But to what was his
remarkable influence as a teacher of young men due? We usually think
of a philologist as one who digs among the roots of dead languages, who
worships the forms of speech and the laws of grammar. Doubtless he and
his pupils were much taken up with these things, but they were not the
prime source of his and their interest. Wolf defined philology as "the
knowledge of human nature as exhibited in antiquity." He studied with
great avidity everything that could throw light upon the lives,
character, and language of the ancients. Their biographies, histories,
geography, climate, dress, implements, their sculpture, monuments,
buildings, tombs. Approaching the literature and language of the
Greeks with this abundant knowledge of their real surroundings and
conditions of life, he saw the deeper, fuller significance of every
classical author and the great literary masterpieces were perceived as
the expression of the national life. He appreciated language as the
wonderful medium through which the more wonderful life of the versatile
Greek expressed itself. The reason he was such a great philologist was
because he was so great a realist, a man who was intensely interested
in the Greek people, their history and life.
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