Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-07-24
THE MODERN CREIGHTON.

About three centuries ago there was born in
Scotland a certain James Crichton, who died at
the early aye of twenty-three, with the reputation
of being the most accomplished gentleman and
most erudite scholar Of his time--the Elizabethan
era, be it remembered, when Joseph Scaliger
was fourishiug; vixen the observances of chivalry,
though in decadence, we're not destroyed when
wit, learning and valor was highly appreciated,
Old George Bnchanan--the same whose head
figures on the cover OF BlackwoOd's Magazine
taught him the languages, truly making him a
''sch0lar and a ripe one" Eminent for his abili'
ties as well as fer his a~tiainments, Crichton pass
ed from his native Scotland into Paris, at the age
of sixteen, where he publicly challenged oil
scholars and philosophers to disputatiOu at the
College of Navarro, to be carried on in any one
of ttoelce specified languages. ION any science, lib
eral art, discipline, or faculty, whether practical
or theoretical, )" and, carrying out his desire for
display, encountered all the greatest philosophers
and divines, and is recorded to have beaten them
oil in the contest, and to have obtained the praise
Of all who heard h~im-windIng up on the follow
ing day, by carrying off the ring land the price
from all competitors, at a fitting match in the Lou
vre. For all these %triumphs, as we'll as from the
grace Of his manners and his great personal at
fractions, the Partisan court of Henry III. named
him Crichton, the Admirable.
Wherever be went, he brilliantly distin guished
himself-chiety by his scholarship, but more es
pecially by his wonderful knowledge of languages
AT Rome, before the pope and cardinals at Ven
ice, where he was the friend of Manutius, thu
great scholar printer, at Padua, where he tri
umphantly disputed for three days with the mos
learned of that renowned University, discussin,
the mathematics of the time, and the Aristotleai
and Platonic PHILOSOPHERS, coming of victor in tn
contest; at Mantua, where in a public encounter
he defeated an Italian master of arms, reputed tn
best swordsman of the age, and left dead upon tn
field an opponent whose own course had bee
marked with blood; at that Mantua, where h
wrote Italian comedies, playing in them himsel
aud finally fell at the age of twenty three, by tn
sword of his pupil, Vincesno Gorzaga, Prince {
Mantua-some say by accident. some by premed
tation. Public opinion believed that Crichton wa
assassinated, and the calamities which befel til
house OF Oonzaga, soon after, were looked upon @
Gods judgment for a deed SO foul.
Wonderful as the attainments and abilities {
the admirable Crichton maysappear. they are ad
miringly vouched for by his foreign Contemporaries
IN such q manner as to leave no doubt upon th
subject. Yet, in our own time, there has been
far greater scholar, in the late Cardinal Mezzc
tanti, the best linguist, perhaps, of any age. Thi
learned man died at Rome, in 1858; and was a
much superior to CrichtOn, in lingual attainments
as Crichton would be held superior to the maste
OF an ordinary grammar school.
DR.. Russell, the learned principal of Maynootl
College, in Ireland, has lately published the Lif
of Cardinal Mezzofanti, In which he shows how
surprisingly that great scholar had gradually be
como the best linguist Of his time. Criohtor
knew a score Of languages thoroughly; Fernand,
de Cordova was yet more learned; Muller, tn,
German, was entitled to rank with Critchton, an,
mastered the Chinese in six months DR.. Thorn
as Young. who showed the world how to read tn
Egyptian hieroglyphics. was a twenty-tongue mas
ter; DR.. Adam Clark, Sir William Jones. Professo
Samuel Lee, and DR.. VIM. Maginn, take high plac
es among the great linguists.
Elihu Barritt, commonly known as our owl
Learned Blacksmith" also has eminent claim
toabe placed in the foremost rank of great scholars
Sir John Bowring. now Governor of Hong.Kong
has sufficient acquaintance with twenty five Ian
guages to translate them in English But it il
believed that Cardinal Mezzofanti, Tin ~knowIedg,
ct languages, dialects, patOis, and slang of al
nations, surpassed, probably, all the ~linguist,
ever born" lie was master of over one hundyeo
languages.
Born at Bologna. in IVA. the son Of a carpenter
he was educated for the Church, AID became an
ecclesiastic as early as the restriction as to age
was over. From childhood, his mind was deyot.
ed to the acquisition Of languages, and his whole
life was dedicaeed to this pursuit Constantly in,
ereasing his stock of languages, he went on to
lie mature age of seyenty-fQur, and was a Cardi.