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Excerpt from Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex
The following paper was written for separate publication, with the view of summarizing some of the data afforded by the problems connected with the Maya glyphs, and also bearing upon the evolution of language-forms in their relation to human history; it has however, upon the suggestion of Professor F. W. Putnam, been issued as one of the Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.
The data themselves are the accumulation of the past twelve years, since the writer's interest was, after various other fields of linguistic study, finally drawn to and fixed upon the languages of the great pre-Columbian American civilizations. Subsequent researches, begun a few years ago, have led to the belief that almost equal, parallel results will in the future be found to lie within the great Central Asian district, behind what we know as Chinese; but to the writer the greatest door to the past is still that of the Maya glyphs.
The trend of Science for the past thirty years, after taking its rise then at the very climax (so thought) of materialism, has now in these last two or three years, especially, become more manifest. A parallel movement is now apparent in nearly every field, each body of scientists working in their own lines, yet all seeming as if led towards recognition of a greater past, and of worthier views. One need only mention the work of Professor Soddy, Professor See, Professor Munsterberg - among many others.
In this progress of Science the writer believes Linguistics, in the wider sense, to be of paramount importance, and that the philosophy of language is inseparable from Archaeology.
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