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siderable. From attentive observation of the experiment, we feel convinced that more instruction may, in a given time, be communicated to persons of unmixed Indian blood, by the efforts of a single individual, who is content, day after day, to visit their lodges, converse with them, however imperfectly, in their own language, and teach them the rudiments of human learning, without any restraint, without any attempt to recall them from their accustomed haunts, or take them from their needful employments,-than by the united exertions of a mission family of ten or fifteen persons, conducted in the ordinary method. We would not detract from the merit of those excellent individuals, who are stationed at too remote intervals along our frontier, or even beyond the outskirts of civilization, and who invite the Indians to them, to receive moral and religious instruction. Would that for one institution of this kind on our borders, there were twenty! The improved condition of society in the immediate vicinity of such a mission house, the human learning, and the religious instruction communicated to the members of families widely scattered through the Indian country, and who, on returning to their own homes, must always diffuse some share of the benefits they have received-abundantly repay the expense of such undertakings. Our only design is to recommend to the consideration of the benevolent and humane, the course which seems to us to have been found most useful. We hope to see the time, when many men of tried character and steadfast piety, shall be scattered among the Indians in their camps and villages, aiding and instructing them, not in literature and religion only, but in the labours of agriculture, the mechanic arts, the construction of houses, the rearing of domestic animals, the care and management of the sick, and in all those numerous particulars, by which the life and habits of the Indian now differ so disadvantageously from those of the white man. These may, to many, appear considerations of minor importance. Some may suppose, we ought to aim principally at giving the Indians our Divine Religion; and that all the benefits of civilization, all the comforts and securities afforded by the arts, would follow in its train. But this is reversing the order of things, unless we will have recourse to miraculous interference, which none can now expect. The arts must precede civilization; and civilization, some degree of it, must precede the adoption of the Christian religion. As well might the husbandman look for a harvest, from seed scattered in the unreclaimed forest, as the Christian teacher expect the fruit of a good life, from instructions which the minds of his hearers are wholly unprepared to admit, and unable to comprehend. Many of the most intelligent and considerable men among the Indians, are now prepared to adopt some of the most important arts, particl that of working in iron, and the more improved methods

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tivating the soil. Not only the Ottawas and Potowatomies, and others, in the territories bordering the great lakes, but the Sacs and Foxes, the Ioways, and the Sioux, particularly the band of Wawbeshaw, at the Red Cedar, the Ottoes, Kansas, and Osages, are beginning to see the importance of producing more abundant. crops of corn, that they may have some surer reliance than on their nearly exhausted hunting grounds. The use of the plough, is the next important step these people have to take, in their advance towards civilization; and however much of labour or of time, may be bestowed in teaching to individuals refinement or learning, adapted to a more mature condition of society, the great mass of the people will keep an even pace with those important arts, on which depends the sustenance of life. Much that is to be done in this way, might easily be accomplished by the Indian agents, had they leisure and inclination to attend to it, and would they propose to themselves, the example of Governor Blount, or some of those excellent men in the South, who have so much benefited the Creeks and Cherokees, by infusing into them some spirit of industry. Even the love of money, becomes an exalting and ennobling passion, when it is made the mean of rescuing men from degradation and barbarism. But, since experience has shown, that services of this kind are not generally to be expected from the officers of the Indian Department, such forming no part of their duties, it seems worthy the consideration of those humane and charitable associations, who are labouring to distribute the word of life to the heathen, whether they may not, by conducting their efforts in a somewhat different manner, be the means of disseminating more durable and wide-spread benefits. If their efforts have heretofore in a great measure failed of success, let them inquire, whether or not they have commenced their work at the foundation; whether they have brought to this important task of civilizing the Indians, the same share of sound discretion, of well instructed and scrutinizing prudence, which has directed them in their own private undertakings. To us, it appears of importance, that the Indians be taught agriculture, and the methods of manufacturing and repairing the necessary implements; and he who aids in giving them these rude arts, confers more important and lasting benefits, than he, who, were it possible, should, without these, qualify them, by all human learning, to enter the field as disputants with Locke and Duns Scotus, Malthus and Ricardo. We reverence the religious opinions of all, who, with us, take the Bible for the revealed will of God; but we are not among those, who think the Christian religion is, with our Indians, to precede and prepare the way for civilization.

ART. VI.-POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

1.-The Perennial Calendar and Companion to the Almanac, illustrating the Events of every day in the year, as connected with History, Chronology, Botany, Natural History, Astronomy, Popular Customs and Antiquities, with useful rules of Health; Observations on the Weather; Explanations of the Fasts and Festivals of the Church, and other miscellaneous useful Information, compiled from Scientific Authorities, as well as from the Manuscripts of several distinguished persons, and revised and edited by T. FORSTER, M. B., F. L. S., M. A. S., M. M. R., &c. of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. London, 1824:8vo. pp. 803. 2.-Ancient Mysteries described, especially the English Miracle Plays, founded on Apocryphal New Testament Story, extant among the unpublished Manuscripts in the British Museum; including Notices of Ecclesiastical Shows; the Festivals of Fools and Asses; the English Boy Bishop; the Descent into Hell; the Lord Mayor's Show; the Guildhall Giants; Christmas Carols, &c. By WILLIAM HONE: with engravings on copper and wood. London, 1823: 8vo. pp.

298.

3.-Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, illustrating the words, in their different significations, by examples from Ancient and Modern Writers: showing their affinity to those of other Languages, and especially the Northern; explaining many terms, which though now obsolete in England, were formerly common to both countries; and elucidating National Rites, Customs, and Institutions, in their analogy to those of other Nations. By JOHN JAMIESON, D. D. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, &c. &c. Edinburgh, 1825: 2 vols. 4to. pp.

643 and 712.

4.-A Glossary of North Country Words in use; from an Original Manuscript, in the Library of John George Lambton, Esq. M. P. with considerable additions. By JOHN TROTTER BROCKETT, F. S. A. London and Newcastle. Newcastle upon Tyne, 1825 8vo. pp. xxxvi-243.

5.-Hora Momenta Cravena, or the Craven Dialect, exemplified in two Dialogues between Farmer Giles and his neighbour Bridget; to which is annexed a copious Glossary. By a Native of Craven. London, 1824: 12mo. pp. 125. 6.-Observations on some of the Dialects of the West of England, particularly Somersetshire, with a Glossary of words VOL. III. NO. 6.

54

1

now in use there: and Poems and other pieces, exemplifying the Dialect. By JAMES JENNINGS, Honorary Secretary of the Metropolitan Literary Institution, London. London, 1825: 12mo. pp. 191.

FROM the long array of lexicographical works, placed at the head of this article, it must not be imagined, that we are about to enter into an elaborate, and necessarily dry and tedious analysis of the etymological portion of their contents; valuable as such an analysis would in some respects unquestionably be. Etymological researches, have, indeed, been too much neglected; and this has chiefly happened, from the prevalent but erroneous idea of the uncertainty which must ever attend them. To the authors of the works of this description before us, we are indebted for many important facts, adapted for supplying a chasm, which has existed in the history of many literary and Archaiological points. Let us take for example the Dictionary of the Scottish Language of Dr. Jamieson. Without such a key, many ancient. British MSS. are totally useless, and many of the old Acts of Parliament, of the works written at an important period of British History, and which record the valiant deeds-delineate the manners, or exhibit the religious zeal of the periods of their production, would excite but little interest in our time, because they would be in a great measure unintelligible.

In such a work, too, many ancient customs, popular superstitions, &c., otherwise unknown or involved in obscurity, are explained and illustrated, under the words which refer to them; and, as the knowledge of ancient manners removes the obscurity of language, reciprocally ancient language often affords the best elucidation of manners. Thus the lexicographer, "that harmless drudge," as Johnson, himself one of the craft, has designated him that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words," is of necessity an historianand Etymology becomes History.

If we inquire into the character of the various provincial dialects existing in Great Britain, we must be struck with the important illustrations which the history of our language is capable of receiving from them. These provincial or local words may be considered as constituting three great divisions; the first, comprising the words, Saxon, Danish, &c. which may have become obsolete, partly from the introduction, from time to time, of terms considered more fashionable,-partly from disuse, and which are consequently retained, only, or chiefly, in counties remote from the capital, where modern refinements do not easily find their way, or are not readily adopted-instances of these we have in the northern words-ar (Dan. ar) a mark or scar-stilh (Sax.)

strong, hard.-Smiddy, or Smithy, (Sax. smiththa) a blacksmith's shop.-Prin (Dan. preen) a pin, &c. &c.

Hence many archaisms, occurring in our old chronicles, and in Chaucer, Spencer, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, &c. now totally disused in other parts of the kingdom, are yet preserved in some of the provinces, and especially in those of the north. This can be easily accounted for. In those districts, until of comparatively late years, the inhabitants had little or no intercourse with the more southern counties; the means of locomotion were so limited, that, in the memory of individuals now living, if a person was desirous of visiting the metropolis from these, then considered, distant regions, he esteemed it prudential to settle his worldly affairs before undertaking so eventful a journey. From these causes, the inhabitants of the north of England have retained their ancient language, manners, and customs, unmodified by admixture. Since the condition of travelling, however, has been improved, these provincial distinctions have been gradually fading away, and sooner or later it must happen, that they will be entirely removed. Under such circumstances, the authors of the provincial glossaries before us, are entitled to the thanks of all, but especially of the philologist and the antiquary, for preserving many ancient and emphatic terms, in danger of total extermination. Unimpressed with the evident advantages that must necessarily, however, arise from the gradual amalgamation of all these provincialisms, and feeling that the remains of antiquity ought to be considered sacred objects-the author of the Hora momenta Cravena-in other words, of the exemplification of the dialect of the Deanery of Craven, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, laments over the "corruptions" which have of late years been suffered to creep into it.

"Pent up," he observes, "by their native mountains, and principally engaged in agricultural pursuits, the inhabitants of this district had no opportunity of corrupting the purity of their language by the adoption of foreign idioms. But it has become a subject of much regret, that since the introduction of commerce, and, in consequence of that, a greater intercourse, the simplicity of the language has, of late years, been much corrupted. Anxious, therefore, to hand it down to posterity unadulterated, the author has attempted to express, in a familiar dialogue, the chaste and nervous language of its unlettered natives.”—Introduction, p. iv.

In a country like our own, where a free migration takes place from state to state, any great diversity of dialects is not to be expected; and accordingly we find, that although those of the eastern and southern portions of the Union may be discriminated, yet that the difference is a wide remove from that which exists between the dialects of the remote portions of England and that of the metropolis. Let us take as an example of variation from the correct English, the specimen of this "chaste and nervous language," the decadency of which the author whom we have quoted so ludicrously deplores, as given in the preface to his

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