july — sept. 1857.] The Study of Living Languages. 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 other, 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 gaining flexibility 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 fa- 

 miliarized with 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 



