: a mere wandering savage, without purpose or motive, beyond the
gratification of the temporary want, whim, or passion, and void of
_everything_ deserving the name of sentiment.

An extravagant, and, I am sorry to say, groundless, notion has obtained
currency, among almost all writers upon the Indian character, that he is
distinguished for his _eloquence_. But the same authors tell us, that
his language, the vehicle of the supposed eloquence, can express only
material ideas.[14] Now, if we knew no more of his character than this,
we should be authorized to infer (what is, indeed, true), that he
possesses no standard for the distinction of good and evil, and that his
imagination is bounded by the lines of his sensible experience. How any
degree of eloquence can be compatible with this state of things, passes
comprehension. And what reflection would conclude, a little examination
will confirm. The mistake has, doubtless, grown out of a misconception
of the nature of eloquence itself.[15] If eloquence were all
_figure_--even if it were, in any considerable degree, _mere_
figure--then the tawdriest rhetorician would be the greatest orator. But
it is not so. On the contrary, the use of many words (or figures) to
express an idea, denotes not command of language, but the absence of
that power--just as the employment of numerous tools, to effect a
physical object, indicates, not skill in the branch of physics, to which
the object belongs, but rather awkwardness. Of course, much must be
placed, in both cases, to the account of clumsy instruments; but the
instrument of speech differs from others in this: it is fashioned _by_,
as well as _for_, its use; and a rude, unpolished language is,
therefore, an index, in two ways, of the want of eloquence among the
people who employ it.

In this view, the figurative elocution of the Indian, so far from
affording evidence of oratorical power, if it proves anything, proves
the opposite. It is the barrenness of his language, and not the
luxuriance of his imagination, which enforces that mode of speech.[16]
Imagination is the first element of oratory, simplicity its first
condition. We have seen that the Indian is wholly destitute of the
former; and the stilted, meretricious, and ornate style, of even his
ordinary communications, entirely excludes the latter from our
conception of his character.[17]

For example: take the expressions "bury the hatchet," for "make peace,"
and "a cloudless