For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
read more

For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
To smatter French is meritorious.
- Samuel Butler (1),

O, good my lord, no Latin!
I am not such a truant since my coming
As not read more

O, good my lord, no Latin!
I am not such a truant since my coming
As not to know the language I have lived in.
A strnage tongue makes my cause more strnage, suspicious.
Pray speak in English.

This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist and the
armipotent soldier.

This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist and the
armipotent soldier.

Lash'd into Latin by the tingling rod.

Lash'd into Latin by the tingling rod.

A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.

A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.

Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises
one, slights the other.

Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises
one, slights the other.

. . . Philologists, who chase
A painting syllable through time and space
Start it at home, read more

. . . Philologists, who chase
A painting syllable through time and space
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark,
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark.

It is Hebrew to me.
[Fr., C'est de l'hebreu pour moi.]

It is Hebrew to me.
[Fr., C'est de l'hebreu pour moi.]

Small Latin, and less Greek.

Small Latin, and less Greek.