I shall leave the greater part of these strictures, from their very generality, to be judged by the facts and statements actually recorded in these pages ; merely observing that on all questions which involve the depth and accuracy of Mezzofanti's knowledge of particular subjects, those only are entitled to speak with authority, who, like Bucheron, Libri, and others elsewhere referred to, took the trouble to test it by actual inquiry. It will be enough to say that, where-ever M. Fleck has ventured into details, his criticisms are palpably unjust.

For instance, even at Rome, with all its proverbial fastidiousness, the singular beauty of Mezzofanti's Latin conversation which Fleck describes as "not particularly good," was freely and universally admitted ; and Bucheron, the Piedmontese professor who came to Bologna prepossessed with the idea that Mezzofanti's Latin scholarship was meagre and superficial, was obliged to confess, after a long and searching conversation, that his acquaintance with the Latin language and literature was as exact as it was comprehensive.