uperably difficult. It is believed that when an
Englishman has spent all the best years of his youth in attempting to
learn Latin and Greek, he may acquire one or two modern languages with
little effort during a brief residence on the Continent. It is certainly
true that we may learn any number of foreign languages so as to speak
them badly, but it surely cannot be easy to speak them well. It may be
inferred that this is not easy because the accomplishment is so rare.
The inducements are common, the accomplishment is rare. Thousands of
English people have very strong reasons for learning French, thousands
of French people could improve their position by learning English; but
rare indeed are the men and women who know both languages thoroughly.

The following propositions, based on much observation of a kind wholly
unprejudiced and tested by a not inconsiderable experience will be
found, I believe, unassailable.

1. _Whenever a foreign language is perfectly acquired there are peculiar
family conditions. The person has either married a person of the other
nation, or is of mixed blood._

2. _When a foreign language has been acquired (there are instances of
this) in quite absolute perfection, there is almost always some loss in
the native tongue. Either the native tongue is not spoken correctly, or
it is not spoken with perfect ease._

3. _A man sometimes speaks two languages correctly, his father's and his
mother's, or his own and his wife's, but never three._

4. _Children can speak several languages exactly like natives, but in
succession, never simultaneously. They forget the first in acquiring the
second, and so on._

5. _A language cannot be learned by an adult without five years'
residence in the country where it is spoken, and without habits of close
observation a residence of twenty years is insufficient._

This is not encouraging, but it is the truth. Happily, a knowledge which
falls far short of mastery may be of much practical use in the common
affairs of life, and may even afford some initiation into foreign
literatures. I do not argue that because perfection is denied of us by
the circumstances of our lives or the necessities of our organization we
are therefore to abandon the study to every language but the mother
tongue. It may be of use to us to know several languages imperfectly,
if only we confess the hopelessness of absolute attainment. That which
is truly, and deeply, and seriously an injury to o