ought to have been given to them all when first planted, and what all ought now to be reduced to. We may hence see the danger of listening to any of their deceitful propositions, though piqued by the negligence of some of those European powers, who will be much benefited by our revolution. I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. TO CHARLES W. F. DUMAS. Passy, 4 May, 1781. DEAR SIR, It is so long since I heard from you, that I begin to fear you are ill. Pray write to me, and let me know the state of your health. I enclose Morgan's account of his engagement with Tarleton. If he has not already received it, it may be agreeable to our friend the gazetteer of Leyden. Every thing goes well here, and I am ever, &c. B. FRANKLIN. FROM MISS GEORGIANA SHIPLEY TO B. FRANKLIN. London, 6 May, 1781. Your dear, delightful letter made me most happy, particularly your account of yourself, as it proves that you are in good spirits, and pleased with your present situation. Your Dialogue with the Gout is written with your own cheerful pleasantry, and La belle et la mauvaise Jambe* recalls to my mind those happy hours we once passed in your society, where we were never VOL. IX. See Vol. II. pp. 185, 194. 4 C amused without learning some useful truth, and where I first acquired a taste pour la conversation badinante et réfléchie. It is long since I have written to my ever valued friend; but the difficulty I find in conveying my letters safe to Passy is the only motive for my silence. Strange, that I should be under the necessity of concealing from the world a correspondence, which it is the pride and glory of my heart to maintain. We have spent three months in London, but leave it to-morrow, that we may enjoy the beauties of a late spring at Twyford. My father grows every year fonder of that peaceful retirement; having found his endeavours to serve his country ineffectual, he yields to a torrent, which it is no longer in his power to oppose. I will confess, that, although I love reading and drawing sufficiently never to want amusement in the country, yet I have some few friends in town from whom I shall part with regret. We live very little in public, but a great deal with small private societies. They are the charm of life. I have inquired after Mr. Small, but hitherto my inquiries have proved unsuccessful. Sir John Pringle has left London, and is gone to reside wholly in Scotland. I fear he is much straitened in his circumstances; he looks ill, and is vastly changed from what you remember him. Dr. Priestley is now on a short visit to his friends in town. I find he is settled much to his satisfaction at Birmingham, where he has the care of a pretty numerous congregation. Good Dr. Price calls on us often, and gives us hopes of a visit to Twyford. We value him no less on his own account, than for his steady attachment to our respectable friend. The first opportunity we have of sending a parcel to Paris, you may expect all our shades. You flatter us vastly by desiring them, as well as by every expression of esteem and affection for a family who know how to value your praise. Mr. Jones has undertaken the care of this letter. I feel grateful to him for giving me an opportunity of assuring you how much I do and ever shall continue to love you. I am glad the little book † proved acceptable. It does not appear to me intended for a grammar to teach the language. It is rather what we call in English a spelling book, in which the only method observed is, to arrange the words according to their number of syllables, placing those of one syllable together, then those of two syllables, and so on. And it is to be Antoine Court de Gebelin, born at Nismes, in 1725, of a Protestant family, became a minister in that communion, first in the Cevennes, and next at Lausanne; which, however, he quitted, together with the clerical function, for the profession of literature at Paris, where he acquired so great a reputation as an antiquary and philologer, that he was appointed to superintend one of the museums. He lost much of his reputation, however, by his enthusiastic zeal in favor of animal magnetism. He died at Paris, May 13th, 1784. His great work is entitled, "Monde Primitif, analysé et comparé avec le Monde Moderne," nine volumes in quarto. The excellence of his character may be appreciated from the single fact, that, on quitting Switzerland, he voluntarily gave to his sister the principal part of his patrimony, reserving little for himself, and depending for a maintenance upon the exercise of his talents.-W. T. F. A Vocabulary of the language of one of the Indian tribes in North America. observed, that Sa ki ma, for instance, is not three words, but one word of three syllables; and the reason that hyphens are not placed between the syllables is, that the printer had not enough of them. As the Indians had no letters, they had no orthography. The Delaware language being differently spelt from the Virginian may not always arise from a difference in the languages; for strangers who learn the language of an Indian nation, finding no orthography, are at liberty in writing the language to use such compositions of letters as they think will best produce the sounds of the words. I have observed, that our Europeans of different nations, who learn the same Indian language, form each his own orthography according to the usual sounds given to the letters in his own language. Thus the same words of the Mohawk language written by an English, a French, and a German interpreter, often differ very much in the spelling; and, without knowing the usual powers of the letters in the language of the interpreter, one cannot come at the pronunciation of the Indian words. The spelling book in question was, I think, written by a German. You mention a Virginian Bible. Is it not the Bible of the Massachusetts language, translated by Eliot, and printed in New England, about the middle of the last century? I know this Bible, but have never heard of one in the Virginian language. Your observations of the similitude between many of the words, and those of the ancient world, are indeed very curious. This inscription, which you find to be Phenician, is, I think, near Taunton (not Jannston, as you write it). There is some account of it in the old Philosophical Transactions. I have never been at the place, but shall be glad to see your remarks on it. The compass appears to have been long known in China, before it was known in Europe; unless we suppose it known to Homer, who makes the Prince, that lent ships to Ulysses, boast that they had a spirit in them, by whose directions they could find their way in a cloudy day, or the darkest night. If any Phenicians arrived in America, I should rather think it was not by the accident of a storm, but in the course of their long and adventurous voyages; and that they coasted from Denmark and Norway, over to Greenland, and down southward by Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, &c., to New England; as the Danes themselves certainly did some ages before Columbus. Our new American Society will be happy in the correspondence you mention, and when it is possible for me, I shall be glad to attend the meetings of your Society,* which I am sure must be very instructive. With great and sincere esteem, I have the honor to be, &c. B. FRANKLIN. TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. Expedition against Arnold.- British Policy. DEAR SIR, Colonel Laurens. Passy, 14 May, 1781. You are a very good correspondent, which I do not deserve, as I am a bad one. The truth is, I have too much business upon my hands, a great deal of it foreign to my function as a minister, which interferes with my writing regularly to my friends. But I am nevertheless extremely sensible of your kindness in * L'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. C* |