West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1886-07-30

AAhutI Hul1n ne could NOS rccite at "A
! moments notice; Virgil aud Horace he
/ knew perfectly: and he could recite en-
tire books from the Old and New
/ Iestaments without hating or failing
/ in a single verse. There was also
, John Wyadham Bruce. whose leisure
time was devoted 30 classical studies.
His chief favorte was Kschvlus. tho
whole Of whose plays he had learnt by
heart. including the twelve hundred
lines of the AgdsiemfOn coll lated by
Robertellus. lie knew his Horace i'm
the same way, and was quite content
until one day he met with an old fell
low-student At Bonn, who when ha
made quotation, would mention
book, ode and verse. romarking that
be did not regard any one as knowing
Horace properly unless he could do
that. Mr.. Bruce accordingly set 70
work at Horace again, and il was not
long before he could name the exact
place occupied by a line in any of the
famous odeS- IL would be hard to be.
lieyc that Athsnian lads could beat the
EhSllSh lads OF fourteen years and un.
der,-ei whom Archdeacop Fearon tells
us IN the pamphlet referred TO above
1t was the custom ~ the school to
which he went for the Toys to repeat at
the end OF one of this terms all the
Latin and Greek poetry they had learnt
during the year. Tho usual quantity
for boy to go in with was from eight
10 ten thousand lines, and it took about
week TO hear them. cone boy in my
year, he says, repeated the enormous
quantity OF fourteen thousand lines OF
Homer, Horace and Virgil. heard
him say it.
Ease in learning foreign languages
Is sometimes regarded as "A mere mat
ter of memory; while, however. this is
not exactly true, it must Ee 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 i'm ancient times
mat Will stand comparison with
our great modern linguists. Our
modern facilities for travel and study
/ place us at an immense advantage.
IraSSuS, when pr9tor in Asia, was so
familiar with the dialects of Greek.
mat he was able to try eases aud pro
nounce Judgment i'm any dialect that
might chance To be spoken in his pres
ehce. "Mithridates, king of twenty.
two nations, administered their laws
m a. many languages, and could
array OF soldiers in its own language
OF dialect.
But what are such linguists az these
by the side Of the best examples of re-
cent times? Keeping within the limits
OF the last hundred wears. 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 i'm thirty others. John
! Leyden, very inferior man to his
great contemporary, had a good ac-
quaintancc with fifteen of the LEADING
European and Asiatic lanoua0es
! Within the last few years we have lost
two men who could have Travelled from
the hills OF Conncmara or the mount
aims of Wales to the Ural mountains.
or from Lisbon or Algiers to Ispahan or
DEM, and hardly met with IA language
in which they could not converse or
write with ease. The reader will most
likely have anticipated the names of
TWO oil the most remarkable linguists
tins 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 translations in
prose and poetry frem 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 gypsiea- that even
natives were sometimes deceived as TO
his nationality. Mr. Leland SAYS that
one day in Paris Palmer entered into
conversation with /OuaVe or Turco.
a native Arab. After while the man
said: Why do you wear these clotheso'
Why, how should | drcss?' exclaimed
Palmer. Dress like what YOU arer
was the indignant reply like Mus
linn!
Nscount Strangford may he placed
IN the same category with these: and
the learned blacksmith, Elihu Bur
rift, whose friends claim for him that
he knew all the languages of Europe
ana most of those of Asia. must not be
lett ont OF sight. But even these do
not touch the highest limit of linguistic
SKIN and power OF memory. The most
scientific linguist we have to- name
and one of the most remarkable for the
extent Of his acquisition. is Won der
Gabelentl. who seems to have been
equally at home with the Suabilis. the
Samoyed~, the Hazaras. the Aimaks
the Dyak,. the Dakotas and The Kiriris.
who could translate from Chinese into
Manchu, compile grammar or correct
the speech OF the inhabitants of the Fiji
Islands. New Hebrides. loyalty Islands
or New Caledonia. When We come to
Cardinal Mezzofant and Sir John Bow
ring we find the highest record" "a
regards the mere number and varicfvot
tongue, chat men have been known TO
acquire. No one can speak with ab
-oluie certainty as 10 the number of
languages MezzofanG could converse
id with ease. Mrs. Somerville saws that
he professed only ffty-two.
This brief review OF the subject nee
e-sarilv leaves out OF account a vast
number of the most extraordinary and
interesting examples. Artists like
Horace Nernet; mathcmaticians and
calru'ators like Dr. Wallis and Leon
ard Euler, or g.. p. Bidder and vouno
CoIburn musicians like Mozart: news
paper reporters like the uneaualIed
Memory Woodfall|' literary men like
Lord Nacaulay and r n. Buckle.
cle,,-pIayers like Paul MOrphv and +
II arkbOurne, have accomplished
fnai- OF memory a. marvellous as any
oi those which have been mentioned
Ch0mbers' JournOL
GOING TO WHIP HIM