These may amuse an idle hour. The remarks on ----
are, as you will perceive, materially altered. The alteration was
rendered necessary by an examination of the work. The 'survey' is a new
item, and I think, you will consider, the occasion of it, with me, a
precious specimen of Dutch impudence and ignorance. Bad as it is, it is
bepraised and bedaubed by that quack D. as though it were written with
the judgment of a Charlevoix."
This article utters a species of criticism in America which we have long
wanted.
It breaks the ice on new ground--the ground of independent
philosophical thought and inquiry. Truth to tell, we have known very
little on the philosophy of the Indian languages, and that little has
been the re-echo of foreign continental opinions. It has been written
without a knowledge of the Indian character and history. Its allusions
have mixed up the tribes in double confusion. Mere synonyms have been
taken for different tribes, and their history and language has been
criss-crossed as if the facts had been heaped together with a pitchfork.
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