Dr. Tholuck’s letter is specially important, also, as establishing the fact that Mezzofanti’s acquisitions were by no means so easy, or so much the result of a species of instinctive intuition as has been commonly supposed. Many of the circumstances which Dr. Tholuck notes, indicate labour; all point plainly to successive stages of advancement, to various degrees of perfection, in a word, to all the ordinary accompaniments of progress. The little vocabulary and grammatical paradigms of the Cornish language, an extinct and almost forgotten dialect,[423] which even our English philologists have come to disregard, tell of themselves the character of the man. Of course the main attraction of the Cornish dialect for him, was as one of the representatives of the old British family; but it cannot be doubted that he took a pleasure in the systematic pursuit of the structure of a language for the mere sake of the mental exercise which it involved. I am assured by the Cavalier Minarelli that the deceased Cardinal’s books and papers[424] contain many such grammatical and phraseological skeletons, even in languages which might be supposed to have less interest than that in the study of which Dr. Tholuck found him engaged.[425]
In reply to further inquiries which I addressed to him, Dr. Tholuck added:
“Among the twenty languages which he then professed to know accurately, he pointed out specially the English and the Albanese; among these he professed to know imperfectly, was also the Quichua, or old Peruvian, which he learned from some of the American missionaries. He mentioned that he was then engaged in learning the Bimbarra language, studying it from a catechism translated by a French missionary; an instance which shows that his knowing a language was in some instances nothing more than having got a smattering of it, as the Americans say.[426]
As to the Persian distich, which it took him about half an hour to compose, it was an imitation of the distichs in Sadi’s Gulistan,[427] and contained, as is the case with these distichs, some elegant ἐνθύμησεις.”
Whether, at any subsequent time, he acquired the Frisian dialect, of which “he had not yet heard” when Dr. Tholuck visited him, I am unable to pronounce from any positive information. But I find in his catalogue[428] several volumes in this language (to which it is highly probable that this interview called his attention;) not merely elementary books, such as Rasck’s Friesche Spraakleer, but historical works, as for instance, Wissers’ History, and even such light literature as Japiek’s Collection of Frisian Poetry.[429] From his known habits I can hardly doubt that, once having acquired these books, he must at least have made some progress towards mastering their contents.
The abate Ubaldo Fabiani, a young Modenese priest of much promise, who, after completing his studies, had been appointed lecturer in sacred Scripture and Hebrew in his native university, came to Bologna in 1829, with letters from the abate Cavedoni to Mezzofanti, under whom he proposed to perfect himself in Hebrew and other Oriental languages. Mezzofanti received him with the utmost cordiality; and the great ability and industry which he exhibited, as well as his exceeding amiableness and unaffected piety, completely won the heart of his master. On his return to Modena, after a residence of a few months, Mezzofanti wrote to his friend Cavedoni.
Bologna, 17 October, 1829.
“Don Ubaldo Fabiani is just about to return to Modena, after a sojourn of three months here, the entire of which he has passed in the midst of books. It would be impossible for me to describe to you the assiduity, avidity, and perseverance, with which I have seen him apply to his studies; but I can safely say that the fruit which he has derived from them has even exceeded the labour, as he unites with unwearied diligence a ready wit and a peculiar aptitude for this branch of learning. The principal object of his attention has been the sacred Hebrew text; but he has also applied himself to Chaldee, and in the end to the Rabbinical Hebrew—in all cases with most rapid progress. Had his time not been so limited, he had intended to devote himself also to Arabic—a language which has of late become so necessary an appliance of the polemics of sacred Scripture. But I have every confidence that he will do this also, when he shall return another year to Bologna; and I shall be more than willing to accompany him in this study also.
I am much indebted to you for having given me an opportunity of forming the acquaintance of so worthy an ecclesiastic. I have to thank you also for your learned publications, which you were kind enough to send me, and which, in the midst of all my varied occupations, are a source of real pleasure to me. Forgive my irregularity and tardiness as a correspondent; or rather do you return good for evil, by writing to me the more frequently. You will thus do what is most grateful to your devoted friend.”