149 



alphabets, which offer the highest degree of per- 

 fection in the analysis of sounds, and of which 

 some, for instance the Corean, according to the 

 ingenious observation of M. Langles*, seem still 

 to indicate the transition from hieroglyphics to 

 alphabetical writing*. 



In the immense extent of the new continent, 

 we see nations which have reached a certain de- 

 gree of civilization; we observe forms of go- 

 vernment, and institutions, which could only 

 have been the effect of a long struggle between 

 the prince and the people, the priesthood and 

 the magistracy ; and we find languages, some 

 of which, such as the Greenland, the Cora, the 

 Tamanac, the Totonac, and the Quichua -f-, dis- 

 play a richness of grammatical forms, which we 

 trace nowhere in the old continent, except at 

 Congo, and among the Biscayans, who were the 

 remains of the ancient Cantabrians : but amid 

 these marks of civilization, and this progressive 

 perfection of language, it is remarkable, that no 

 native people of America had attained that ana- 

 lysis of sounds, which leads to the most admira- 

 ble, we might say the most miraculous of all in- 

 ventions, an alphabet. 



We perceive that the use of hieroglyphical 



* Norden's Travels, Langles' edition, vol. 3, p. 296. 

 + Archiv fuer Etlinographie, B. 1, s. 345. Vater s 

 206. 



