392 HISTORY OF CERTAIN 
expressions of our thoughts, and the symbols of 
our ideas, must be subjected to the same changes 
as men and manners, customs and habits, and have 
their days of fashionable use and abuse, as well as 
of neglect and disuetude. And if there be a cu- 
riosity in us to look back upon such customs and 
habits, left behind with the persons who brought 
them into vogue and were swayed by them, surely 
the same reflective beings who can find a pleasure 
in comparing what is gone by, with what is passing 
before them, cannot consistently be indifferent to 
the language which was then the means of inter- 
course, and the medium of all interchange of 
thought. The history of a language thus be- 
comes intimately connected with the history of a 
people. The latter informs us of their doings, 
the former of their manner of discourse, how they 
spoke in the remote times, ennobled by their 
deeds. 
To us, a subject of this kind offers much to 
instruct us, as well as to satisfy inquiry. Mingled 
blood flows in our veins. Mingled words fall from 
our tongues. We are the offspring of distinct 
races—children of roving, restless parents—who 
left their homes to win for us one of the noblest 
inheritances yet possessed by any of the tribes of 
