hical section of your institute, which, I see, are
agitated anew by the _savants_ of the old world, and which to the
resolution of certain problems, relating to the primitive history of
this continent, are equally important here, perhaps entitled to our
special consideration. Recent investigations would seem to show, for
example, that our genial and acute Du Ponceau had by no means said the
last word on the subject he has so learnedly reported. Several new works
on the origin and classification of languages, that have made their
appearance in Berlin, &c., since the day of Humboldt's attempt, would
seem to invite to similar efforts on our side, and with special
reference to the immensity of our cis-Atlantic field, which ought to be
[Greek: kat' exochen] adopted as our own. Having most of these materials
at hand, I have sometimes been tempted myself to try, whether by an
_exposition of the present state_ of that science, as cultivated by the
Germans particularly, a new impulsion might not be imparted to it among
ourselves. Some such purpose has been among the tasks, which I had
proposed to myself for the present winter. The sudden suspension of my
studies, and the consequent uncertainty of my affairs, however, have so
seriously deranged my plans, that now I almost despair of being able to
accomplish any of my more immediate and necessary purposes.--You will
undoubtedly be surprised to learn, that I have been an inmate of the
Lunatic Asylum, at Bloomingdale, for now nearly three months; your
surprise will be still greater, when you come to learn, by what sort of
machinations I have been brought here.

For several years past, I have been made the object of a systematic and
invidious persecution, in consequence of which I have been obliged to
shift my residence from one place to another, to spend my means in
involuntary exile and unnecessary travelling, and altogether to lead a
life of a discouraging uncertainty.

Shortly after my visit to Washington, (1848), where I saw you last, I
was driven away from New-York, while yet absorbed in the midst of an
arduous undertaking, (my large German and English Dictionary, which in
consequence of my forced removal from the place of printing, I had to
finish at an inconvenient distance), under circumstances of the most
aggravated insults and abuses, (such as I had never dreamt men capable
of,) and about six months after its completion the same miserable clique
had already "finished" me