perfect their tools, and with these discover flaws in the work
left by their predecessors. Still, what is the refined chiselling of
later scholars compared with the rough-hewn stones of men like Bopp or
Grimm? If the Cyclopean stones of the Pelasgians are not like the
finished works of art by Phidias, what would the Parthenon be without
the walls ascribed to the Cyclops? It is the same in all sciences, and
we must try to be just, both to the genius of those who created, and
to the diligence of those who polished and refined.

For all this, however, I met with but small sympathy and encouragement
at Leipzig; nay, I had to be very careful in uttering what were
supposed to be heretical or unscholarlike opinions in the seminary of
Gottfried Hermann, or in the Latin society of Haupt. The latter
particularly, though he knew very well how much light had been spread
on the growth of language by the researches of Bopp, Grimm, and Pott,
and though Grimm was his intimate friend of whom he always spoke with
real veneration, could not bear his own pupils dabbling in this
subject. And of course at that time my knowledge of comparative
philology was a mere dabbling. If he could discover a false quantity
in any etymology, great was his delight, and his sarcasm truly
withering, particularly as it was poured out in very classical Latin.
Gottfried Hermann was a different character. He saw there was a new
light and he would not turn his back to it. He knew how lightly his
antagonist, Otfried Mueller, valued Sanskrit in his mythological
essays, and he set to work, and in one of his last academical programs
actually gave the paradigms of Sanskrit verbs as compared with those
of Greek. He saw that the coincidences between the two could not be
casual, and if they were so overwhelming in the mere termination of
verbs, what might we not expect in words and names, even in
mythological names? He by no means discouraged me, nay, he was sorry
to lose me, when in my third year I went to Berlin. He showed me great
kindness on several occasions, and when the time came to take my
degree of M.A. and Ph.D., he, as Dean of the Faculty, invited me to
return to Leipzig, offering me an exhibition to cover the expenses of
the Degree.

[Illustration: F. MAX MUeLLER _Aged Twenty_]

My wish to go to Berlin arose partly from a desire to hear Bopp, but
yet more from a desire to make the acquaintance of Schelling. My
inclination towards philosophy had become s