For the more: languages a man can speak,

His talent has but sprung the greater leak:

And, for the industry he has spent upon't,

Must full as much some other way discount.

The Hebrew, Chaldee, and the Syriac,

Do, like their letters, set men's reason back

And turn their wits that strive to understand

(Like those that write the characters) left-handed.

Yet he that is but able to express

No sense at all in several languages,

Will pass for learneder than he tha's known

To speak the strongest reason in his own.

A . Butler.