stricken. This glorification, then, is spurious; gold-paper.


23

The false enthusiasm for antiquity in which many philologists live. When
antiquity suddenly comes upon us in our youth, it appears to us to be
composed of innumerable trivialities; in particular we believe ourselves
to be above its ethics. And Homer and Walter Scott--who carries off the
palm? Let us be honest! If this enthusiasm were really felt, people
could scarcely seek their life's calling in it. I mean that what we can
obtain from the Greeks only begins to dawn upon us in later years: only
after we have undergone many experiences, and thought a great deal.


24

People in general think that philology is at an end--while I believe
that it has not yet begun.

The greatest events in philology are the appearance of Goethe,
Schopenhauer, and Wagner; standing on their shoulders we look far into
the distance. The fifth and sixth centuries have still to be discovered.


25

Where do we see the effect of antiquity? Not in language, not in the
imitation of something or other, and not in perversity and waywardness,
to which uses the French have turned it. Our museums are gradually