The above record of the process of the investigation will still possess great historical interest, long after the results shall have emerged (as we trust) from the cloud which, for the moment, has come over our hopes; and we believe that its interest will be increased by stating the present position of the case in the words of Professor Gomperz himself[324]:—
“There is not, and there cannot be, the slightest doubt that Professor Haug at Munich was perfectly right, when he first identified the symbols found on several of the Hissarlik vases, &c., with Cypriote characters. I was right too in following up the track, and I think still that I have scarcely once been wrong in identifying those symbols with these characters. Furthermore, my general inferences drawn from the fact, that the Cypriote syllabic writing occurs out of Cyprus, and associated with what I rightly have called pre-Homeric objects of art, I still think unassailable. But—I cannot go further than this! My attempt at deciphering those inscriptions I now look upon as abortive! I hasten to add, that I do not think I deserve any reproach in the matter. I utilized to the best of my abilities the progress which till then had been made in the decipherment of the Cypriote inscriptions found in Cyprus. I used as a key for my decipherment of the Hissarlik inscriptions the phonetic values which Mr. George Smith and Dr. Johannes Brandis had ascertained for those characters. But both these investigators had been only partially right! Wonderful indeed it is, that, applying as I did a key partially right and partially wrong, good and intelligible Greek words emerged. It was a most marvellous coincidence—but nothing else, a mere fortuitous coincidence.
“The labour of ascertaining the phonetic value of the Cypriote characters has since been taken up by several German scholars, Dr. Moritz Schmidt, Professor at Jena, and Messrs. De[.e]ck[.e] and Siegismund at Strasburg, and to a candid critic there cannot remain a doubt that they are right, and that I (together with Smith and Brandis) was wrong.”[325]
Such a frank, truth-loving spirit in the enquirer is as sure a guarantee of ultimate success as that “continuity in the enquiry,” which Gomperz still holds to be established. In a word, the right track is known, but the sign-posts have to be rectified; the key is found, but its wards need some fresh adjustment; and we may soon hope for results far more fruitful than those of which, for a moment only, we have been disappointed.