HINTS AND EXPLANATIONS. 74¢ 
express his idea to think of a multiplicity of things which have no connec- 
tion with that which he wishes to express. 
A Ponea Indian, in saying that a man killed a rabbit, would have to 
say the man, he, one, animate, standing, in the nominative case, purposely 
g; 
killed, by shooting an arrow, the rabbit, he, the one, animate, sitting, in the 
objective case; for the form of a verb to kill would have to be selected, and 
the verb changes its form by inflection and incorporated particles to denote 
person, number, and gender as animate or inanimate, and gender a stand- 
ing, sitting, or lying, and case; and the form of the verb would also express 
whether the killing was done accidentally or purposely, and whether it was 
by shooting or by some other process, and, if by shooting, whether by bow 
and arrow, or with a gun; and the form of the verb would in like manner 
have to express all of these things relating to the object; that is, the person, 
number, gender, and case of the object; and from the multiplicity of para- 
digmatic forms of the verb to kill this particular one would have to be 
selected. Perhaps one time in a million it would be the purpose to express 
all of these particulars, and in that case the Indian would have the whole 
expression in one compact word, but in the nine hundred and ninety-nine 
thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine cases all of these particulars would 
have to be thought of in the selection of the form of the verb, when no 
valuable purpose would be accomplished thereby. 
In the development of the English, as well as the French and Ger- 
man, linguistic evolution has not been in vain. 
Judged by these criteria, the English stands alone in the highest rank; 
but as a written language, in the way in which its alphabet is used, the Eng- 
lish has but emerged from a barbaric condition. 
