GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIlJlT. 137 



nised by the great teachers of text-criticism in Germany, 

 who, following the example of Eichard Bentley, intro- 

 duced his methods into their philological seminaries or 

 training schools. These reached their highest develop- 33. 



° . Criticism as 



ment and most perfect organisation first under Hermann, practise.! by 



c ^ Hermann 



and then under the greatest among his independent -"'dRitschL 

 followers, Friedrich Eitschl (1806-1877). The philo- 

 logical seminary of the latter has become a model for 

 the highest form of university instruction. 



And yet it cannot be denied that in the larger move- 

 ment of thought this criticism of texts, with all its 

 elaborate and ingenious machinery, forms only a tem- 

 porary resting-place. In this respect we can compare it 

 to the temporary stages which in scientific thought have 

 furnished firm foundations for great scientific develop- 

 ments. As such we had to regard, for instance, the 

 atomic theory, the older undulatory theory of light, or the 

 dynamical theory of gases. None of these theories, any 

 more than the theory of gravitation, can be regarded as 

 ultimate foundations, though they for a long time fur- 

 nished convenient, well-defined, and practically useful 

 standing-ground for research, and will continue to do so 

 for teaching purposes, even after their merely preliminary 

 character has become scientifically recognised. 



In opposition to the grammatical and textual studies 

 which formed the main part of Gottfried Hermann's 

 labours, we have in Gcittingen the development of 

 Gessner's and Heyne's seminary under the influence of 



little become antiquated as Bent- 

 ley's dissertation on the ' Letters 

 of Phalaris ' or Lessing's ' Anti- 

 quarian Letters,' and will continue 



to be the student's introduction to 

 method " (see Wilamowitz - Moel- 

 lendorff, in Lexis, loc. cit., vol, i. 

 p. 471). 



