color of the sea; the jutting fountains, the cypress and
the alders in which the sea-birds perched; he copied a
steadfast and persistent nature: with him throughout we
plant our feet on the firm ground of truth. His book is
a historical document; the manners and customs of his
contemporaries were such as he describes; his Olympus
itself is a Greek family."

The manifest inferiority of our mixed languages to their one
simple language is stated in the following paragraph, with which
we must leave Taine for the present:

"Almost the whole of our philosophic and scientific
vocabulary is foreign; we are obliged to know Greek and
Latin to make use of it properly, and, most frequently,
employ it badly. Innumerable terms find their way out of
this technical vocabulary into common conversation and
literary style, and hence it is that we now speak and
think with words cumbersome and difficult to manage.
We adopt them ready made and conjoined, we repeat
them according to routine; we make use of them without
considering their scope and without a nice appreciation
of their sense; we only approximate to that which we
would like to express. Fifteen years are necessary for
an author to learn to write, not with genius, for that
is not to be acquired, but with clearness, sequence,
propriety and precision. He finds himself obliged to
weigh and investigate ten or twelve thousand words and
diverse expressions, to note their origin, filiation and
relationships, to rebuild on an original plan, his ideas