[3] There is, however, little necessity for any argument on the subject: For, leaving out of the question the highest and most sacred of authorities, almost all respectable writers upon ethnology, including Buffon, Volney, Humboldt, &c., agree in assigning a common origin to all nations,--though the last deduces from many particulars, the conclusion that the American Indian was "isolated in the infancy of the world, from the rest of mankind."--_Ancient Inhabitants of America_, vol. i., p. 250. [4] It will be observed, that I assume the _unity_ of the Indian race; and I am not sufficiently acquainted with the recent discussions on the subject, to be certain whether the question is still considered open. But the striking analogies between the customs, physical formation, and languages of all the various divisions, (except the Esquimaux, who are excluded), I think, authorize the assumption. [5] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. iii., p. 416. [6] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. iii., p. 417. [7] _Essays_--Art. 'Milton.' [8] _Lectures on English Poets_, p. 4. [9] No very high compliment, but as high as it deserves. We shall see anon. [10] Warburton's _Conquest of Canada_, vol. i., p. 177. [11] Bancroft's _United States_, vol. iii., p. 256. [12] Hunter's _Memoirs_, p. 236. _Western Annals_, p. 712. [13] _Flint's Geography_, p. 108. [14] "All ideas are expressed by figures addressed to the senses." _Warburton_, vol. i., p. 175. Bancroft, ut supra. [15] See Bancroft, Hunter, Catlin, Flint, Jefferson, &c.--passim--all supporters of Indian eloquence, but all informing us, that "combinations of material objects were his _only_ means of expressing abstract ideas." [16] Vide Bancroft's _United States_, vol. iii., pp. 257, 266, etc. [17] _E. G._ "They style themselves the 'beloved of the Great Spirit.'"--_Warburton_, vol. i., p. 186. "In the Iroquois language, the Indians gave themselves the appellation of 'Angoueonoue', or 'Men of Always.'"--_Chateaubriand's Travels in America_, vol. ii., p. 92. Note, also, their exaggerated boastfulness, even in their best speeches: "Logan never knew fear," &c. [18] "The absence of all reflective consciousness, and of all logical analysis of ideas, is the great peculiarity of American speech."--_Bancroft_, vol. iii., p. 257. [19] Warburton's _Conquest of Canada_, vol. i., p. 180. [20] I have seen it hinted, though I have forgotten where, that Jefferson, and not Logan, was the author of this speech; but the extravagant manner in which Jefferson himself praises it, seems to exclude the suspicion. "I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero," he says, "and of any other more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan!" Praise certainly quite high enough, for a mixture of lamentation and boastfulness.