The Portland daily press., 1899-04-14
THE GREATEST LINGUIST.
MISTER of Some Eighty Language, and
Able 10 Acquire New One in Three
Weeks.
(From the Manchester GUARDIAN

From the Manchester Guardian.)
1t would be highly unjust that the
world should forget man so remarkable
for the accuracy and extent of bis memo
ry ms the famous Cardinal Mezzofan ii i.
Perhaps. however, 1t is as well to remind
peop pie in general that IL will be just fifty
years next Wednesday since tbs death OF
that extraordinary man, who passed
away at the age of rs, on March Is, ls49
Mezzofanti's name has become rather
dim of the present generation, in deed, as
must always be the case with o reputa-
ton made by qualities that leave no last
ing result to the world. He was nothing
of writer and only phiiologist in the
strict etymologicsl sense of the world-
not as q critical or exact schola +, but a
man who knew an amazing number OF
languages and dialects. Perhaps he Is
best known to the modern English reader
from the sul ogy to be found in one of
Byron's memoranda, published by Moore
Your literary everyday man and, 1"
says Byron, ''nevsr went we'll in com.
pany, especially your foreigner. whom l
never could abide. don't re-
member man among them whom aver
wished to see twice except, perhaps,
Mezzofanti, who Ia monster Of learn
ing, the Briareus of parts of speech, q
walking polyglot, and more. who ought
to have existed at the time OF the Tower
of Babel as universal interpreter. He Is
indeed mountaineering also. i
tried him in all the tongues of which l
knew a single oath Cor adjuration to the
gods aIainst postboys, savages, Tartars,
boatmen, sailors, pilots. gondoli ers.
muleteers, camel drivers, vetturini, post.
masters, posthorses. posthouses. post eve.
rything). and. egad he astoundsd me-
even to my English. "
Mezzofanti's linguistic powers were in
deed so remarkable that 10 Is q thousand
pities that the phonograph was not invent
ed In time to record some OF his achieve
ments We think, and rightly, that we
pay "a man a singularly high compliment
when We say that he speaks language
other than his own so accurately Is TO de-
oeivs eSen those who are born to 10. In
the last generation a great authority de-
cided that suoh . knowledge OF French.
for instance, could only be assigned to
IN TO Englishmen; one of them was the
late Mr. Henry Reeve. whose version Of
1ncqueville's Democracy in America"
was said to prove that o man may know
"A language very well and translate 1t very
badly. But Mezzofanti counted the Lam
guages that he spoke like a native lit
orally in dozens. Cardinal WisemAn,
who knew and loved him. has left u
striking testimony to this almost prefer.
natural power. In the seventy or eighty
languages OF which he was master before
his death, Mezzofanti was familiar with
Gil the varieties Of dialect, provinoialisms
and1 patois. ale would detect the
particular county In England from which
person came, or the provinces In France
BY a Portuguese he WAS onca, to
his Cardinal wiseman's) own knowl-
edge. taken for countryman, and on
aDother occasion he was similarly mis-
taken for an Englishman. He spoke
German and Frenoh. says Alfred Mnury.
with such perfection that 1t was impos-
sible to believe that 1t was an Italian
who was speaking" The mere catalogue
which a learned German scholar gave OF
MezzofAnti's requirements In lS41 Is as
appalling TO the average man. who Is par
ticularly pleased with himself ii he can
easily read four or five languages besides
his own, as the list of Gi5bons's or Mac
auiey's reading Is to the average student.
1t Is worth quoting In all Its badness,
for only u mass OF detail can hslp one to
appreciate what u knowledge Of seventy
or eighty languages really means:
He is familiar" wrotes CORES, with
all the European languages, and BY this
| understand not only the ancient CLASH
cal tong CUES and the modern ones of the
III st I lass, such as the Greek or Latin, or
the Italian, French, German. Spanish,
Portuguese and English; his know ledge
extends also To languages Of the second
class, viz, the Dutch. Danish and Swe-
dish; to the whole Slayonie family, Rus
sian, Polish, Bohemian for Czech; to the
Serviap, the Hungarian, the Turkishl