624 



PHILOLOGY. 



of philology first communicated Itself to France. 

 We find, in the fifteenth century, Greek and Italian 

 teachers of philology in Paris, and many translations 

 of Roman classics into French. This period, with 

 its momentous consequences, is of the highest impor- 

 tance to the student of history. A new era begins 

 in the history of civilization with the revival of the 

 study of the classics, which, by degrees, exercises a 

 decisive influence on religion and politics, the scien- 

 ces and arts, and the whole tone of society. It is a 

 most interesting task to the philosophic student, to 

 trace the causes of this triumph of pagan civiliza- 

 tion over Christian Europe, by means of the langua- 

 ges and literature of ages long gone by ; to witness 

 the gradual awakening of the nations in proportion 

 to the enthusiasm with which they devoted them- 

 selves to the new study ; to contemplate the gradual 

 decline of this enthusiasm after it had produced its 

 proper effects (as the blossom fades when the fruit is 

 formed); and to analyze the injurious consequences 

 of the exclusive hold wtiich these studies so long 

 possessed over the minds of men : we say injurious 

 consequences, for it is, perhaps, a law of our nature 

 that the causes which strongly stir mankind, and 

 urge them forward in civilization, must lead to ex- 

 cess and corruption, eventually removed by the ac- 

 tion of some new mighty agent ; and the undue de- 

 votion to classical antiquity did- produce, in some 

 respects, deleterious effects, from which our age is 

 now labouring to free itself. In Britain, a scienti- 

 fic philology was introduced about the end of the fif- 

 teenth century, by means of some scholars educated 

 in Italy. In Germany, it came in principally through 

 the Netherlands, and the way for it was prepared 

 by a reform in the mode of teaching in schools in 

 Lower Germany. The first philologists of Germany 

 were educated in Italy ; for example, Rud. Agri- 

 cola (14421485), C. Celtes (14591508), and 

 John Reuchlin (1454 1521). The first was a scho- 

 lar of Thomas a Keinpis, the second was principally 

 distinguished as the founder of learned societies in 

 Germany, the last by the revival of the Hebrew phi- 

 lology. In this century, we find one of the first 

 humanists (humaniora was the name given, since 

 the middle ages, to the sciences which introduced 

 the student to an acquaintance with classical anti- 

 quities, and the teachers of these sciences were ex- 

 clusively called humanists], who exerted a great in- 

 fluence in Germany, and particularly promoted the 

 study of Greek literature we mean Desiderius 

 Erasmus (14671536). 



From the end of the sixteenth t'entury, when the 

 study of ancient literature had again declined in 

 Italy (in later times, it has been cultivated there al- 

 most with an exclusive reference to the history of 

 art and to antiquities), Holland was the school of 

 the greatest philologists, who did much service, parti- 

 cularly in regard to the etymology of the ancient lan- 

 guages, in grammar, verbal criticism and gramma- 

 tical explanations, and, more lately, have applied 

 philology principally to the study of jurisprudence. 

 Among the scholars of Holland is the celebrated 

 Hugo de Groot (Grotius) (1583 1645), who was a 

 master in exegesis, and united philology more closely 

 with theology ; Justus Lipsius, Adr. Jonghe (Ju- 

 nius), Gruter, Dan. and Nic. Heinsius,the Gronovii, 

 Burmann, Perizonius, Lamb. Bos, Siegbert Haver- 

 camp, Drakenborch, Oudendorp, Hemsterhuis, Wes- 

 Beling, Lennep, Hoogeven, Valkenaer, Ruhnken, 

 Wyttenbach, and others. Oriental philology was 

 also here advanced ; for example, by the celebrated 

 Orientalist Erpenius (15841624), Leusden, H. 

 Reland, Albert Schultens (1686 1750), who makes 

 an epoch in this science, &c. Th. Creech, Barnes, 

 John Hudson, Baxter, Clarke, John Taylor, Rich. 



Davis, Wakefield, Robert Wood, Zach. Pearce, 

 Middleton, Potter, Heath, Warton, Musgrave, Tyr- 

 whitt, John Toup, Rich. Bentley and Rich. Porson 

 are the most distinguished among the English classi- 

 cal philologists. But Oriental philology was also 

 much cultivated in England, by Selden, Lightfoot, 

 Walton, Sam. Clarke, Pearson, Castell, Lowth, 

 Kennicot, &c., and the study of the modern langua- 

 ges has been carried, by the diffusion of the English 

 over so many countries, to an unexampled height, 

 while the study of classical philology has somewhat 

 declined in that country. 



In France, philology, especially since the com- 

 mencement of the sixteenth century, has found many 

 patrons and friends. In that country, it has been 

 applied particularly to theology and jurisprudence, 

 but less cultivated as an independent branch of sci- 

 ence. Among the French philologists of the former 

 sort are William Budeor Budasus (1467 1540), and 

 after him, James Cujacius, Brissonius Dionysius 

 Gothofredus (who died in 1622), and others. Among 

 the classical philologists of France are distinguished 

 Lambin, Muretus, the learned printers Rob. and 

 Hen. Stephanus (Etienne), the multifarious scholar 

 Jul. Caes. Scaliger (Delia Scala, originally of Vero- 

 na), his son Jos. Just. Scaliger, also Hadr. Turnebus 

 (Tourneboeuf), Claudius SaGnasius (Saumaise), Isaac 

 Casaubon, Vigerius (Vigier), Du Fresne, Faber (Le 

 Fevre), the archaeologist Montfaugon and others. 

 The study of classical literature had a great effect 

 upon the French national literature, in which (for 

 instance, in tragedy) they strove to imitate the an- 

 cients. In later times, philological studies have been 

 very much neglected in that country, and it affords 

 only a few distinguished names, as Villoison, La 

 Rochette, Boissonade, Larcher, Gail. In the seven- 

 teenth century, Oriental philology found friends, 

 among the French Bochart, D'Herbelot, Le Jay, 

 La Croze, Houbigant, and others ; and owes much 

 to the celebrated scholars of our time, Silvestre de 

 Sacy and Louis Matthieu Langles. The knowledge 

 of modern languages has been less necessary to the 

 French on account of the great extension of their own. 



The Spanish and Portuguese have only a few dis- 

 tinguished philologists ; but the number of Germans 

 who have investigated profoundly and extensively 

 the classical languages and antiquities is very great. 

 To the sixteenth century belong Joach. Camerarius, 

 the promoter of Grecian literature ; the lexicogra- 

 pher Bas. Faber, and the learned antiquarian Joh. 

 George Graevius (Grave) ; to the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, in which philology was less favoured, the 

 learned Caspar Earth, John Freinsheim, Weller, 

 Chris. Cellarius ; to the eighteenth, Ludolf Kuster, 

 Francis Budasus, J. A. Fabricius, Lange, Frisch, He- 

 dericus ; since the middle of that century, John 

 Matth. Gesner established a profound and tasteful 

 philological school, with which the flourishing period 

 of independent philology begins among the Germans, 

 which was carried to a great height by Winckelmann, 

 Lessing and Herder. In later times, Germany can 

 boast of Ernesti, Reiske, Heusinger, Duker, Wessel- 

 ing, Fischer, Reiz,Brunck. To the nineteenth century 

 belong the following, the greater part of whom are still 

 living: Heyne, Wolf, Beck, Schneider, Harles, Mat- 

 thia, Buttmann, Schutz, Oberlin, Spalding, Schweig- 

 hauser, Hermann, Heindorf, Schafer,Bockh, Creuzer, 

 Schleiermacher, Bekker, Voss, Eichstadt, Jacobs, Pas- 

 sow, and others. Oriental philology, particularly the 

 Hebrew literature and language, was cultivated in the 

 sixteenth century, by Buxtorf; in the seventeenth, by 

 Glass, Pfeifer; in the eighteenth and nineteenth, by 

 Michaelis, Dantz, Dathe, Hezel, Cocceii, Schnurrer, 

 Tychsen, Eichhorn, Paulus, Von Hammer, Vater, Ge- 

 senius ; of late the Sanscrit by A. W. Schlegel, Rose- 



