Page:Lawrence E A-first reader,1907.pdf/61

 world, and in flaming words persuade men to revive one of these languages for the common use. Subsequently, I do not now remember how, I came to the firm conviction that this was impossible, and I began, indistinctly, to dream of a new and artificial language. I often made attempts, inventing a profusion of artificial declensions and conjugations, etc. But the language of man, with, as it seemed to me, its endless mass of grammatical forms, its hundreds of thousands of words and ponderous dictionaries, appeared to me such an artificial and colossal machine that I more than once exclaimed-—'Away with dreams! this labour is beyond human powers—and nevertheless I always returned to my dream.

“In childhood (before I could make comparisons or work out conclusions) I had learnt French and German, but when, being in the 5th class of the gymnasium, I began to study English, the simplicity of the English grammar flashed upon my comprehension (became thrown in my eyes), thanks, chiefly, to the steep transition to it froma the Greek and Latin grammars. I observed that the richness of grammatical formas was not a necessity, but merely the blind result of accidental history. Under that influence I commenced to search into the language and to discard the unnecessary forms, and I noticed that the grammar always melted more and under my hands, and soon I arrived at a tiny grammar, Which, without causing any disadvantage to the language, occupied only a few pages. Then I began to devote myself to my dream more seriously. Still, the giant dictionaries left me no peace of mind.

“One day, when I was in the 6th or 7th class of the gymnasium, I, by chance, turned my attention to the sign “Ŝvejskaja' (drink shop), which I had already seen many times, and afterwards to the sign “Konditorskaja” (sweet-sbop). This “skaja” aroused my