New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-12-08
A WESTERN LINGUlST.

To Tie Editor Of The " y. Tribune
SIN: Who has not heard Of Castel of the "eptagot.
ion Of Dongeeu, of Aberg, the master Of seventeen
languages Of Burnt, the mater Of forty, and Of Al
Faabi the master Of seventy Far less renowned
than theee but not less aboroua Is young mao who
now lives at Mount Vernon in the State Of Illinois.
slis name is A. c. johnson. The history Of his abors
is as follows:
At the age Of ten he took fancy for the study Of
Latin. lie soon found, and was all he could find,
Andrews and Stoddards very small Grammar, which
he borrowed, and kept long enough to master most of
its brief lessons lie then had 90 rctlrn this and he
resolved to have one Of his own. lie had 80 cents.
ae had found in the road at different times dime aud
halfdime, aud relotiye had given him Mexican
bit; reghbor, knowing his ambition and his lack OF
mesrs, showed him side of old bacon, very rusty,
And wOrm-e sten on the edges, Of which he made him
u present A. &. took it, trimmed, secured and snuned
H. ard sold il for 62l cents. This Just enabled him to
buy Anthons Latin Lessons, and he was rich enough.
At every leisure moment, by day or night, lac was
pOIrg over his treasure, until he had almost con-
United tine whole to memory. freud then allowed
him The use of AudTews's Latin Reader and, after he
had finished this, elder brother presented him the
INT. Sac. Uis' aud Firi Roma. After this he had
little difficulty 10 procuring and reading Cssar, Ovid,
Cicero, sallGst, Horace, and "Qoidam Tractatus
sceica-LOndoD, 1859"
IN the mean time he had commenced the study Of
direcs Ills father owned Nesley's works, and among
them was a Greek Grammar This was A. { e st art
Bat better luck awaited him. He found and borrowed
n much larger work Icy j. Smith, 5 I, d., print. BoS,
fon 1859. Before h. had finished this he borrowed
Sslpcy ard there completed his kno Wedge of Greek
grammar After borrowing and reading AHthol's ia
sobs Rc06er he happened 70 meet an opportunity II
fuy for few ceutslearnod works do not sell well In
Abe West-a Greek Delectns Greek Exercises Grncl
Mincra Check Testament, Xerophon, Homer and
Lexicon.
Long before he had finished these, he had under
taken the Hebrew. His father owned Hebrew
Al, Io.4.p Pm isb IVA up
,fficui task 20 ca init To memory and larger work
entitled Uasol's Introduction. These employed HIN
ior nearly year, after which Inc bought Hebrew
bible ard was " in all biz glory.
Spanish came next lie found among his father
td papers a large bundle Of Congressional documents
containing the correspondence OF the Secretary OF
state with the Mexican and Spanish Ministers Inc
letters Of the Ministers were in the original Spanish
accompanied by literal translation. "A. C. studied
these until he could read the Spanish alone with ease,
or else had the whole by hcGrt-he scarcely knew
which. But he now had the good fortune to borroy
Spanish Grammar, and eagerly did he deyour II.
gle then got a Testament, which soldier had peck
,iei in Mexico; also a prayer'book and Ortegas
Poems all of which lie read but as he had no deton-
nry he had 10 note down the words whose auing he
c,nld not dcciphc until he should find them Ia con-
,truciion that vould throw light upon them.
Then CAME the French. For this a {. had pretty
,ood beginning in WanostrOcht, which he stabbed and
te.studiCd carefully Then, without a dictionary he
began to read Telemaque, book he had borrowed as
usual lie noted the difficult words as IN the SPANISH,
A!l be could render NltIdllH every
Volu,rc lie then bought for fifty five cents French
Teetament French Arithmetic, "kgcnch Guide AMI
perrin's Tables which he read N.h inioite gnsto
also Racine and the Juif Errant.
lie had already turned his attention to the German
Ills ouv accessible textbooks were Jayncs Ned an
,scIcr KaleHdqr for reader, and Jaynos Medical Al
marac for dictionary, They contain nearly 60pages
f matter not the mos interesting, but \. e. pondered
over them day after day, week after week TIL he could
translate literally every sentence in the Calendar. He
then happened 10 find copy Of Olendori, which he
Immediately borrowed. At last he succeeded in pur-
chasing German Bible, Dutch Reformed Hymn
Hook, Sc which lac read with the utmost saiisiac.
fcn.
But grow tedious. have said enough TO convey
an idea 81 his zeal industry, patience and persever-
ance Is means like those have noticed, he has be-
come acouaintcd with dozen lsnguages-Latin,
Greek Hebrew Spanish, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Dutch Danish Swedish, Russian, beside
storing in splendid memory the choice gems from
900 volumes If miscellaneous ling He is quiet,
retriug tacuru solemn; bu: writes great deal, aud
many q! his writings humorous. Ii Ehhu Burritt
deserves praise for acquiring languages in Mlssa-
thusetts surrounded with books, aud having access
g. town library, ougb, not young farmers boy IN
the hall subdued wilderness OF the far West to ENJOY
. like reward Tor similar, If not equal ls5ors
BARTON SMITH.