Prof. CHRISTEN. Personally I should not want an international language for poetry, although Esperanto does in fact lend itself excellently to the purposes of the muses. But to answer your question: First of all, the Esperanto language does not contain any words at all; I think there are only 138 full-fledged words, prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions, but the rest of the vocabulary is formed of roots only. Let us take the words "to sew," "to stitch." The root is "kudr." It is only a root, and that alone stands in the vocabulary. Now, if you want to make this root into a noun "o" is added to it, "kudro": if you want to make it an adjective, you add "a" to it, "kudra"; if you want to make it an adverb you add "e," kudre, which would mean by or through sewing, "sewingly," if it could be so expressed in English; and if you want to make it a verb it would be "kudri," because every infinitive ends in "i." You see, with that root to begin with you can form four words, and you can express a great deal more in Esperanto than anybody can possibly imagine; in fact Esperanto is, on account of its perfect and absolutely complete flexibility, more precise and more comprehensive than any language under the sun. As I said before, you can form four words from every root at the start if sense allows it, and sense allows you a great deal more leeway in Esperanto than anybody can possibly know about, because in no language are you allowed to proceed by sense. The English language does not allow it, nor does any other, not oven German or Greek, but it is allowed in this most logical of all languages, Esperanto. (7) Mr. TOWNER. Take the illustration you have just used. We say "The sewing is beautiful." and "We find her sewing assiduously." Now, we use the same word, but the formation of the sentence determines whether or not it is a noun or a verb. Prof. CHRISTEN. You mean the distinction between the participle and the noun? Mr. TOWNER. Yes. Prof. CHRISTEN. With your permission I will not answer that particularly, but will deal with the whole subject. I want to say that from every root you form four words, the four principal parts of speech. And the first thing to remember is this positive stroke of genius--that every noun ends with "o," every adjective with "a," every derived adverb with "e," and every infinitive with "i." Mr. TOWNER. How would you carry that to proper names? Prof. CHRISTEN. London would be Londono; Robert is Roberto, but proper names you are at liberty to do with as you please; give them the Esperanto ending or leave them in the original form. Mr. TOWNER. What about Washington? Prof. CHRISTEN. Washingtono. Mr. TOWNER. I mean, you would really change it? Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes; if you prefer it; that is, if it sounds better. Mr. TOWNER. In the language? Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes. Mr. TOWNER. For instance, if you were speaking about the city of Washington, you would not say Washington, but Washingtono?