I devoted three years of my life to reading and studying these one hundred and fifty volumes, till I knew them nearly by heart; so that since I have been in prison, a very slight effort of memory has enabled me to recall their contents as readily as though the pages were open before me.

I could recite you the whole of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Strada, Jornandes, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Spinoza, Machiavelli, and Bossuet.

I name only the most important." "You are, doubtless, acquainted with a variety of languages, so as to have been able to read all these ?" "Yes, I speak five of the modern tongues--that is to say, German, French, Italian, English, and Spanish; by the aid of ancient Greek I learned modern Greek--I don't speak it so well as I could wish, but I am still trying to improve myself." "Improve yourself!" repeated Dantes; "why, how can you manage to do so ?" "Why, I made a vocabulary of the words I knew; turned, returned, and arranged them, so as to enable me to express my thoughts through their medium.

I know nearly one thousand words, which is all that is absolutely necessary, although I believe there are nearly one hundred thousand in the dictionaries.

I cannot hope to be very fluent, but I certainly should have no difficulty in explaining my wants and wishes; and that would be quite as much as I should ever require." Stronger grew the wonder of Dantes, who almost fancied he had to do with one gifted with supernatural powers; still hoping to find some imperfection which might bring him down to a level with human beings, he added, "Then if you were not furnished with pens, how did you manage to write the work you speak of ?" "I made myself some excellent ones, which would be universally preferred to all others if once known.