagined." 



Such were the views formed and expressed neai-ly seventy years 

 ago by the profoundest and most philosophic reasoner that had then 

 devoted himself to the study of the Amei-ican languages — a reasoner, 

 I may venture to add, who has not yet been surpassed, either in 

 breadth of learning or in depth of thought, by any one who has 

 written on this subject. Fifty years later, another very high authority 

 reaffirmed these views, in even more decided terms. The opinion 

 expressed by Prof. Whitney, in Lis " Life and Growth of Language," 

 though apparently referi'ing to American idioms in general, evidently 

 relates more especially to those of the Algonkin stock. I have had 

 ■occasion to quote it elsewhere, but the quotation well deserves to be 

 repeated. " There are," he remarks, " infinite possibilities of ex[>res- 

 siveness in such a structure ; and it would only need that some na- 

 tive-American Gi'eek race should arise to till it full of thought and 

 fancy, and put it to the uses of a noble litei-ature, and it would be 

 rightly admired as rich and flexible, perhaps, beyond anything else 

 that the world knew." 



To this eloquent passage I would only venture to take one excep- 

 tion. The native-American Greek race has already arisen, and speaks 

 the language in question. A highly endowed language can only have 

 originated with a highly endowed race. When we consider the suc- 

 cession of singularly able leaders whom the Algonkin tribes have pro- 



