Last essays. First series, Essays on language, folklore, and other subjects / by the Right Hon. Professor F. Max Müller.

  • Friedrich Max Müller
Date:
1901
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Credit: Last essays. First series, Essays on language, folklore, and other subjects / by the Right Hon. Professor F. Max Müller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of Language, that phonetics must form the foundation of Comparative Philology, and that the laws which determine the changes of vowels and consonants are as unchangeable as the laws which regulate the circulation of our blood, may have been a little exaggerated, but in this respect exaggeration is decidedly better than the smallest concession. I also hold still to another heresy of mine, for which I have been much abused, namely, that a knowledge of Sanskrit is a sine qua non for every comparative philo- logist, whether his special subject be Aryan, Semitic, or Turanian Philology. I know it has been the fashion of late to cry down the importance of Sanskrit, because it does not supply the key to all secrets, and because in some, nay, in many cases, Sanskrit is less primitive than Greek, or Irish, or Gothic. This is a capital lessen to learn, and may, I hope, put an end at last to the false position which Sanskrit still occupies in the eyes of certain scholars as the fountain head of all Aryan speech. But with all this, Sanskrit will always maintain its pre-eminence, as affording the best discipline to the student of language; and we have only to compare the works of those who have mastered Sanskrit, and of those who have not, whether they treat of Greek, or Latin, or Armenian, or Albanian, in order to perceive the immense difference between the scholar who sails with a safe compass and the bold adventurer who trusts to the stars. Comparative Philology is a delightful subject, and the more it is cultivated the more fascinating it becomes, by the very minuteness of the laws and rules which govern its proceedings. There is enough in it to absorb a man’s whole mind, enough to occupy
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