AmAp°rH;imrm'}      Esperanto,  Universal  or  French?  199 
ESPERANTO,  UNIVERSAL  OR  FRENCH  ? 1 
Now  that  turbines,  electric  power  and  flying  machines  are  destroy- 
ing distance,  the  nations  of  the  world  are  concerning  themselves  as 
to  the  best  means  of  drawing  mind  together  as  well  as  matter.  A 
universal  language  is  being  universally  talked  about,  but  the  real 
question  is,  What  shall  we  talk  ?  The  vast  extent  of  the  British 
Empire,  and  the  enormous  population  of  the  United  States,  have 
created  a  feeling  that  English  must  be  the  dominant  language  of 
the  future;  but  a  Russian,  M.  J.  Novicow,  in  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondesy  puts  in  a  plea  for  French  as  a  universal  language,  and  makes 
a  very  good  argument  for  it.  Curiously  enough,  the  French  seem 
to  be  rather  indifferent,  and  lean  more  towards  an  artificial  language, 
preferably  "Esperanto,"  the  one  that  contains  fewest  of  the  elements 
of  Latin,  whilst  "  Universal,"  founded  by  a  German,  Dr.  Molenaar, 
entirely  on  French,  has  met  with  no  success.  After  disposing,  in  a 
lively  and  convincing  manner,  of  the  myth  of  Teutonic  and  Anglo. 
Saxon  superiority,  M.  Novicow  shows  the  absurdity  of  allowing 
national  amour-propre  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  a  living  language 
as  a  universal  means  of  communication.  The  Germans  and  English 
are  the  only  objectors  to  the  use  of  French  as  such  a  language ;  yet 
amour-propre  does  not  prevent  their  considering  jt  very  advantageous 
to  speak  French,  and  making  great  efforts  to  succeed  in  doing  so. 
Also,  there  is  individual  as  well  as  national  feeling  to  be  reckoned 
with  ;  and  M.  Novicow  sees  no  reason  for  adopting  the  language  of 
a  Warsaw  doctor,  when  there  are  other  made-to-order  tongues  that 
he  considers  superior ;  moreover,  Dr.  Zamenhof  and  the  Esperanto 
ists  profess  quite  as  much  scorn  for  Universal  as  he  and  others  do 
for  Esperanto.    So  much  for  amour-propre. 
The  plea  ot  facility  is  disposed  of  with  equal  readiness.  A  Russian, 
knowing  no  language  but  his  own,  will  find  it  no  easier  to  call  vada 
(water)  sidi,  in  artificial  tongue,  than  water  in  English  or  acqua  in 
Italian.  The  mixed  systems  are  even  more  difficult  than  living 
languages,  except  to  those  who  already  know  all  that  they  are  de- 
rived from.  Thus,  to  find  Esperanto  easy,  one  must  know  French, 
English,  German,  Russian,  Latin  and  Greek  !  To  know  an  auxiliary 
1  In  view  of  the  present  advocacy  of  "  Esperanto  "  for  international  corres- 
pondence, it  was  thought  that  the  above  would  be  of  interest  to  our  readers. — 
Editor. 
