xtent, though he did
not speak it. The languages in his case succeeded each other without any
cost of effort, and without any appreciable effect on health. The
pronunciation of each language was quite faultless so far as foreign
accent went; the child had the defects of children, but of children born
in the different countries where he lived.

As we grow older this facility of acquisition gradually leaves us. M.
Philarete Chasles says that it is quite impossible for any adult to
learn German: an adult may learn German as Dr. Arnold did for purposes
of erudition, for which it is enough to know a language as we know
Latin, but this is not mastery. You have met with many foreign residents
in England, who after staying in the country for many years can barely
make themselves intelligible, and must certainly be incapable of
appreciating those beauties of our literature which are dependent upon
arrangements of sound. The resisting power of the adult brain is quite
as remarkable as the assimilating power of the immature brain. A child
hears a sound, and repeats it with perfect accuracy; a man hears a
sound, and by way of imitation utters something altogether different,
being nevertheless persuaded that it is at least a close and
satisfactory approximation. Children imitate well, but adults badly, and
the acquisition of languages depends mainly on imitation. The resisting
power of adults is often seen very remarkably in international
marriages. In those classes of society where there is not much culture,
or leisure or disposition for culture, the one will not learn the
other's language from opportunity or from affection, but only under
absolute necessity. It seems as if two people living always together
would gain each other's languages as a matter of course, but the fact is
that they do not. French people who marry foreigners do not usually
acquire the foreign language if the pair remain in France; English
people under similar conditions make the attempt more frequently, but
they rest contented with imperfect attainment.

If the power of resistance is so great in people who being wedded
together for life have peculiarly strong inducements for learning each
other's languages, it need surprise us little to find a like power of
resistance in cases where motives of affection are altogether absent.
Englishmen who go to France as adults, and settle there, frequently
remain for many years in a state of half-knowledge which, though i