[February, 
106 Analyses of Books. 
Report, papers on the evolution of language, on the mythology 
of the North American Indians, on the Wyandot Government, 
and on limitations to the use of some anthropologic data, all by 
Mr. J. W. Powell. There are, further, a study of the mortuary 
customs of the North American Indians, by H. C. Yarrow; 
studies in Central-American picture-writing, by E. S. Holden ; 
an essay on the cessions of land to the United States by Indian 
tribes, by C. C. Royce ; sign-language among North-American 
Indians, by Garrick Mallery; a catalogue of linguistic MSS. in 
the library of the Bureau of Ethnology, by J. C. Pilling, and illus- 
trations of the method of recording Indian languages, by J. O. 
Dorsey, A. S. Gatschet, and S. R. Riggs. 
Some of these papers merit an examination in detail, — at 
greater length, indeed, than our available space will allow. In 
the essay on the evolution of language Mr. Powell discusses 
what he calls the “ grammatic processes,” by which an original 
small stock of words has been combined and modified. These 
processes are: combination, vocalic mutation, intonation, and 
placement. The author next discusses the differentiation of the 
parts of speech. He insists that all paradigmatic inflection in a 
civilised tongue is a survival of a barbarous condition. All such 
inflection requires unnecessary thought. In the clause if he was 
here, if fully expresses the subjunctive condition, and it is quite 
unnecessary to express it a second time by using another form of 
the verb to be. And so the people who are using the English 
language are deciding, for the subjunctive form is rapidly be- 
coming obsolete, with the long list of paradigmatic forms which 
have disappeared.” 
He further writes : — “ Every time the pronoun he, she, or it is 
used it is necessary to think of the sex of its antecedent, though 
in its use there is no reason why sex should be expressed, say, 
one time in ten thousand. If one pronoun non-expressive of 
gender were used instead of the three, then in 9999 cases the 
speaker would be relieved of an unnecessary thought.” Judging 
by such criteria he considers that the English language stands 
alone in the highest rank. 
The same author in his sketch of the mythology of the North 
American Indians studies the genesis of philosophy. He holds 
that there are two grand stages of philosophy— the mythologic 
and the scientific. In the former of these stages all phenomena 
are explained by analogies derived from human experience. “ By 
subjective examination discovering in himself will and design, 
and by inductive reason discovering will and design in his fellow 
men and animals, he extends the induction to all the cosmos, and 
discovers in all things will and design. All phenomena are sup- 
posed to be the acts of some one, and that some one having will 
and purpose. . . . The simple is compared with and explained 
by the complex.” In the second great stage phenomena are sup- 
posed to be the children of antecedent phenomena. . . . Man, 
