was no doubt aggrieved by liaving to learn French and 
German in order to be even with the latest discoveries. 
But to learn German and French was ‘at least possible to a 
studious man, As time went on, however, other races 
besides the German and Eomance speaking folk began to 
have a valuable literature. Kussians, Bohemians, Hun- 
garians, Scandinavians, et id genus omne. More lately 
still, a vast revival is on the point of breaking out again in 
the further east, and we may expect that Hindus and 
Chinese will be aspirants for at least a place in the great 
threshing mill where science and literature thresh their 
harvests. It is clearly appalling to give an outlook into the 
future and to contemplate the time when each man must 
be a Mezzofanti in order to prepare himself for literary or 
scientific work. Nor is this a mere chimeera. The Eussians, 
who are very diligent students, are yearly giving up their 
old practice of composing in French and German, and will 
write only in their own difficult tongue ; and perhaps I feel 
my toes especially pinched, inasmuch as they are working 
in mines where the ore I chiefly value is found, namely 
those relating to Eastern Ethnography. This frightful 
difficulty is naturally of interest to others besides dreamers, 
and it has often been suggested that all should agree once 
more to write in some language which, though artificial to 
most of its students, should yet enable all to communicate 
with one another. But this seems at present hopeless. 
English, from its wide extension, from the enormous num- 
ber of individuals in Europe, America, and Australia who 
speak it, and from the general familiarity of most students 
with it, might promise such an end, but the Eussians point 
to their future no less proudly than we to our present, and 
the mutual jealousies of nations make it impossible that any 
living language should be thus used, while the dead lan- 
guages, perfect as they are for polish and rhetorical excel- 
lencies, are deficient both in plasticity and vocabulary when 
