I was enraptured with Italian during the six months which I gave up to it; and I was little less pleased with Spanish.

But, when I went back to the Greek, I felt as if I had never known before what intellectual enjoyment was.

Oh that wonderful people! There is not one art, not one science, about which we may not use the same expression which Lucretius has employed about the victory over superstition, "Primum Graius homo--." I think myself very fortunate in having been able to return to these great masters while still in the full vigour of life, and when my taste and judgment are mature.

Most people read all the Greek that they ever read before they are five and twenty.

They never find time for such studies afterwards till they are in the decline of life; and then their knowledge of the language is in a great measure lost, and cannot easily be recovered.