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FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER (1823-1900)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 928 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRIEDRICH MAX See also:MULLER (1823-1900)  , Anglo-See also:German orientalist and See also:comparative philologist, was See also:born at See also:Dessau on the 6th of See also:December 1823, being the son of Wilhelm See also:Muller (1794-1827), the German poet, celebrated for his phil-Hellenic lyrics, who was ducal librarian at Dessau . The See also:elder Muller had endeared himself to the most intellectual circles in See also:Germany by his amiable See also:character and his genuine poetic See also:gift; his songs had been utilized by musical composers, notably See also:Schubert; and it was his son's See also:good See also:fortune to meet in his youth with a See also:succession of eminent See also:friends, who, already interested in him for his See also:father's See also:sake, and charmed by the qualities which they discovered in the See also:young See also:man himself, powerfully aided him by See also:advice and patronage . Mendelssohn, who was his godfather, dissuaded him from indulging his natural See also:bent to the study of See also:music; See also:Professor See also:Brockhaus of the University of See also:Leipzig, where Max Muller matriculated in 1841, induced him to take up See also:Sanskrit; Hopp, at the University of See also:Berlin (1844), made the Sanskrit student a scientific comparative philologist; See also:Schelling at the same university, inspired him with a love for metaphysical See also:speculation, though failing to attract him to his own See also:philosophy; See also:Burnouf, at See also:Paris in the following See also:year, by teaching him Zend, started him on the track of inquiry into the See also:science of comparative See also:religion, and impelled him to edit the Rig Veda; and when, in 1846, Max Muller came to See also:England upon this errand, See also:Bunsen, in See also:conjunction with Professor H . H . See also:Wilson, prevailed upon the See also:East See also:India See also:Company to undertake the expense of publication . Up to this See also:time Max Muller had lived the See also:life of a poor student, supporting himself partly by copying See also:manuscripts, but Bunsen's introductions to See also:Queen See also:Victoria and the See also:prince See also:consort, and to See also:Oxford University, laid the See also:foundation for him of fame and fortune . In 1848 the See also:printing of his Rig Veda at the University See also:Press obliged him to See also:settle in Oxford, a step which decided his future career . He arrived at a favourable conjuncture: the Tractarian strife, which had so See also:long thrust learning into the background, was just over, and Oxford was becoming accessible to See also:modern ideas . The young German excited curiosity and See also:interest, and it was soon discovered that, although a genuine See also:scholar, he was no See also:mere bookworm . See also:Part of his social success was due to his readiness to exert his musical talents at private parties . Max Muller was speedily subjugated by the See also:genius loci . He was appointed See also:deputy Taylorian professor of modern See also:languages in 185o, and the German See also:government failed to tempt him back to See also:Strassburg .

In the following year he was made M.A. and honorary See also:

fellow of See also:Christ See also:Church, and in 1858 he was elected a fellow of All Souls . In 1854 the See also:Crimean See also:War gave him the opportunity of utilizing his See also:oriental learning in vocabularies and schemes of transliteration . In 1857 he successfully essayed another See also:kind of literature in his beautiful See also:story Deutsche Liebe, written both in German and See also:English . He had by this time become an extensive contributor to English periodical literature, and had written several of the essays subsequently collected as Chips from a German Workshop . The most important of them was the fascinating See also:essay on " Comparative See also:Mythology " in the Oxford Essays for 1856 . His valuable See also:History of See also:Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the See also:primitive religion of the Brahmans (and hence the Vedic See also:period only), was published in 1859 . Though Max Muller's reputation was that of a comparative philologist and orientalist, his professional duties at Oxford were long confined to lecturing on modern languages, or at least their See also:medieval forms . In 186o the See also:death of See also:Horace Hayman Wilson, professor of Sanskrit, seemed to open a more congenial See also:sphere to him . His claims to the succession seemed incontestable, for his opponent, Monier See also:Williams, though well qualified as a Sanskritist, lacked Max Miiller's brilliant versatility, and although educated at Oxford, had held no University See also:office . But Max Muller was a Liberal, and the friend of Liberals in university matters, in politics, and in See also:theology, and this See also:consideration See also:united with his See also:foreign See also:birth to bring the See also:country See also:clergy in such hosts to the See also:poll that the See also:voice of See also:resident Oxford was overborne, and Monier Williams was elected by a large See also:majority . It was the one See also:great disappointment of Max Muller's life, and made a lasting impression upon him . It was, nevertheless, serviceable to his See also:influence and reputation by permitting him to enter upon a wider See also:field of subjects than would have been possible otherwise .

Directly, Sanskrit See also:

philology received little more from him, except in connexion with his later undertaking of The Sacred Books of the East; but indirectly he exalted it more than any predecessor by proclaiming its commanding position in the history of the human See also:intellect by his Science of See also:Language, two courses of lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in 1861 and 1863 . Max Muller ought not to be described as " the introducer of comparative philology into England." See also:Prichard had proved the See also:Aryan See also:affinities of the See also:Celtic languages by the methods of comparative philology so long before as 1831; Winning's See also:Manual of Comparative Philology had been published in 1838; the discoveries of See also:Bopp and See also:Pott and Pictet had been recognized in brilliant articles in the Quarterly See also:Review, and had guided the researches of See also:Rawlinson . But Max Muller undoubtedly did far more to popularize the subject than had been done, or could have been done, by any predecessor . He was on less sure ground in another See also:department of the study of language—the problem of its origin . He wrote upon it as a See also:disciple of See also:Kant, whose Critique of Pure See also:Reason he translated . His essays on mythology are among the most delightful of his writings, but their value is somewhat impaired by a too uncompromising adherence to the seductive generalization of the See also:solar myth . Max Muller's studies in mythology led him to another field of activity in which his influence was more durable and extensive, that of the comparative science of religions . Here, so far as Great See also:Britain is concerned, he does deserve the fame of an originator, and his Introduction to the Science of Religion (1893: the same year in which he lectured on the subject, at See also:Dean See also:Stanley's invitation, in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, this being the only occasion on which a layman had given an address there) marks an See also:epoch . It was followed by other See also:works of importance, especially the four volumes of See also:Gifford lectures, delivered between 1888 and 1892; but the most tangible result of the impulse he had given was the publication under his editorship, from 1875 onwards, of The Sacred Books of the East, in fifty-one volumes, including indexes, all but three of which appeared under his superintendence during his lifetime . These comprise See also:translations by the most competent scholars of all the really important non-See also:Christian scriptures of Oriental nations, which can now be appreciated without a knowledge of the See also:original languages . Max Muller also wrote on See also:Indian philosophy in his latter years, and his exertions to stimulate See also:search for Oriental manuscripts and See also:inscriptions were rewarded with important discoveries of See also:early Buddhist scriptures, in their Indian See also:form, made in See also:Japan . He was on particularly friendly terms with native See also:Japanese scholars, and after his death his library was See also:purchased by the university of See also:Tokyo .

In 1868 Max Muller had been indemnified for his disappointment over the Sanskrit professorship by the See also:

establishment of a See also:chair of Comparative Philology to be filled by him . He retired, however, from the actual duties of the See also:post in 1875, when entering upon the editorship of The Sacred Books of the East . The most remarkable See also:external events of. his latter years were his delivery of lectures at the restored university of Strassburg in 1872, when he devoted his honorarium to the endowment of a Sanskrit lectureship, and his See also:presidency over the See also:International See also:Congress of Orientalists in 1892, But his days, if uneventful, were busy . He participated in every See also:movement at Oxford of which he could approve, and was intimate with nearly all its men of See also:light and leading; he was a See also:curator of the Bodleian Library, and a delegate of the University Press . He was acquainted with most of the crowned headsof See also:Europe, and was an especial favourite with the English royal See also:family . His hospitality was ample, especially to visitors from India, where he was far better known than any other See also:European Orientalist . His distinctions, conferred by foreign governments and learned See also:societies, were innumerable, and, having been naturalized shortly after his arrival in England, he received the high See also:honour of being made a privy councillor . In 1898 and 1899 he published autobiographical reminiscences under the See also:title of Auld See also:Lang Syne . He was See also:writing a more detailed autobiography when overtaken by death on the 28th of See also:October 1900 . Max Muller married in 1859 Georgiana See also:Adelaide Grenfell, See also:sister of the wives of See also:Charles See also:Kingsley and J . A . See also:Froude .

One of his daughters, Mrs See also:

Conybeare, distinguished herself by a See also:translation of See also:Scherer's History of German Literature . Though undoubtedly a great scholar, Max Muller did not so much represent scholarship pure and See also:simple as her hybrid types—the scholar-author and the scholar-courtier . In the former capacity, though manifesting little of the originality of genius, he rendered vast service by popularizing high truths among high minds . In his public and social character he represented Oriental studies with a brilliancy, and conferred upon them a distinction, which they had not previously enjoyed in Great Britain . There were drawbacks in both respects: the author was too prone to build upon insecure See also:foundations, and the man of the See also:world incurred censure for failings which may perhaps be best indicated by the remark that he seemed too much of a diplomatist . But the sum of foibles seems insignificant in comparison with the life of intense labour dedicated to the service of culture and humanity . Max Muller's Collected Works were published in 1903 . (R .

End of Article: FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER (1823-1900)
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