Wolf draws our attention to the fact that antiquity was acquainted only
with theories of oratory and poetry which facilitated production,
[Greek: technai] and _artes_ that formed real orators and poets, "while
at the present day we shall soon have theories upon which it would be
as impossible to build up a speech or a poem as it would be to form a
thunderstorm upon a brontological treatise."


61

Wolf's judgment on the amateurs of philological knowledge is noteworthy:
"If they found themselves provided by nature with a mind corresponding
to that of the ancients, or if they were capable of adapting themselves
to other points of view and other circumstances of life, then, with even
a nodding acquaintance with the best writers, they certainly acquired
more from those vigorous natures, those splendid examples of thinking
and acting, than most of those did who during their whole life merely
offered themselves to them as interpreters."


62

Says Wolf again · "In the end, only those few ought to attain really
complete knowledge who are born with artistic talent and furnished with
scholarship, and who make use of the best opportunities of securing,
both theoretically and practically, the necessary technical knowledge"
True!