ed are superiorities of
memory which may be compensated by his greater perseverance, or
superiorities of sympathy to which he may "level up" by that acquired
and artificial interest which comes from protracted application. But the
student of modern languages has to contend against advantages of
situation, as the gardeners of an inhospitable climate contend against
the natural sunshine of the south. How easy it is to have a fruitful
date-tree in Arabia, how difficult in England! How easy for the
Florentine to speak Italian, how difficult for us! The modern linguist
can never fence himself behind that stately unquestionableness which
shields the classical scholar. His knowledge may at any time be put to
the severest of all tests, to a test incomparably more severe than the
strictest university examination. The first _native_ that he meets is
his examiner, the first foreign city is his Oxford. And this is probably
one reason why accomplishment in modern languages has been rather a
matter of utility than of dignity, for it is difficult to keep up great
pretensions in the face of a multitude of critics. What would the most
learned-looking gown avail, if a malicious foreigner were laughing at
us?

But there is a deep satisfaction in the severity of the test. An honest
and courageous student likes to be clearly aware of the exact value of
his acquisitions. He takes his French to Paris and has it tested there
as we take our plate to the silversmith, and after that he knows, or may
know, quite accurately what it is worth. He has not the dignity of
scholarship, he is not held to be a learned man, but he has acquired
something which may be of daily use to him in society, or in commerce,
or in literature; and there are thousands of educated natives who can
accurately estimate his attainment and help him to a higher perfection.
All this is deeply satisfying to a lover of intellectual realities. The
modern linguist is always on firm ground, and in broad daylight. He may
impede his own progress by the illusions of solitary self-conceit, but
the atmosphere outside is not favorable to such illusions. It is well
for him that the temptations to charlatanism are so few, that the risks
of exposure are so frequent.

Still there _are_ illusions, and the commonest of them is that a modern
language may be very easily mastered. There is a popular idea that
French is easy, that Italian is easy, that German is more difficult, yet
by no means ins