Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-12-04
Mezzofantl

otn0' Sood afuclts, sketch OF til
Ute IL, OF that wonderful Iiuypist, Ga!
olnal Mczzotauti, who died abo,
ten years ago. Ills bi"grapher. d
Russell, has collected and preserve.
IN MS work just published, nnI
"tuce Of instances proving the yer
extensive, indeed almost lnirac,,lnu
knowledge Of languages posses "a
by this II OF a carpeutrr vt' I}uI
ogna. Won ZacI, who made An o,.
cas1onal visit to Bologna, IN 1920
was acc"5tcd 'y the learned priest
as be then was, in Hungarian, tI,pt
III good Saxon, and afterwards jr
| The Austrian and Swabian dialects
with other members Of the scicn
ti1lc corps, the priest converscd II
Eng'ish, Russian, Polish, Frenc1
and hungarian. Won Zach men
tons that his German was 50 natr.
raj that cultivated uanoyeri4u
lady in the company expressed hel
surprise that a German sIlunId he :,
professor and librarian IN an Italian
University.
Professor Jacobs, Of Gotha, was
struck not o,'l " with the number 1t
languages acquired by the - inter
prefer Of Babel" but at the facility
with which he passed from one to
the other, h'vcTcr opposite or cog
nate their structure.
DR.. Tholuch heard him converse
in German, Arabic, Spanish, Eng
lish, t enAis1 and Swe ISL, recciv-
ed from him AL originaI uistich in
Persian. and found him studvi.,y
Cornish. lie heard him say that
lie had studied to some extent the
Qujchus, or old Peruvian, and he
was employed upon the bimbarra.
Dr. " lseInan met him on his way
10 give a lesson in California India
t" some natives in that country.-
lie heard - Niger Dutch " from
Curacao 'nulatto, and il less than
two weeks wrote a short piece of
poetry for the mulatto to recite in
his rude tongue. lie knew some
hing OF Chippewa aud De)ewarc,
and learned the language Of 4 Lyon
}lin Indians. 4 Ceylon strdent
'eanenlhers OF the strangers with
Silp'n Mezzofanti was in the habit
II conversjng in the Propaganda, |
hose whose vcrnaculars were I'y~
,uan, A basvnian, An1a'ina. SYriac, |
Arabico, Maltese, ramuIic, Bulga>
ian, Albanian, besides others al
cady named. Ills facility in ac |
oInlnodating himself to each NV
o'IoqnjSt juStities the expression
pp1Ied to him as the e: arneleon
+ languaGes.' -
But we have no space for ennne-
atin2 the names OF the languages
e has mastered, and must wind up
;lth DR.. hussel]:s summary, and
aretu] estimate ii the Cardinals
He adopts as lis def
1it]on Of a IT, rough knowledge Of
an ability t. read it flu
ntly and with ease, to write it cor
rectly, and to speak 1tidiomatical-
:. Judging >jezzotanti by this
iyh standard, his biogr4pl,er comes /.
} the f flowing result ii brief, his
ork giving the detaji~ at lc,Iyth
/. Languages frequently, tested
I'd spoken by the Cardinal with
tre excellence--thirty.
g.: Stated to have been spoken
uent]y but hardly sufticientlytest- (
l-nlne.
3. Spoken rarely and less per
ctly-eleven. u
4. Spoken impertcetIy; a few
ntences and conversational form
eight. Is
5. Studied from books, bat not {
1own to have been spokcn-fou:- t
Ell.
6 Dialects s., oxen, or their pc {
understood--thirty nine /
alects OF, ten languages, many ot S
hich might justly be described as /
tferent languages. i
This list adds up one hundred u 5
ID eleven, exceeding by all conl- /
;riison everything related il: his /
l'v. Jonadah AIm"nor and Sir T
m. Jones are not claimed to have $
ne beyond twenty eight while !.
and Pico Of MIrandoIa, /
ro haon ,nada lannon's by twenty =