The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1886-07-30

Iron beginning % end. In their day.
Person. Elmslcy, ParF and Wakefield. |
held the foreuDsl place - schoIngs. and /
III. a conrse. had rafe mem0ries. but |
he palm must Be given 70 Fors0n.
Of whom endless stories are told. Be-
fore he went 20 Eton. he was able 10 |
repeat almost the whole Of Horace.
Virgil. Homer. Cicero and Livy. When,
e = practical joke. . sch0oI-fclIow |
slipped the wrong book into Porson's
hand. just as be was about 70 read and |
translate. the boy vas not discon- |
certed. but went on TO read from his
memory, . Il nothing had occurred.
In later life. his performances ap-
preached the miraculous Il would re-
quire all our space 70 give any fair idea
Of them; for he not only knew All the
great Greek poets and prose writer's
pretty well By heart. but could recite
whole plays Of Shakespeare. or COM
p;etc books from Paradise Lost. Pope's
Rape Of the Lock. Barrow's sermons,
scenes from Foote. Edgeworth's Essay
on Irish Bulls. scores Of pages from
Gibbon or Rapin. He Is also said 70
have been able 70 repeat the whole Of
the Moral Tale Of the Dean Of Badajoz.
and Smollett's Rodcrick Random from
the first page to the last
Gilbert Wakefield's memory was
also Of the gigantic order. but il viii
not bear comparison with Persons.
There were few passages in Homer. or
Pindar which he could not feeits AZ
moments notice; Virgil and Horace be
knew perfectly: and he could recite en-
tire books from the Old and New
Testaments without halting or failing
in q single verse. There was also
John Wyadham Bruce. whose leisure
time was devoted to classical studies.
His chief favorite was 4Eschylus. the
whole Of whose plays he had learnt by
heart incluiing the twelve hundred
lines Of the Agomensnon coIlated by
Robertellus. He knew his Horace in
the same way. and was quite content.
until one day he met with an old fell
| low student At Bonn. who. when he
made q quotation. would mention
book. ode and verse. remarking that
he did not regard any one As knowing
Horace properly unless he could do
| that Mr.. Bruce accordingly set TO
work IT Horace again. and il was not
/ long before he could name the exact
| place occupied BY q line In any Of the
! famous odes. Itwould be hard to be-
/ lieve that Athenian lads could beat the
English lads Of fourteen years and un-
| der, Of whom Archde2con Fearon tell:
rs in the pamphlet referred TO above.
| It was the custom in the school q
which he went for the boys 70 repeat a
/ the end Of one Of the terms All the
Latin and Greek poetry they had Learnt
during the year. The usual quantity
for boy to 60 in with was from eight
to ten thousand lines. and IL took about
q week 70 hear them. Zone boy in M,
year." he says, repeated the enormous
quantity of fourteen thousand lines o
Homer. Horace and Virgil hcart
him say IT,"
Ease in learning foreign language
rs sometimes regarded as . mere mat
ter Of memory: while. however, this i
not exactly true. II must be allowed. o
course. that skilled linguists are en-
dowcd with powers Of memory beyon'
the average. Here also we lind tina
there are no examples in ancient time
that will stand comparison wit
our great modern linguists. Ou
modern facilities for travel and stud
place ms at an immense advantage
Crassus. when prrtor in Asia. was >
familiar with the dialects Of Greek
that he was able 20 try cases and Pre-
nounce Judgment in any dialect ths
might chance 20 be spoken in his pres
cnce. "Mithridates. king Of twenty
two nations, administered their law
in as many languages" and conl
harangrc each division Of his motle
array u soldiers in its own languag
or dialect.
Blu, what are such linguists As thes
BY the side Of the best examples q n
cent times? Keeping within the limit
Of the last hundred years, we have e.
amples that have never been surpasse
or even approached in former times
Sir William Jones knew thirteen lar
guages well. and could read with con
parative ease in thirty others job
Leyden. ! very inferior man to b
great contemporary. had ; good q
quaintance with fifteen Of the leadin
European and Asiatic languages
Within the Last few years We have 10
two men who could have travelled frol
the hills % CoDncmarA o. tie noun
aims az Wales 70 the Ufal mountain
: or from Lisbon or Algicn % Ispahan {
Delhi. and hardly INST With = languaG
? in which they could mot conveFDo I
write with ease. The reader will mo
: likely have anticipated The names I
two Of the NOS remarkable lingu;s
this country has produced Geor(
Borrow and Edward Henry Paine
When Borrow was at St. Petrrsbur,
. he published little book called IA
: gum. in which he gave Transitions
prose and poetry from thirty didereI
2 languages. Resides speaking a
! native tongue ofsvery European natioI
2 Palmer was 50 perfect master Of Ar
4 bic, Persian. Hindustani, Turkish q
: the language Of the gypsies. that eve
: natives were sometimes deceived asH
\ his nationality. Mr.. Leland ssYs TIL
: one day In Paris Palmer s.entcrcd inl
conversation with Zonave or Turc
/ : native Arab. After while the ms
: said: why do youwear these clothes
4 Why. how should drcssr exclaims
= Palmer. Dress like what you arr
J. vas the indignant rcply-'iike . MI
4 limt "