Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/119

 If there were a work of about ten folios, in which each moderate-sized chapter contained something newmore particularly of a speculative character ; if each chapter gave one something to think about, and constantly afforded fresh disclosures and amplifications, I verily believe I would make a pilgrimage on my knees to Hamburg to get such a work, provided I were sure that enough life and strength would subsequently be left me to peruse it at leisure. That so much should be written against religion and the Bible is mainly due to hatred of a certain class of men. If philologists ever came to be in power, a similar honour might easily, and with more profit, accrue to the old classics, Homer, Virgil, Horace, and others. All that we should need would be a Pope in philology.

Nothing could be a more promising subject for satire than the abominable translations of our day. Most of the learned in Germany are interpreters to the idle and brokers to the booksellers. They translate, so they say, in order to make useful knowledge more common; and knowledge is made common without being useful. Material always being gathered and no final result attained! It is astounding how many a scholar there is in Germany who heaps up knowledge merely in order to exhibit it. The subtlest observation of the moderns is usually nothing but a more individualized expression of the ancients.