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with our Paleys, and Benthams, and Franklins, and Biddles, the doctrine that the chief end of man is, to serve and glorify Mammon, and to learn the art of buying and selling," has been virtually taught us, in one form or another, long enough: it has made us, out and out, a nation of MammonistsMammonists in politics, Mammonists in education, Mammonists in morality, and Mammonists even in religion!

And does our practical wiseacre still keep saying, aim at the useful, aim at the useful? Well now, our good sir, or our bad sir, or our indifferent sir, we have heard enough of your everlasting cant about the useful; please go to tophet with your useful; you had it of the devil in the outset, and we hugely suspect you have not paid him for it yet: in heaven's name, return to him before you have worn it all out. Aim at the useful? Away with it! Aim at the true, the beautiful, and the good, and we'll risk but that you will be useful enough. Then God will use you; now we suspect none but Satan can use you. You are a clerk, we take it, in his trea

sury department; are you not in quest of pudding or praise, to fatten yourself or others with for his service? or are you only hastening to pay him his old price for the kingdoms of this world? At all events, please keep the snout of your sensualism or utilitarianism out of the pulpit, the chair, and the closet. True, true, the stomach says yet bacon, yet bacon; and, sure enough, we must have bacon; but God Almighty says, seek me, as you shant have even bacon; and we reckon his word is nearly or quite as good as the stomach's!

We will end by simply remarking, that a passion for knowledge finds the pursuit thereof its own exceeding great reward, and therefore cleaves to it, and is satisfied with it. A calculation of profit, impatient of the pursuit, and anxious only for results, gets cheated, as it ought to be, by its own cunning into taking up with the appearance of results; seeking, meanwhile, to abridge the process by resorting to system and machinery; and hence the succession of improvements and reformations with which society has so long been cursed.

THE American Ethnological Society is a society of recent formation in the city of New York, and has for its object the study of the Physical History of Man. In this is embraced all that relates to man, such as the origin and divisions of races and nations, the diversities of the human race, the antiquities of nations, languages and comparative philology; together with the physical geography of the globe as far as it is connected with the support and habitation of man.

The president of this society is the venerable Albert Gallatin, whose mind (judging from the elaborate and learned article in the volume which is the subject of these remarks) is as active and vigorous in his old age as it was in his youth. Among the other members, we tice the names of Dr. Robinson, Mr. olcraft, Hon. John Pickering, Dr.

Hawks, Dr. Morton, Messrs. Bradford, Catherwood, Stephens, Hodgson, Marsh, Prescott, Professors Salisbury, Woolsey, &c., all of whom are well-known for their learning in philology, antiquities, and the more solid branches of knowledge. A society composed of such men has long been wanted in this country, and we are glad to see that one has been formed, and has put forth so learned a volume of transactions as the one now before us. We wish them success, and hope they may persevere in the work they have commenced, for we believe that in this department of literature our countrymen are not behind those of any country in Europe, except the Germans.

The first paper in this volume is by the venerable and learned Albert Gallatin, entitled "Notes on the semi-civi lized nations of Mexico, Yucatan and

Central America." This essay fills 350 pages of the work. The author first examines the languages, by giving comparative tables of the most common words in the several languages, of which grammars, dictionaries and vocabularies have been published. Such tables are useful for etymological comparisons, and serve to show the very great dissimilarity that exists in words conveying the same meaning in languages spoken by people contiguous to each other. This phenomenon is peculiar to the aborigines of America, and the researches of philologists have not as yet been able satisfactorily to account for so great a diversity of dialects and languages as are found on the continents of North and South America. Although we thus find great diversities in languages, there are, nevertheless, tribes and nations, living in some instances contiguous, and in others far apart, whose speech presents but a dialectical difference. These, it is evident, originally sprang from the same stock, or were, at a remote period, one great family.

The first table presented by Mr. Gallatin exhibits five languages, viz., the Poconchi, the Quiche, and the Chorti of Guatemala; the Maya, of Yucatan, and the Huasteca, of that part of Mexico contiguous to Guatemala. The etymological analogies in these are so striking as to leave no doubt of their common origin. If this comparison is extended farther, not the least similarity is discernible, even in the most common works.

"The investigation of the languages of the Indians within the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the States, as far as the Polar Sea, has satisfactorily shown that, however dissimilar in their words, their structure and grammatical forms were substantially the same. A general examination of the Mexican proper, and of the languages of Peru, of Chili, and of some other tribes of South America, has rendered it probable that, in that respect, all, or nearly all, the languages of America belong to the same family. This, if satisfactorily ascertained, would, connected with the similarity of physical type, prove a general, though not, perhaps, universal, cominon origin. But

whatever the result might be, a more critical investigation than had heretofore been attempted, appeared necessary, in order to elicit and ascertain the truth."

Another remarkable feature is presented in the grammatical construction of the Indian languages, a feature which no other languages in the world possess to so remarkable an extent. This peculiarity is the power of compounding words, or of expressing in the least number of words the greatest number of ideas. To effect this, not only are two or more words joined together, and the termination or inflection of a radical varied as in the most of the European languages, but by interweaving together the most significant sounds or syllables of each single word, so as to form a compound that will awaken in the mind at once all the ideas singly expressed by the words from which they are taken.

Another process is, by an analogous combination of the various parts of speech, particularly by means of the verb, so that its various forms and inflections will express not only the principal action, but the greatest possible number of the moral ideas and physical objects connected with it.* This system, observed by Mr. Duponceau and others in the Indian languages of the United States, which have been critically examined, also prevails in the languages of the Esquimaux and in those of the aboriginal tribes in the far west. Mr. Gallatin has examined several of the Mexican languages besides those before alluded to spoken in Yucatan and Guatemala. On the subject of these he says:

"One of the most general features, and which has struck all those who have examined those languages, is the multitude of compounded words, many of them of inordinate length, and the facility with which new words of the same character might be formed. There is, however, an apparent difference in the manner in which words are compounded in the several Indian languages. In the various Algonkin dialects, compound word's are found, consisting of the union of five or six words so abbreviated that only one syllable of each has been preserved. Analogous instances occur in the Eskimo, and occasionally in some other lan

guages. But this mode of compounding words by the union of single syllables borrowed from each of the primitives, is in no other language carried to the same extent, as in the Algonkin.

Among the nations which are the subject of this inquiry, compound words are very numerous; but it is rare to find, independent of the agglutination of pronouns and insertion of particles, words consisting of the union of more than two primitives; one of which generally loses one of its syllables. It must, how ever, be observed, that the mode of compounding words is only adverted to incidentally, and not discussed as a distinct subject, in the ordinary grammars. Words of that description occur among other illustrations, and some may be extracted from dictionaries. But the principles on which words are compounded in any language, can be ascertained only by those who are thoroughly and practically acquainted with it.

It would occupy too much space to enter at length into the grammatical structure of the Mexican languages, or to offer a conjecture as to the remarkable form they assume, or the powers they possess in common with the aboriginal tongues of America, beyond the cultivated languages of either ancient or modern times. When the learned first began to investigate the American languages, they were struck with their remarkable powers of compounding, and the endless variety in their inflections. The conclusion they arrived at, was, that none but a highly cultivated people could have brought their lánguages to such a state of persection, and that this continent must have been peopled by a civilized race, the only memento of whose existence and advancement in civilisation was to be found in their languages. The investigations of modern philologists since the commencement of the present century, have shown that the phenomena which characterize the Indian languages of America do not arise from their cultivation, but rather from the want of it; that the number of their words is few in comparison with the cultivated languages; and that the power they have obtained in their multiplicity of compounds and inflections, is the result of necessity. The elaborate work of Mr. Gallatin, entitled a "Synopsis of the Indian tribes, etc." is more full on the subject of the Indian

languages than any work hitherto published.

The system of numeration or arithmetic among the Mexicans, is one of interest, and presents some peculiarities which do not belong to more civiliz ed nations. A knowledge of arithmetic or some system of numeration, must, as Mr. Gallatin observes, "have preceded calendars, or any attempt to compute time."

"Men must have known how to count as far as 365, before they ascer tained that the solar year consisted of 365 days. It is well known, that almost all nations, in forming their system of numeration, have adopted a decimal arithmetic, and that this was the natural result of men first beginning to count by their ten fingers. This is the case with all the Indian tribes within the United States; though it must be allowed that there is much confusion and but little regularity in the formation of the names expressing the higher numbers, which they hardly ever wanted. The arithmetic of the Peruvians and of the Araucanians is purely decimal.

"Traces are found in several of the Indian languages, of their having first counted by fives. This has already been pointed out in the Eskimo, of Hudson's Bay, where the names of the numerals, 8, 9 and 10, mean respectively the middle, the fourth, and ‍the little fingers.

"This primitive mode of counting by fives, is also apparent in the Mexican, the Otomi, and the Carib languages.

factory; and a period of thirteen days is not a lunar month, nor derived from it. But it is certain that it had been adopted by the priests, and that it was by it that they regulated their feasts and all their religious rites. In its origin, the period of twenty days had no more connection with the solar year than that of thirteen. Yet the mode of counting by twenty days was called the account of the sun, probably because it was that which was first adjusted so as to correspond with the solar year."

After showing the divisions of time, we are shown the manner in which the Mexicans ascertained the length of the year. At first it consisted of 18 of their months of 20 days each. Five supplementary days were subsequently added, making their year to consist of 365 days -thus arriving at the true length of the year, wanting six hours. They also had a cycle of 52 years, which was divided into four periods of thirteen years. At the termination of this cycle, they intercalated thirteen days, which was precisely equivalent to the intercalation of one day in every fourth or leap year. The number of days, then, in the 52 Mexican years was precisely the same as in the same number of our years; but every fourth year they lost a day, which could not be made up until 13 were so lost.

"It was the universal belief of the Mexicans, that the sun would be extinguished, and the world come to an end, at the end of some one of these cycles, that is to say, on the last of these five supplementary days. Under that expectation, those five days were spent in mourning-all their utensils, furniture, clothing, &c., were destroyed. On the evening of this last fatal day, the priests of Mexico, followed by an immense crowd, set off after the setting of the sun, which they apprehended had perhaps been seen for the last time, from a mount two leagues distant from the city. There they waited till midnight, when they sacrificed a prisoner in order to appease their god; and one of the priests lighted, by means of friction, a new fire. The success of that operation was considered as the proof that the gods had granted at least 52 years more to the world. The fire was transferred with great rapidity to all the neighboring places. When the new sun arose again, all anxiety was at an end; the 13 intercalary days were spent

in feasts and rejoicings, and in renewing all their utensils, furniture, and all that related to the worship of their gods."

The chapter on History and Chronology is devoted to a critical examination of the early Spanish and Mexican historians, as well as to some of the historical paintings left by the Mexicans. The latter are exceedingly few and throw little light on history. One of the most curious is in the collection of Mendoza, and is accompanied by a Spanish translation. This part contains a statement of the tributes paid by the several districts of country to Montezuma. The city proper of Mexico was not included among those which paid any; and the people of Tlatilulco were held to keep in repair the temple named Huiznahuac, besides paying a small annual tribute.

"Some of the tributes were paid annually, others every six months, and others every 60 days. The number of districts paying tribute amounts to 363; of most of which the hieroglyphics, as well as their names with oral language, are given; the quantities of each article are expressed in the paintings by the usual and well-known hierogly phics of numbers. The nature of the various articles of which the tributes consisted, is expressed in the paintings by graphic representations of the objects, which would rarely be intelligible, without the aid of the annexed interpretation. These may be arranged under the heads of provisions, clothing, and a great variety of miscellaneous articles.

The principal articles of provision are counted by Troxas or Granaries, containing each from four to five thou sand fanegas, or about 9,000 bushels: and they are stated as followeth :