“Do you think these Frenchmen childish when they speak their own tongue, and do their business in it, and their courting, and their literature?”
“Well, no, of course that would be absurd.”
“And the Italians, the Germans, the Greeks, the Spaniards, don’t they all talk foreign languages, yet you don’t think them childish, or call their conversation mumbling?”
“No; I simply say I am sorry I cannot understand them.”
“Then don’t you see that as a Catholic you would be even better off, for though the Latin would be a foreign language, yet you would understand it?”
“Certainly, if all you say is true, the Latin is by no means a bad contrivance.”
“Do you know that, up to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries at least, most books were written in Latin, no matter to what country the author might belong, and that till even later than that all law business was transacted in Latin all over the civilized world?”
“Was it indeed? Well, I have learnt something this morning, and it is really worth thinking over.”
“Come this afternoon to St. Vincent’s, and I will show you at Vespers how well every one understands the service.”
“All right! agreed.”