INTERNATIONAL SPEECH 167 



Finally, just what is Esperanto? Esperanto is the name given to 

 a language composed by Dr. Ludovic Lazare Zamenhof, a physician of 

 Warsaw in Russian Poland, born in 1859, in Bielostok in Russia, and 

 now, therefore, in the prime of life. His first publication, issued in 

 Warsaw in 1887 under the pseudonym of " Dro. Esperanto," literally 

 translated, " one who hopes," bore the title " Langue internationale, 

 Preface et manuel complet." The project, which had occupied the 

 author from his youth, made scarcely any impression in the first years 

 after its publication. Volapiik then held the field, after the utter 

 fiasco of which, Esperanto suffered from the effects of the general wave 

 of skepticism, ridicule and obloquy that followed in the wake of its 

 failure. It was indeed a considerable time before a new proposal for 

 an international language could so much as gain a hearing in Europe. 

 But Esperanto found a brilliant expositor, also in France, in the person 

 of M. Louis de Beaufront of Louviers, to whose enthusiastic adhesion 

 to the language in its early days is undoubtedly due to a very con- 

 siderable degree its present success. To an almost fanatical en- 

 thusiasm M. de Beaufront conjoined extraordinary talent and inge- 

 nuity in the exposition of the merits and claims of Esperanto, and 

 marked tact and cleverness in disarming its opponents. After ten 

 years the effects of the efforts of the founder and his supporters began 

 to be felt; and France soon began to teem with the Esperanto move- 

 ment. To-day, what began as the desperate struggle of a forlorn little 

 band of idealists, against contempt, ridicule and misrepresentation, 

 and against almost hopeless odds, has risen to the proportions of a 

 formidable affair of international significance, challenging the atten- 

 tion of rulers. 



What now are definitely the claims of this remarkable tongue, the 

 sole achievement of a single human being, wrought unaided by a single 

 brain, a work of supreme genius? Without going into one slightest 

 detail, let it be simply said that it answers fully to all the fundamental 

 requirements above mentioned for an international language. Its 

 grammar can be read and perfectly understood in an hour. The pro- 

 nunciation is simplicity itself, as the letters have each but one simple 

 sound, and the accent rests always on the same syllable, the penult 

 Seventy per cent, of the word-roots will be recognized at sight by a 

 person of good education in English alone. The utter simplicity of 

 its syntax might make it appear as though such a language must neces- 

 sarily be bare, meager and inexpressive. On the contrary, as the result 

 of its extraordinary structure, it is ample, rich and full, with much 

 of the flexibility and mobility of English, much of the style and pre- 

 cision of French, not a little of the elegance and grace of Italian, 

 while in great measure it has the full, sonorous quality of sound and 

 imposing dignity of form peculiar to the Latin. 



