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 o'lily 
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, 
t Archiv fuer Ethnographie, B. 1, s. 345. Vater s 
206. 
