Hearken my friend, to His voice—the voice of Truth.”
[456] Mijne Reis naar Rom in het Voorjahr van 1837. Door Dr. Jan J. F. Wap., 2 vols., 8vo., Breda, 1839.
[457] In the year 1837. This is a slight mistake: he was only sixty-three.
[458] These books are found upon the Catalogue, p. 105.
[459] Afterwards Professor in the Catholic Seminary of Warmond, in Holland, and at present Curé at Soest, in the province of Utrecht.
[460] “Let him who dares to doubt the gift of Pentecost, stand ashamed and confounded before the mind of Mezzofanti. In him, let him honour that man who is fit to be the earth’s interpreter—whose intellect penetrates the language-secret of all nations.
“Accept, son of the South, the respectful salutation of the North. But think, while your eye beholds my poor address, that if the Batavians’ language lacks Italian melody, their tongue and soul are both averse to flattery.”
Mezzofanti’s reply:—
“Sir, when first the day my eyes were cast upon your beautiful address, I was quite enraptured by your great kindness. It so raised up my mind and heart, that, although master of fifty languages, my tongue remained speechless—But lest I should seem an ingrate, I beg you just to read my heart.”
[461] This is not quite correctly cited—The passage is in the sixth of the Elegies, “aus Rom,” [vol. I. p. 48. Paris, 1836.]