in the Royal Irish Transactions, Vol. VII., by Dr. Browne, suggested,
like Mr. Pickering's, by conversation with some modern Greeks, and
touching upon similar topics. Dr. Browne is the author of the learned
and somewhat antediluvian book on the Civil and Admiralty Law.
The Greek and English Lexicon is his work of greatest labor in the
department of classical learning. This alone would entitle him to
praise from all who love liberal studies. With the well-thumbed copy of
this book, used in college days, now before us, we feel how much we are
debtor to his learned toil. Planned early in Mr. Pickering's life, it
was begun in 1814. The interruptions of his profession induced him to
engage the assistance of the late Dr. Daniel Oliver, Professor of Moral
and Intellectual Philosophy at Dartmouth College. The work, proceeding
slowly, was not announced by a prospectus until 1820, and not finally
published until 1826. It was mainly founded on the well-known Lexicon
of Schrevelius, which had received the emphatic commendation of
Vicesimus Knox, and was generally regarded as preferable to any other
for the use of schools. When Mr. Pickering commenced his labors there
was no Greek Lexicon with definitions in our own tongue. The English
student obtained his knowledge of Greek through the intervention of
Latin. And it is supposed by many, who have not sufficiently regarded
other relations of the subject, as we are inclined to believe, that
this circuitous and awkward practice is a principal reason why Greek is
so much less familiar to us than Latin. In honorable efforts to remove
this difficulty our countryman took the lead. Shortly before the last
sheets of his Lexicon were printed, a copy of a London translation
of Schrevelius reached this country, which proved, however to be
"a hurried performance, upon which it would not have been safe to
rely."[146]
[146] Preface to Pickering's Lexicon.
Since the publication of his Lexicon, several others in Greek and
English have appeared in England. The example of Germany and the
learning of her scholars have contributed to these works. It were
to be wished that all of them were free from the imputation of an
unhandsome appropriation of labors performed by others. The Lexicon
of Dr. Dunbar, Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh,
published in 1840, contains whole pages taken bodily--"convey, the wise
it call"--from that of Mr. Pickering, while the Preface is content
with an acknowledgment, in very general terms, of obligation to the
work which is copied. This is bad enough. But the second edition,
published in 1844, omits acknowledgment altogether; and the Lexicon
is welcomed by an elaborate article in the Quarterly Review,[147] as
the triumphant labor of Dr. Dunbar, "well known among our Northern
classics as a clever man and an acute scholar. _In almost every page_,"
continues the reviewer, "_we meet with something which bespeaks the
pen of a scholar_; and we every now and then stumble on explanations
of words and passages, occasionally fanciful, but always sensible,
and sometimes ingenious, which amply repay us for the search.... _They
prove, moreover, that the Professor is possessed of one quality which
we could wish to see more general: he does not see with the eyes of
others_; he thinks for himself, and he seems well qualified to do so."
Did he not see with the eyes of others? The reviewer hardly supposed
that his commendation would reach the production of an American
lexicographer.
[147] Vol. LXXV. p. 299.
In the general department of Languages and Philology his labors were
various. Some of the publications already mentioned might be ranged
under this head. There are others which remain to be noticed. The
earliest is the work generally called _The Vocabulary of Americanisms_,
being a collection of words and phrases supposed to be peculiar to
the United States, with an Essay on the State of the English Language
in this country. This originally appeared in the Memoirs of the
American Academy, in 1815, and republished in a separate volume, with
corrections and additions, in 1816. It was the author's intention, had
his life been spared, to print another edition, with the important
gleanings of subsequent observation and study. Undoubtedly this work
has exerted a beneficial influence upon the purity of our language. It
has promoted careful habits of composition, and, in a certain degree,
helped to guard the "well of English undefiled." Some of the words
found in this Vocabulary may be traced to ancient sources of authority;
but there are many which are beyond question provincial and barbarous,
although much used in our common speech,--"_fæx quoque quotidiani
sermonis, foeda ac pudenda vitia_."[148]
[148] De Oratoribus Dialogus, c. 32,--sometimes attributed to Tacitus.
In the Memoirs of the American Academy for 1818 appeared his Essay on
a Uniform Orthography for the Indian Languages of North America. The
uncertainty of their orthography arose from the circumstance that the
words were collected and reduced to writing by scholars of different
nations, who often attached different values to the same letter,
and represented the same sound by different letters; so that it was
impossible to determine the sound of a written word, without first
knowing through what alembic of speech it had passed. Thus the words
of the same language or dialect, written by a German, a Frenchman, or
an Englishman, would seem to belong to languages as widely different
as those of these different people. With the hope of removing from
the path of others the perplexities that had beset his own, Mr.
Pickering recommended the adoption of a common orthography, which
would enable foreigners to use our books without difficulty, and, on
the other hand, make theirs easy for us. To this end, he devised an
alphabet for the Indian languages, which contained the common letters
of our alphabet, so far as practicable, a class of nasals, also of
diphthongs, and, lastly, a number of compound characters, which it
was supposed would be of more or less frequent use in different
dialects. With regard to this Essay, Mr. Du Ponceau said, at an
early day, "If, as there is great reason to expect, Mr. Pickering's
orthography gets into general use among us, America will have had
the honor of taking the lead in procuring an important auxiliary to
philological science."[149] Perhaps no single paper on language,
since the legendary labors of Cadmus, has exercised a more important
influence than this communication. Though originally composed with a
view to the Indian languages of North America, it has been successfully
followed by the missionaries in the Polynesian Islands. In harmony with
the principles of this Essay, the unwritten dialect of the Sandwich
Islands, possessing, it is said, a more than Italian softness, was
reduced to writing according to a systematic orthography prepared by
Mr. Pickering, and is now employed in two newspapers published by
natives. Thus he may be regarded as one of the contributors to that
civilization, under whose gentle influence those islands, set like
richest gems in the bosom of the sea, will yet glow with the effulgence
of Christian truth.
[149] Notes on Eliot's Indian Grammar, Mass. Hist. Coll., Second
Series, Vol. IX. p. xi. I cannot forbear adding, that in the
correspondence of Leibnitz there is a proposition for a new alphabet of
the Arabic, Æthiopic, Syriac, and similar languages, which may remind
the reader of that of Mr. Pickering. Leibnitz, Opera (ed. Dutens), Vol.
VI. p. 88.
His early studies in this branch are attested by an article in the
North American Review for June, 1819, on Du Ponceau's Report on the
Languages of the American Indians, and another article in the same
Review, for July, 1820, on Dr. Jarvis's Discourse on the Religion of
the Indian Tribes of North America. The latter attracted the particular
attention of William von Humboldt.
The Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society contain several
important communications from him on the Indian languages: in 1822
(Vol. IX. Second Series) an edition of the Indian Grammar of Eliot,
the St. Augustin of New England, with Introductory Observations on the
Massachusetts Language by the editor, and Notes by Mr. Du Ponceau,
inscribed to his "learned friend, Mr. Pickering, as a just tribute of
friendship and respect";--in 1823 (Vol. X. Second Series) an edition
of Jonathan Edwards's Observations on the Mohegan Language, with an
Advertisement and Copious Notes on the Indian Languages by the editor,
and a Comparative Vocabulary of Various Dialects of the Lenape or
Delaware Stock of North American Languages, together with a Specimen
of the Winnebago Language;--in 1830 (Vol. II. Third Series) an edition
of Cotton's Vocabulary of the Massachusetts Language. He also prepared
Roger Williams's Vocabulary of the Narragansett Indians for the Rhode
Island Historical Society. These labors were calculated, in no ordinary
degree, to promote a knowledge of our aboriginal idioms, and to shed
light on that important and newly attempted branch of knowledge, the
science of Comparative Language.
Among the Memoirs of the American Academy, published in 1833, (Vol. I.
New Series) is the Dictionary of the Abnaki Language, in North America,
by Father Sebastian Rasles, with an Introductory Memoir and Notes by
Mr. Pickering. The original manuscript of this copious Dictionary,
commenced by the good and indefatigable Jesuit in 1691, during his
solitary residence with the Indians, was found among his papers after
the massacre at Norridgewock, in which he was killed, and, passing
through several hands, at last came into the possession of Harvard
University. It is considered one of the most interesting and authentic
documents in the history of the North American languages. In the Memoir
accompanying the Dictionary, Mr. Pickering, with the modesty which
marked all his labors, says that he made inquiries for memorials of
these languages, "hoping that he might render some small service by
collecting and preserving these valuable materials for the use of those
persons whose leisure and ability would enable them to employ them
more advantageously than it was in his power to do, for the benefit of
philological science."
The elaborate article on the Indian Languages of America in the
Encyclopædia Americana is from his pen. The subject was considered so
interesting, in regard to general and comparative philology, while
so little was known respecting it, that a space was allowed to this
article beyond that of other philological articles in the Encyclopædia.
The forthcoming volume of Memoirs of the American Academy contains
an interesting paper of a kindred character, one of his latest
productions, on the Language and Inhabitants of Lord North's Island, in
the Indian Archipelago, with a Vocabulary.
The Address before the American Oriental Society, delivered and
published in 1843, as the first number of the Journal of that body, is
an admirable contribution to the history of languages, presenting a
survey of the peculiar field of labor to which the Society is devoted,
in a style which attracts alike the scholar and the less critical
reader.
Among his other productions in philology may be mentioned an
interesting article on the Chinese Language, which first appeared
in the North American Review for January, 1839, and was afterwards
_dishonestly reprinted, as an original article_, in the London Monthly
Review for December, 1840; also an article on the Cochin-Chinese
Language, published in the North American Review for April, 1841;
another on Adelung's "Survey of Languages," in the same journal, in
1822; a review of Johnson's Dictionary, in the American Quarterly
Review for September, 1828; and two articles in the New York Review
for 1826, being a caustic examination of General Cass's article in the
North American Review respecting the Indians of North America. These
two papers were not acknowledged by their author at the time they were
written. They purport to be by KASS-_ti-ga-tor-skee_, or _The Feathered
Arrow_, a fictitious name from the Latin CAS-_tigator_ and an Indian
termination _skee_ or _ski_.
Even this enumeration does not close the catalogue of Mr. Pickering's
productions. There are others--to which, however, we refer by their
titles only--that may be classed with contributions to _general
literature_. Among these is an Oration delivered at Salem on the Fourth
of July, 1804; an article in the Encyclopædia Americana, in 1829, on
the Agrarian Laws of Rome; an article in the North American Review
for April, 1829, on Elementary Instruction; an Introductory Essay
to Newhall's Letters on Junius, in 1831; a Lecture on Telegraphic
Language, before the Boston Marine Society, in 1833; an article on
Peirce's History of Harvard University, in the North American Review
for April, 1834; an article on the South Sea Islands, in the American
Quarterly Review for September, 1836; an article on Prescott's History
of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the New York Review for
April, 1838; the noble Eulogy on Dr. Bowditch, delivered before the
American Academy, May 29, 1838; and Obituary Notices of Mr. Peirce, the
Librarian of Harvard College, of Dr. Spurzheim, of Dr. Bowditch, and of
his valued friend and correspondent, the partner of his philological
labors, Mr. Du Ponceau; also an interesting Lecture, still unpublished,
on the Origin of the Population of America, and two others on Languages.
* * * * *
The reader will be astonished at these various contributions to
learning and literature, thus hastily reviewed, particularly when he
regards them as the diversions of a life filled in amplest measure by
other pursuits. Charles Lamb said that his _real works_ were not his
published writings, but the ponderous folios copied by his hand in
the India House. In the same spirit, Mr. Pickering might point to the
multitudinous transactions of his long professional life, cases argued
in court, conferences with clients, and deeds, contracts, and other
papers, in that clear, legible autograph which is a fit emblem of his
transparent character.
His professional life first invites attention. Here it should be
observed that he was a thorough, hard-working lawyer, for the greater
part of his days in _full practice_, constant at his office, attentive
to all the concerns of business, and to what may be called the
humilities of the profession. He was faithful, conscientious, and
careful; nor did his zeal for the interests committed to his care ever
betray him beyond the golden mean of duty. The law, in his hands, was a
shield for defence, and never a sword to thrust at his adversary. His
preparations for arguments in court were marked by peculiar care; his
brief was elaborate. On questions of law he was learned and profound;
but his manner in court was excelled by his matter. The experience of a
long life never enabled him to overcome the native childlike diffidence
which made him shrink from public display. He developed his views with
clearness and an invariable regard to their logical sequence,--but he
did not press them home by energy of manner, or any of the arts of
eloquence.
His mind was rather judicial than forensic in cast. He was better able
to discern the right than to make the wrong appear the better reason.
He was not a legal athlete, snuffing new vigor in the atmosphere of
the bar, and regarding success alone,--but a faithful counsellor,
solicitous for his client, and for justice too.
It was this character that led him to contemplate the law as a science,
and to study its improvement and elevation. He could not look upon it
merely as the means of earning money. He gave much of his time to its
generous culture. From the walks of practice he ascended to the heights
of jurisprudence, embracing within his observation the systems of other
countries. His contributions to this department illustrate the turn and
extent of his inquiries. It was his hope to accomplish some careful
work on the law, more elaborate than the memorials he has left. The
subject of the _Practice and Procedure of Courts_, or what is called
by the civilians _Stylus Curiæ_, occupied his mind, and he intended to
treat it in the light of foreign authorities, particularly German and
French, with the view of determining the general principles, or natural
law, common to all systems, by which it is governed. Such a work,
executed with the fine juridical spirit in which it was conceived,
would have been welcomed wherever the law is studied as a science.
It is, then, not only as lawyer, practising in courts, but as jurist,
to whom the light of jurisprudence shone gladsome, that we are to
esteem our departed friend. As such, his example will command attention
and exert an influence long after the paper dockets in blue covers,
chronicling the stages of litigation in his cases, are consigned to the
oblivion of dark closets and cobwebbed pigeon-holes.
But he has left a place vacant, not only in the halls of jurisprudence,
but also in the circle of scholars throughout the world, and, it may
be said, in the Pantheon of universal learning. Contemplating the
variety, the universality of his attainments, the mind, borrowing
an epithet once applied to another, involuntarily exclaims, "The
admirable Pickering!" He seems, indeed, to have run the whole round of
knowledge. His studies in ancient learning had been profound; nor can
we sufficiently admire the facility with which, amidst other cares, he
assumed the task of lexicographer. Unless some memorandum should be
found among his papers, as was the case with Sir William Jones,[150]
specifying the languages to which he had been devoted, it might be
difficult to frame a list with entire accuracy. It is certain that
he was familiar with at least _nine_,--English, French, Portuguese,
Italian, Spanish, German, Romaic, Greek, and Latin, of which he spoke
the first five. He was less familiar, though well acquainted, with
Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Hebrew,--and had explored, with various
degrees of care, the Arabic, Turkish, Syriac, Persian, Coptic,
Sanscrit, Chinese, Cochin-Chinese, Russian, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the
Malay in several dialects, and particularly the Indian languages of
America and the Polynesian Islands.
[150] Sir William Jones had studied eight languages
critically,--English, Latin, French, Italian, Greek, Arabic,
Persian, Sanscrit; eight less perfectly, but all intelligible with
a dictionary,--Spanish, Portuguese, German, Runic, Hebrew, Bengali,
Hindi, Turkish; twelve least perfectly, but all attainable,--Tibetian,
Pâli, Phalavi, Deri, Russian, Syriac, Æthiopic, Coptic, Welsh, Swedish,
Dutch, Chinese: in all twenty-eight languages.--TEIGNMOUTH, _Life of
Jones_, p. 376, note.
The sarcasm of Hudibras on the "barren ground" supposed congenial to
"Hebrew roots" is refuted by the richness of his accomplishments.
His style is that of a scholar and man of taste. It is simple,
unpretending like its author, clear, accurate, and flows in an
even tenor of elegance, which rises at times to a suavity almost
Xenophontian. Though little adorned by flowers of rhetoric, it shows
the sensibility and refinement of an ear attuned to the harmonies of
language. He had cultivated music as a science, and in his younger
days performed on the flute with Grecian fondness. Some of the airs
he had learned in Portugal were sung to him by his daughter shortly
before his death, bringing with them, doubtless, the pleasant memories
of early travel and the "incense-breathing morn" of life. A lover of
music, he was naturally inclined to the other fine arts, but always had
particular pleasure in works of sculpture.
Nor were those other studies which are sometimes regarded as of a more
practical character foreign to his mind. In college days he was noticed
for his attainments in mathematics; and later in life he perused
with intelligent care the great work of his friend, Dr. Bowditch,
the translation of the _Mécanique Celeste_. He was chairman of the
committee which recommended the purchase of a first-class telescope for
the neighborhood of Boston, and was the author of their interesting
report on the use and importance of such an instrument. He was partial
to natural history, particularly botany, which he taught to some of his
family. In addition to all this, he possessed a natural aptitude for
the mechanic arts, which was improved by observation and care. Early
in life he learned to use the turning-lathe, and, as he declared in an
unpublished lecture before the Mechanics' Institute of Boston, _made
toys which he bartered among his school-mates_.
This last circumstance gives singular point to the parallel, already
striking in other respects, between him and the Greek orator, the
boast of whose various knowledge is preserved by Cicero: "Nihil esse
ulla in arte rerum omnium, quod ipse nesciret: nec solum has artes,
quibus liberales doctrinæ atque ingenuæ continerentur, geometriam,
musicam, literarum cognitionem et poetarum, atque illa, quæ de naturis
rerum, quæ de hominum moribus, quæ de rebuspublicis dicerentur; _sed
annulum, quem haberet, se sua manu confecisse_."[151] The Greek,
besides knowing everything, made the ring which he wore, as our friend
made toys.
[151] De Oratore, Lib. III. cap. 32.
As the champion of classical studies, and a student of language,
or philologist, he is entitled to be specially remembered. It is
impossible to measure the influence he has exerted upon the scholarship
of the country. His writings and his example, from early youth, pleaded
its cause, and will plead it ever, although his living voice is hushed
in the grave. His genius for languages was profound. He saw, with
intuitive perception, their structure and affinities, and delighted
in the detection of their hidden resemblances and relations. To their
history and character he devoted his attention, more than to their
literature. It is not possible for this humble pen to determine the
place which will be allotted to him in the science of philology; but
the writer cannot forbear recording the authoritative testimony to
the rare merits of Mr. Pickering in this department, which it was his
fortune to hear from the lips of Alexander von Humboldt. With the
brother, William von Humboldt, that great light of modern philology, he
maintained a long correspondence, particularly on the Indian languages;
and his letters will be found preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin.
Without rashly undertaking to indicate any scale of pre-eminence or
precedence among the cultivators of this department, at home or abroad,
it may not be improper to refer to his labors in those words of Dr.
Johnson with regard to his own, as evidence "that we may no longer
yield the palm of philology, without a contest, to the nations of the
Continent."[152]
[152] Preface to Dictionary.
If it should be asked by what magic Mr. Pickering was able to
accomplish these remarkable results, it must be answered, By the
careful husbandry of time. His talisman was industry. He delighted in
referring to those rude inhabitants of Tartary who placed idleness
among the torments of the world to come, and often remembered the
beautiful proverb in his Oriental studies, that by labor the leaf of
the mulberry is turned into silk. His life is a perpetual commentary on
those words of untranslatable beauty in the great Italian poet:--
"Seggendo in piuma,
In fama non si vien, nè sotto coltre:
Sanza la qual, chi sua vita consuma,
Cotal vestigio in terra di se lascia,
Qual fumo in aere od in acqua la schiuma."[153]
[153] Divina Commedia, _Inferno_, Canto XXIV. vv. 47-51.