Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books . com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MEMOIRS Of EMINENT LINGUISTS In the Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti I have attempted to ascertain, by direct evidence, the exact number of languages with which that great linguist was acquainted, and the degree of his familiarity with each. Eminence in any pursuit, however, is necessarily relative. We are easily deceived about a man's stature until we have seen him by the side of other men; nor shall we be able to form a just notion of the linguistic accomplishments of Cardinal Mezzofanti, or at least to bring them before our minds as a practical reality, until we shall have first considered what had been effected before him by other men who attained to distinction in the same department. I have thought it desirable, therefore, to prefix to his Life a summary history of the most eminent linguists of ancient and modern times. There is no branch of scholarship which has left fewer traces in literature, or has received a more scanty measure of justice from history. Viewed iu the light of a carious but unpractical pursuit, skill in languages is admired for a time, perhaps indeed enjoys an exaggerated popularity; but it passes away like a nine days' wonder, and seldom finds an exact or permanent record. Hence, while the literature of every country abounds with memoirs of distinguished poets, philosophers, and historians, few, even among professed antiquarians, have directed their attention to the history of eminent linguists, whether in ancient or in modern times. In all the ordinary repositories of curious learning?Pliny, Aulus Gellius, and Athenseas, among the ancients; Bayle, Gibbon, Feyjoo, Disraeli, and Vulpius, among the moderns? this interesting chapter is entirely overlooked; nor does it appear to have engaged the attention even of linguists or philologers themselve...