Evening star., 1899-04-18
WORLDS GREATEST L1NGUIsT.
Cardinal Mezzofnnti Was the Master
of Some Eighty LnnGunEes.

N0E heEzoiNhtA w uS tHe nuSeeE
of Some Eighty Languages.
From the Manchester Guardian.
1t would highly unjust that the world
should forget a man remarkable for the
| accuracy and extent of his memory as the
| famous Cardinal Mezzofanti- Perhaps,
| however, it is as well to remind people in
general that it will be just fifty years next
Wednesday since the death of that extraor-
binary man, who passed away at the age
of seventy-five on March II. 1Si0 Mezzo-
fanti's name has become rather dim TO
the present generation, indeed, as must
always he the case with a reputation made
by qualities that leave no lasting result to
the world. He was nothing of writer
and only a philoloe.st in the strict etymo-
logical sense of the word-not a critical or
exact scholar, but q man who knew an
amazing number Of languages and dialects
Perhaps he is best known to the modern
English reader from the eulogy to be found
in one of Byron's memoranda, published by
Moore. Your literary everyday mdii ana
l. says Byron, never went we'll in COM
peny, especially your foreigner, whom L
never could abide l don't renem
Der a man among them whom ever
wished to see twice, except, perhaps, Mez-
zophanti, who is a monster of learning, the
Br;arous of parts of speech, a walking
rolyglot, and more, who ought to have eX-
listed at the time of the Tower of Babel as
universal Interpreter. He is indeed a mar
Vel-undSSumlng also. L lrleu HlIl Ill all
the tongues of which | knew a single oath
(or admiration to the gods against postboys,
savages tartars, boatmen, sailors, pilots,
gondoliers muleteers, camel drivers, vet
tUrin postmasters, posthorses. posthouses,
post everything, and egad! he astounded
me-even to my English.
Mezzofanti's linguistic powers were in
de ell so remarkable that it is a thousand
pities that the monograph was not invent
ed in time to record some of his achieve
N.l
a man q singularly high compliment when
say that he speaks language other
than his own so accurately as to deceive
even those who are born to it. In the last
generation a great authority decided that
such a knowledge of French. for instance,
could only be assigned to three English
men; one of them was the late Mr.. Henry
Reeve whose version of TocqueVille's
Democracy in America" was said to prove
that a man may know language very well
and translate it very badly. But MeZzo-
fanti counted the languages that he spoke
like a native literally in dozens. Car
dinal Wiseman who knew and loved him,
has left a striking testimony to this almost
preternatural power. In the seventy or
eighty languages of which he was master
before his death MeZZofanti was familiar
with all the varieties of dialect provincial
isns and patois. He would detect the par
ticular county in England from which
person came, or the province in France
- BY Portuguese he was once to
his Cardinal Wiseman's) own knowledge,
taken for ii countryman, and on another
occasion he was similarly mistaken for an
EEglishman." He spoke German and
French, says Alfred Maury, with such
perfection that it was impossible to believe
that it was an Italian who was speaking.
The mere catalogue which a learned Ger
man scholar gave of MezzofantPs acquire
ments in 1911 is appalling to the average
man, who is particularly pleased with him
self if he can easily read four or five lam
prIla basj1eS his the list of Glib
bon's or Macaulays reading is to the
average student 1t is worth quoting in all
its badness, for only mass of detail can
help one to appreciate what knowledge
OF seventy or eighty languages really
means.
He is familiar" writes CORES, with all
the European languages and by this | un-
dersJand not only the ancient classical
tongues and the modern ones of the first
class, such as the Greek or Latin, or the
Italian, French, German Spanish, Portu-
guese and English, his knowledge extends
also TO Languages of the second class, VIZ,
the Dutch, Danish and Swedish; to the
whole Slayonic family, Russian, Polish, Bo-
hGmian Czech; to the Servian, the Hun
garian, the Turkish; and even to those of
the third and fourth classes-the Irish, the
Welsh, the Wallachan, the Albanian, the
Bulgarian and the Illyrian Even the Ro-
mani of the Alps and the Lettish are not
unknown TO him; nay, he has made himself
acquainted with Pappish. He is master of
the languages which fall within the Indo-
GerInanic family, the Sanscrit and Persian
the Koordish, the Georgian, the Armenian;
he is familiar with all the members of the
Semitic family, the Hebrew, the Arabic, the
Syriac, the Samaritan, the Chaldee, the Sa-
baic; nay, even with the Chinese, which he
not only reads but speaks. Among the Ha-
mitfc languages he knows Coptic Ethiopic
Abyssinian, Amharic and Angolese.'
After the perusal Of this not very scien-
| tific but amazing catalogue one pauses to
| take breath. The linguistic attainments of
| MeZZofanti, which are supported by the
most uneXceptionable testimony from all
| sides, can only be compared with the
| achievements of the calculating boys" who
| now and then come to light with what
| seems TO be a special and rare faculty for
| mental arithmetic. MeZzofanti put his
| ability to much better use than any of the
| calculating boys, except Bidder, ever did
| No one could have made a better use of the
| excellent memory and remarkable fieXi-
| biity of the organs of speech" to which
! MeZzOfanti himself attributed his linguistic
| exploits In Rome, as the secretary to the
J Propaganda, he had quite unusual oppor-
| tuntties of using and extending his foreign
| tongues. In his spare hours he labored by
| choice in the papal prisons, where he found
| natives of every habitable country. Many
| of these could not speak Italian and had
| small chance of finding a priest ready and
| able to give them spiritual consolation in a
| tongue that they could understand. Car
| dinal Mezzofanti set himself to meet this
| want. He moved among the prisoners,
| ministering in his own tongue to each, until
! it was said that he had revived the miracle
| of Pentecost in his own person Gases
| have been KNOWN, says Wiseman, "of per-
| sons coming to this extraordinary man for
confession, but speaking only some out-of-
| the-way language which debarred them
| from INSTRUMENTATION with all priests
| within their reach On such occasions Car
| dinal Mezzofanti would request a delay of
| three weeks, during which time he would
| 50 completely master the language how
ever difficult, that he could apprehend the
| most minute particulars communicated 10