We Philologists, Volume 8 | Page 3

single tyrannised
individual out of a hundred: such exceptional ones should simply treat
all the unenlightened majorities as their subordinates; and they should
in the same way take advantage of the prejudice, which is still
widespread, in favour of classical instruction--they need many helpers.
But they must have a clear perception of what their actual goal is.

7
Philology as the science of antiquity does not, of course, endure for
ever; its elements are not inexhaustible. What cannot be exhausted,
however, is the ever-new adaptation of one's age to antiquity; the
comparison of the two. If we make it our task to understand our own
age better by means of antiquity, then our task will be an everlasting
one.--This is the antinomy of philology: people have always
endeavoured to understand antiquity by means of the present--and shall
the present now be understood by means of antiquity? Better: people
have explained antiquity to themselves out of their own experiences;
and from the amount of antiquity thus acquired they have assessed the
value of their experiences. Experience, therefore, is certainly an
essential prerequisite for a philologist--that is, the philologist must first
of all be a man; for then only can he be productive as a philologist. It
follows from this that old men are well suited to be philologists if they
were not such during that portion of their life which was richest in
experiences.
It must be insisted, however, that it is only through a knowledge of the
present that one can acquire an inclination for the study of classical
antiquity. Where indeed should the impulse come from if not from this
inclination? When we observe how few philologists there actually are,
except those that have taken up philology as a means of livelihood, we
can easily decide for ourselves what is the matter with this impulse for
antiquity: it hardly exists at all, for there are no disinterested
philologists.
Our task then is to secure for philology the universally educative results
which it should bring about. The means: the limitation of the number of
those engaged in the philological profession (doubtful whether young
men should be made acquainted with philology at all). Criticism of the
philologist. The value of antiquity: it sinks with you: how deeply you
must have sunk, since its value is now so little!
8
It is a great advantage for the true philologist that a great deal of

preliminary work has been done in his science, so that he may take
possession of this inheritance if he is strong enough for it--I refer to the
valuation of the entire Hellenic mode of thinking. So long as
philologists worked simply at details, a misunderstanding of the Greeks
was the consequence. The stages of this undervaluation are · the
sophists of the second century, the philologist-poets of the Renaissance,
and the philologist as the teacher of the higher classes of society
(Goethe, Schiller).
Valuing is the most difficult of all.
In what respect is one most fitted for this valuing?
--Not, at all events, when one is trained for philology as one is now. It
should be ascertained to what extent our present means make this last
object impossible.
--Thus the philologist himself is not the aim of philology.
9
Most men show clearly enough that they do not regard themselves as
individuals: their lives indicate this. The Christian command that
everyone shall steadfastly keep his eyes fixed upon his salvation, and
his alone, has as its counterpart the general life of mankind, where
every man lives merely as a point among other points--living not only
as the result of earlier generations, but living also only with an eye to
the future. There are only three forms of existence in which a man
remains an individual as a philosopher, as a Saviour, and as an artist.
But just let us consider how a scientific man bungles his life: what has
the teaching of Greek particles to do with the sense of life?--Thus we
can also observe how innumerable men merely live, as it were, a
preparation for a man, the philologist, for example, as a preparation for
the philosopher, who in his turn knows how to utilise his ant-like work
to pronounce some opinion upon the value of life. When such ant-like
work is not carried out under any special direction the greater part of it
is simply nonsense, and quite superfluous.

10
Besides the large number of unqualified philologists there is, on the
other hand, a number of what may be called born philologists, who
from some reason or other are prevented from becoming such. The
greatest obstacle, however, which stands in the way of these born
philologists is the bad representation of philology by the unqualified
philologists.
Leopardi is the modern ideal of a philologist: The German philologists
can