516 MEMOIR OF FLEISCHER. 



from out of the plenitude of his learuiug upon the eagerly listening 

 and busily writing members of his class. Aside from the numerous 

 additions to one's knowledge, his apparently irregular and digressive 

 method of instruction possessed the advantage of at once ushering the 

 student into the Mohammedan world of language and ideas, giving him a 

 vivid conception of the wealth and pliability of the Arabic idiom, and 

 most emphatically reminding him at every turn of the necessity of being 

 accurate in the slightest detail. Naturally it was at the same time 

 necessary to pursue ])rivate study systematically and unremittingly, 

 and it was jire-supposed as a matter of course. He who could and 

 would work, had to acquire rapidly a knowledge of the languages, and 

 yield with docility to a training in habits of accuracy ; the essentials 

 of Arabic, indeed of all philology. The undeniable but doubtless in- 

 tentional one-sidedness of this method is justified by the necessity of 

 helping the pupils to ground themselves thoroughly in these funda- 

 mentals. If I have been correctly informed, Fleischer in earlier years 

 delivered regular courses of lectures, as for instance on the doctrinal 

 theology of the Islam. From this it can be inferred that his later 

 method meant to lay increased stress upon the important and essential 

 points which he had always emphasized. We were charged to acquire 

 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and to rid ourselves radically of any 

 tendency to superficiality. Having done that, we were prepared as 

 far as our ability went to do independent and philologically accurate 

 work in whatever special field any one of us might choose. However, 

 even from this point of view, there is one more desideratum, appa- 

 rently unprovided for in this method, namely, a knowledge of the tech- 

 nical working principles of philology, in any event a highly desirable 

 equipment of the future philologist. But every one had the opportu- 

 nity of acquiring them while ijrepariug his thesis. For Fleischer's ac- 

 tivity as a teacher was by no means at an end when he had appeared 

 in the lecture room eight or ten times a week. His library, his knowl- 

 edge, his talents were at the disposal of his pupils, and if any one of them 

 in his first attempt at editing a text was perplexed by some difiicult pas- 

 sage in the manuscript, he needed but to apply to his ever-obliging 

 teacher to have the difficulty cleared away. Either he might content 

 himself with carrying away the ready explanation or emendation, or if 

 he attended intelligently, he might, in addition, derive the restricted 

 number of principles and tricks of method, which, in fact, can be 

 summed up in the direction to scrutinize carefully the manuscript to be 

 explained and in the observance of the two main injunctions in Lehrs's 

 philological decalogue : "Thou shalt not prostrate thyself before manu- 

 scripts," and " Thou shalt not take the name method in vain." Finally, 

 when the time came for the young scholar to leave Leipzig, perhaps 

 soon after receiving his degree, the bond that linked him to Fleischer 

 was by no means severed. Whenever and in whatever way he wished 

 he could apply to Fleischer for a solution of problems and difficulties, 



