Amid the vast variety of speech with which he was thus brought habitually into contact, Mezzofanti, even if he had desired to " economize" his reputed gifts, could not possibly have done so without provoking a suspicion of their questionableness, or at least of their superficial character. Nor, on the other hand, would he have ventured to expose the undeniable reputation which he had already established, although upon a provincial theatre, to the ordeal which awaited him in the great center of languages, living or dead, had he not been supported by the consciousness of the reality of his attainments, as well as attracted by the very prospect of increased facilities for pursuing and extending the researches which had been the business and the enjoyment of his life. At all events, we shall see that from the first moment of his establishment in Rome, so far from having " economized" his extraordinary faculty of language, he was most assiduous, and in truth prodigal, in its exercise.