11 



As it stands, it is a specimen of penmanship, as beau- 

 tiful as eye ever rested on, and breathes the same rich- 

 ness of poetic imagery, and gracefulness of expression, 

 that characterizes his lyrics. 



He turned his attention to the tongue of the Dela- 

 ware tribe, which was extensively in use among the 

 other tribes of this country. He began by taking up 

 a word here and there, and then a sentence, and with 

 something of the same sort of patient enthusiasm, that 

 characterizes the anatomist, who seeks to put together 

 the disarranged bones of a system not yet under- 

 stood, he would articulate one sentence into another, 

 until, with the aid of other helps, he reduced to 

 order what was a misshapen mass, and recovered 

 much, that was lost in the dialect of that extraordi- 

 nary people. 



If the gift of language had been his only pursuit, it 

 is scarcely possible to conceive of greater proficiency 

 than he had attained. I have known him to be tested 

 in the most difficult passages, and always found him as 

 ready and accurate, as promptness and accuracy could 

 be. It was his amusement to turn English verse into 

 Latin, and vice versa ; and some really exquisite gems 

 have passed under my eye, which were struck off in a 

 moment, extemporized in the most appropriate words 

 and musical rhythm. On a disputed passage either of 

 construction or grammar, his opinion would have been 

 the safest guide. For he was always backed by the 

 rules of grammar, and the idiom of the language, and 

 could not therefore well go amiss. 



In that versatility of genius, which marked the 

 character of Professor Alexander, we find that the 

 embryo lawyer, the profound mathematician, was in 

 like manner the ripest of scholars, and most thorough 

 of linguists. 



