Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1886-07-29

Pindar Which he could not recite at
moments netire; Vigil and Horace h.
knew perfectly: and he could recite en-
tire books from the Old and New
Testaments without talt,ns or failin:
in . s!nsla verse. There was .alst
John Wyldham Bruce, whose leisure
time was devoted to classical studies.
His chief faVerite w6s Nseh.lts, Til
whole ef whose plays he had learnt by
heart, including the twelve hundred
lines of the Agamemnon collated BY
Robertellus. He knew his Horace ir
the same way, and was quite eontent
until one day be iiiet with ali cid fell
lew,studert at Bohn, who, when he
made a quotation; would mention
book, ode and verse, remarking that
he did not regard any ope IA knowing
Horace properly unless he could dc
that. Mr.. Bruce accordingly set te
work at Horace again. and it was moi
long before he could nante the exact
place occupied by line in any of the
famous odes. 1t would be hard to be.
lieve that Athenian lads could beat the
English lads of fourteen years and un:
der. Of whom Archdeacon Fearrn tells
US in the pamphlet referred to above.
1t was the custom in the school tc
which he went for the boys to repeat a!
the end of one of the terms all the
Latin and Greek poetry they had learnt
during the year. The usual quantity
Tor boy to go in with was from eight
to ten thousand lines, and it took abou,
a week to hear them. ''One boy in my
year. he says, repeated the enormous
quantity of fourteen thousand lines OF
Homer, Horace and Virgil. l heard
him say it.
Ease in learning forei On languages
is sometimes regarded rs a mere mat
ter of memory; while, however, this is
not exactly true, 1t must be allowed, OF
course, that skilled linguists are en-
lowed with powers of memory beyond
the average. Here also we find that
there are no examples In ancient times
that will stand comparison with
OUR great modern linguists. Our
modern facilities for travel and study
place us at an immense advantage
Cras>us, when prator in Asia, was so
n,
that he was able to try cases ard pro-
nottnce judgment in any dialect that
might chance to be spoken in his pres
ence. 'Mithridatcs. king of twenty
two nations, administered their laws
in as many languages" and could
harangue each division of his motley
array Of soldiers in its own language
or dialect.
Blu, what are such linguists as these
by the side 81 the best examples of re-
cent times? Keeping within the limits
of the last hundred years, we have eX-
amples that have never been surpassed
Or even approached in former times.
Sir William Jones knew thirteen lam
guages well, and could read with COM
parative ease in thirty others. John
Leyden, very inferior man to his
great contemporary, had a good ac-
quaintance with fifteen of the leading
European and Asiatic languages.
Within the last few years VIC have lost
two men who could have travelled from
the hills of Connemara or the mount
aims of Wales to the Ural mountains,
or from Lisbon or AlgierS to Ispahan or
Delhi, and hardly met with a language
in which they could not converse or
write with case. The reader will most
likely have anticipated the names of
two OF the most remarkable linguists
this country has produced George
Borrow and Edward Henry Palmer.
When Borrow was at St. Petersburg,
he published little book called Tar
gum, in which he gave TRANSACTIONS in
prose and poetry from thirty different
languages. Besides speaking the
native tongue of every European nation,
Palmer was SO perfect master of Ara
bic, Persian, Hindustani, Turkish and
the language of the gypsics, that even
natives were sometimes deceived as to
his nationality. Mr.. Leland says that
one day in Paris Palmer conferred into
with Zouave or Turco,
a native Arab. After a while the man
said: why do you wear these clothcs?'
Why, how should l dress?' exclaimed
Palmer. Dress like what you are!'
vas the indignant reply-'likc Mus
I'm! -
Viscount Strangford may be placed
n the same category with these; and
he learned blacksmith" Elihu Bur-
ritt, whose friends claim for him that
he knew all the languages of Europe
md most of those of Asia, must not be
eft out of sight. But even these do
lot touch the highest limit of linguistic
kill and power of memory. The most
scientific linguiSt we have to name,
md one of the most remarkable for the
xtent of his acquisition. is Won der
iabelentz, who seems to have been
qually at home with the Suahiis. the
the Hazards. the Aimaks.
he Dyaks, the Dakotas and the kiriris:
Who could translate from Chinese into
Ianchu, compile grammar or correct
he speech of the inhabitants of the Fiji
Stands, New Hebridcs. Loyalty Islands
II New Caledonia. When we come to
'ardinsl Mezzofanti and Sir John Bow
ing we find the ''highest record as
egards the mere number and variety of
ongues that men have been known to
cquire. No one can speak with alb
dilute certainty as to the number of
languages Mczzofanti could converse
4 with ease. Mrs. SOmerville says that
e professed only fifty-two.
This brief review of the subject nee
ssarily leaves out of account vast
lumber of the most extraordinary and
lteresting examples. Artists like
lorace Vernet; mathcmaticians and
alculators like Dr. Wallis and Leon
I'd Euler, or G. p. Bidder and young
o!burn; musicians like Mozart; news
aper reporters like the unequalled
Memory Woodfall;" literary men like
ord Macaulav and +. H. Buckle;
hess-players like Paul Morphy and J.
B!ackbourne, have accomplished |
Eats of memory as marvellous as any |
those which have been mentioned.
h0mbers' Journal.
GOING tn WILD linn