The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-22
THE GREATEST LINGUIsT.
Master of some Eighty Languages,
and Able TO Acquire "A New One In
Three Weeks.


From the Manchester Guardian.
It would be highly unjust that the world
should forget a man SO remarkable for
the accuracy and extent OF his memory
as the famous Cardinal Mezzofant Per-
haps, however 1t Is as well to remind
people In general that 1t was just If
ty years March Is since the death
of that extraordinary man, who passed
away, at the age of rs, ON March Is, 1S49
Mezzofantrs name has become rather dim
to the present generation, indeed as must
always be the case with a reputation made
by qualities that leave no lasting credit
to the world He was nothing OF a writer
and only a philologist in the strict ety.
biological sense of the word-not a criti-
cal or exact scholar, but a man who knew
an amazing number OF languages and dia-
| lects. Perhaps he is best known to the
modern English reader from the eulogy
to be found in one of Byrons memoran-
da, published by Moore. your literary
every day man and l." says Byron, never
went well in company, especially your for
| egner, whom / never could abide.
don't remember a man among them
whom 1 ever wished to see twice. except
| perhaps, Mezzofanti, who Is a monster
of learning. che Briareus of parts OF
speech, a walking polyglot, and more, who
ought to have existed at the time of the
| Tower of Babel as universal interpreter
| He is indeed marvel--unassuming also
l tried him in all the tongues of which
| knew a single oath Tor adjura tionsto the
| gods against postboys, savages, Tartars,
boatmen, sailors pilots, gondoliers mule
tiers, posthorses posthouses, post every
| thing, and, egad! he astounded me-even
to my English"
| MERCHANTS linguistic powers were in
| deed so remarkable that II is a thousand
pliies that the photograph was not in
vented in time TO record some of his
achievements. We think. and rightly, that
we pay man singularly high compll-
| ment when we say that he speaks a Ian
! guage other than his own so accurately
as to deceive even those who are born to
| 1t. In the last generation a great authority
| decided that such knowledge OF French,
| for instance, could only be assigned to
| three Englishmen; one of them was the
late Mr.. Henry Reeve, whose version of
Tocquevilles Democracy in America" was
said to prove that a man may know a Ian
| guage very well and translate IL very bad
| ly. But Mezzofanti counted the languages
| that he spoke like a native literally in
dozens. Cardinal Wlseman who knew and
loved him, has left a striking testimony
| TO this almost preternaturaf power In the
seventy or eighty languages Of which he
was master before his death. Merchant
was familiar with all the varieties OF dia-
| lect, provincialsms and patois. HE would
detect the particular county in England
from which a person came, or the prov
| ince In France - BY a Portuguese
he was once. TO his Cardinal Wiseman' -
own knowledge, taken for a coUntryman,
| and on another occasion he was similarly
mistaken for an Englishman" He spoke
German and French, says Alfred Maury
| with such perfection that Il was impos-
s!ble 10 believe that n was an Italian who
was speaking" The mere catalogue which
a learned German scholar gave OF Mezzo-