The following is one way of carrying on classical studies, and a frequent one: a man throws himself thoughtlessly, or is thrown, into some special branch or other, whence he looks to the right and left and sees a great deal that is good and new. Then, in some unguarded moment, he asks himself: "But what the devil has all this to do with me?" In the meantime he has grown old and has become accustomed to it all; and therefore he continues in his rut—just as in the case of marriage.
91
In connection with the training of the modern philologist the influence of the science of linguistics should be mentioned and judged; a philologist should rather turn aside from it . the question of the early beginnings of the Greeks and Romans should be nothing to him . how can they spoil their own subject in such a way?
92
A morbid passion often makes its appearance from time to time in connection with the oppressive uncertainty of divination, a passion for believing and feeling sure at all costs: for example, when dealing with Aristotle, or in the discovery of magic numbers, which, in Lachmann's case, is almost an illness.
93
The consistency which is prized in a savant is pedantry if applied to the Greeks.
94
(The Greeks and the Philologists.)
| The Greeks. | The Philologists are · |
| render homage to beauty, develop the body, speak clearly, are religious transfigurers of everyday occurrences, are listeners and observers, have an aptitude for the symbolical, are in full possession of their freedom as men, can look innocently out into the world, are the pessimists of thought. | babblers and triflers, ugly-looking creatures, stammerers, filthy pedants, quibblers and scarecrows, unfitted for the symbolical, ardent slaves of the State, Christians in disguise, philistines. |