He was inspired by the work of Danish philologist Rasmus Rask as a boy, and with the help of Rask's grammars taught himself some Icelandic, Italian, and Spanish.
De neno, inspirouno o traballo do filólogo danés Rasmus Rask, e coa axuda das gramáticas de Rask aprendeu de maneira autodidacta un pouco de islandés, italiano e castelán.