JULY— SEPT. 1857.] The Studtj of Living Latiguages. 247 
he had acquired a considerable stock of words. He had already- 
picked up a good knowledge of French and Italian, so far as mere 
reading went, and he imagined like many others that a little prac- 
tice on the road would enable him to speak the language suffi- 
ciently to carry him through his tour ; but it was a very different 
thing to hear the lessons of professors and to converse with the 
Natives of the country. Of this he found a very humiliating proof. 
He went to engage apartments at a private hotel, but after a pan- 
tomimic performance of twenty minutes between himself and the 
landlady, it was found that neither could in the slightest degree 
understand the •cfther, and after laughter and reciprocal bows he 
returned in despair.* Having settled at another hotel, he now de- 
termined to devote twelve hours a day to the mere practice of 
speaking French. His first step was to engage a French Master 
for twelve lessons, and to make him go through the drudgery of 
reading three words at a time, while he mimicked them as closely 
as he could. This was singularly disagreeable to the master, but 
it was all that Dr. Hope wanted and he was inflexible. He thus 
secured himself against any gross error in pronunciation. He 
happened to possess a Wanostrocht's grammar with a key to it, a 
grammar which is remarkable for the great number of simple exer- 
cises which illustrate each rule. He now translated these exercises 
from English to French, correcting himself by constant reference to 
the Key. In this way he went two or three times through the 
grammar in the course of a month gaini7ig jlexihility of tongue and 
losing the fear of hearing his own voice. He at the same time 
adopted another device ; he went to dine daily at a small and crowd- 
ed restaurant frequented by the Garde du corps, where the company 
was so closely packed that he could not help hearing the conversa- 
tion of two or three contiguous talkers. In this way his ear got/a- 
miliarized ivith all .the sounds of the French language^ whether quick 
or slow, correct or provincial. At the end of a month he ventured 
to sally forth, and, having a fancy for the rooms of the private hotel 
to which he had originally gone, he waited on the landlady. On 
entering he addressed her in fluent French, explained his wishes, 
&c., the landlady the meanwhile, with up-raised hands and a look 
of utter amazement, exclaiming, " Voila un miracle ! you cannot 
