124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



with two words, each of the latter 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 ?" 



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 idioms 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 or 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 nearly seventy years 

 ago by the profoundest and most philosophic reasoner that had then 

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

 I may venture to add, who has not yet heen 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 author! t}^ 

 reatfirmed these views, in even more decided terms. The oijinion 

 ■expressed by Prof. Whitney, in his *' Life and Growth of Language," 

 though apparently I'eferring 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. " Thei'e are," he remarks, " infinite possibilities of expres- 

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

 tive-American Greek race should arise to till it full of thought and 

 fancy, and put it to the uses of a noble literature, and it would be 

 rightl}' admired as rich and fiexible, perha[)s, 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- 



