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and especially in those that were also born, or developed, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. I am sure, for example, that the general sonorous impression, the "prosody" of ancient Hebrew is broader than that of all the Romance languages and Latin, than that of all Arabic.

4. Language and Manners.

In these lines I want to concentrate only on the question of social manners - on the language of public service, not in its details, like a chat among friends at home or a conversation of committee members in a closed meeting - although if we stand on the cliff of morality, we will not hear it at all among ourselves or in most of our offices!

"Only for a short time," they console us, - "for surely all these newcomers will learn slowly, if only the language is not made hateful to them." Even if I believed that they would learn without public coercion, new people arrive every year, and because of them too we will be forced to uphold the commandment of courtesy, and the situation will not change for the better. But first of all, I do not believe that they will learn without public coercion. Learning the Hebrew language is difficult, and it is even harder to get used to speaking it. Except for the natives of the land, for whom Hebrew is their natural language, for all the others, even for the "zealots of the language," whose zeal is like an uncultivated plant, it is a constant demonstration and effort of will. Only a few individuals are exceptions, particularly those who come to find such a source of its meaning in their "souls alone," without any external influence; for the regular majority, a constant, unceasing external influence from all sides is necessary. "Fine," they console us, - "there will be such an influence," for public opinion will penetrate them to "learn Hebrew," everything from all sources. What "influence"? In what form will it "penetrate"? Through advice? Or through the newspapers? No one will pay attention to these toys, if all his friends tell him that there is no need for Hebrew in the Land of Israel. And this is the necessary result of the system of freedom and manners that they have instituted before us: people from an environment where there is no need for Hebrew will go to visit their friends - and there they will speak with them in an "understood language," and he will tell them the day's news in an "understood language," they will go to a store to buy something - and there