I doubt whether Russian would for more than a little while have seemed
to be a likely rival of French, even if M. Kerensky had been the
strong man we hoped he was. The language that succeeded to Latin as
the official mode of intercourse between nations, and as the usual
means of talk between the well-educated people of any one land and
those of any other, had an initial advantage not quite counterbalanced
by the fact that there are in Russia myriads of people who speak
Russian, and a few who can also read and write it. Russian may, for
aught I know, be a very beautiful language; it may be as lucid and
firm in its constructions as French is, and as musical in sound; I
know nothing at all about it. Nor do I claim for French that it was by
its own virtues predestined to the primacy that it holds in Europe.
Had Italy, not France, been an united and powerful nation when Latin
became desuete, that primacy would of course have been taken by
Italian. And I cannot help wishing that this had happened. Italian,
though less elegant, is, for the purpose of writing, a richer language
than French, and an even subtler; and the sound of it spoken is as
superior to the sound of French as a violin's is to a flute's. Still,
French does, by reason of its exquisite concision and clarity, fill
its post of honour very worthily, and will not in any near future, I
think, be thrust down.
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