88 



WOLF. 



the advance of philosophy has shown that the ma- 

 thematical method is inapplicable to it, in its whole 

 extent, still it cannot be denied, that great credit 

 is due to him for having carried it through one of 

 its stages. His influence on science and the whole 

 intellectual developement of his countrymen was 

 very great. The German language also owes him 

 much. Kant gave the finishing blow to Wolf's 

 dogmatic method. 



WOLF, FREDERICK, AUGUSTUS, the greatest 

 philologist of his age, was born in Haynrode, a vil- 

 lage near Nordhausen, in Thuringia, in 1759. His 

 father was organist of the village, and subsequently 

 teacher in Nordhausen. His mother, a woman of 

 great ability, educated him well. He early ac- 

 quired a taste for the study of languages. He was 

 initiated in modern languages by an instructor 

 named Frankenstein, who thought the acquisi- 

 tion of them so easy, if a good foundation was 

 laid in the ancient languages, that he used to lend 

 young Wolf the dictionary of each of them for two 

 months only, a period which he considered sufficient 

 for acquiring the necessary number of words, by 

 copying and learning by heart. Even while at 

 school, at Nordhausen, Wolf pursued the compara- 

 tive study of the ancient and modern tongues, in or- 

 der to draw up a comparative grammar. Before 

 entering the university, he had made himself ac- 

 quainted, partially at least, with the principal clas- 

 sic authors, and those of France, Spain, Italy, and 

 England. His father instructed him in music, and, 

 after having prepared him sufficiently, put him un- 

 der the care of a learned organist, named Schroter, 

 who delighted him by his acquaintance with the 

 ancient writings on music, while he tormented him 

 with the mathematical part of the science. For 

 mathematics Wolf had no taste, either in his youth 

 or in his riper age. At the age of nineteen years, 

 he went to the University of Gottingen, with the 

 firm intention of devoting himself to philology ex- 

 clusively. He requested to be called, in the form 

 of matriculation, philologies studiosus, which was so 

 uncommon a thing, that much objection was made 

 to it ; but h,e was not to be diverted from his reso- 

 lution, though even Heyne tried to persuade him to 

 have himself entered as studiosus theologice. His 

 irregular attendance on the lectures brought him 

 into bad repute so that Heyne refused him permis- 

 sion to attend his lectures on Pindar, as utterly un- 

 qualified. But Wolf studied so much the more 

 assiduously alone, and in the library of the univer- 

 sity. In 1770, he published, at Gottingen, Shaks- 

 peare's Macbeth, with explanatory notes, for the 

 use of some students whom he instructed in the 

 ancient languages and English. In consequence of 

 his constant application, he was twice dangerously 

 sick. Before he left Gottingen, in 1779, he laid 

 before Heyne his views respecting Homer, which 

 differed from those of the distinguished professor, 

 and were peremptorily rejected by him. In the 

 same year, he went as teacher extraordinary to the 

 academy at llfeld, where he made himself known 

 to the philological world by his edition of Plato's 

 Banquet, with notes in German, perhaps with a 

 view of making himself known to the Prussian mi- 

 nisters, as he already had his eye upon a chair in a 

 Prussian university, the name of Frederic the Great 

 exercising a magic power on genius. In 1782, he 

 was made rector of the town school at Osterode. 

 In the next year he was called upon to become or- 

 dinary professor of philosophy, particularly of the 

 science of education, and director of the academy 



at Halle, with a salary of less than 200 dollars, 

 which place and poor salary, though already mar- 

 ried, he preferred to a much more lucrative one, 

 also offered to him. He was then but twenty-four 

 years old. At first, the students did not under- 

 stand the tone he assumed ; and it was not till he 

 treated them as he had done his pupils at' Osterode, 

 that he obtained many hearers. It was not till the 

 last ten years of his residence in Halle, that he re- 

 turned to his first mode of teaching. As an acade- 

 mical teacher, Wolf followed his own peculiar 

 views: he believed that classical antiquity must be 

 considered as a model of public and private life, 

 founded on the noblest ideas, and be treated in this 

 light, as a means of forming the minds of pupils at 

 the universities. His great aim was to be a teacher. 

 To appear as an author, which so many academical 

 instructors regard as of the first importance, was 

 with him but a secondary object. His uncommon 

 activity is shown by the fact that, during the 

 twenty-three years of his residence at Halle, he de- 

 livered above fifty courses of lectures, all replete 

 with the traces of a genius of the highest order, in 

 addition to his lectures and labours at the philolo- 

 gical seminary. For the use of the students at- 

 tending his mythological lectures, he published, in 

 1784, a new edition of Hesiod's Theogony, with a 

 preface and a kind of commentary from lectures al- 

 ready delivered : but this was the only instance of 

 his connecting any publication with his lectures. 

 In the preface a few cautious remarks show his 

 views of the earliest Greeks, as exhibited fully, at 

 a later period, in his Prolegomena to Homer. It 

 does him great credit to have waited so long, and 

 to have weighed and considered his ideas so often be- 

 fore publishing them. The book establishment con- 

 nected with the orphan asylum at Halle, requested 

 him to undertake a reprint of Homer's works from 

 the Glasgow edition. From that period, he often 

 lectured on the whole of Homer. In 1792, ap- 

 peared his edition of Demosthenes's Speech against 

 Leptines, which added much to his reputation as a 

 philologist, on account of its perfect Latinity, and 

 the masterly character of its introduction, commen- 

 tary, and corrections of the text. In 1795 followed 

 the first volume of his Prolegomena to Homer, in 

 which he gives his views respecting the ancient and 

 original form of the Iliad and Odyssey, the changes 

 which they have experienced, and the most proba- 

 ble mode of restoring them ; showing, with rare 

 sagacity and erudition, that the Iliad arid Odyssey, 

 as they exist at present, are not the work of one 

 Homer, but of several Homeric rhapsodists. (See 

 Homer.) The work attracted great attention all 

 over Europe, gave rise to many controversies, and 

 to the most important historical and critical inqui- 

 ries. The author had no objection to controversy 

 if truth was thereby elicited, but was offended with 

 the assertions of certain scholars that they had long 

 entertained similar ideas. He became, on this ac- 

 count, involved in disputes with several of them ; 

 and Heyne even endeavoured to assume the credit 

 of having suggested to Wolf the ideas which led 

 him to this result. This caused the spirited Letters 

 to Heyne, of which the three first are considered as 

 excellent models of learned controversy and po- 

 lished irony. In 1801, Wolf laid the critical knife 

 to several speeches of Cicero, proving that they 

 are not genuine, but ought to be considered as 

 mere exercises in declamation, and are unworthy 

 of the great orator. In 1802 appeared his edi- 

 ! tion of Suetonius. After having refused an in- 



