A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c6.20

c6.20

The object and aim of philology, in its highest sense, is but one,—to learn what man is, by learning what man has been. With this principle for our pole-star, we shall never lose ourselves, though engaged in the most minute and abstruse inquiries. Our own studies may seemingly refer to matters that are but secondary and preparatory, to the clearance, so to say, of the rubbish which passing ages have left on the monuments of the human mind. But we shall never mistake that rubbish for the monuments which it covers. And if, after years of tiresome labour, we do not arrive at the results which we expected,—if we find but spurious and unimportant fabrications of individuals, where we thought to place ourselves face to face with the heroes of an ancient world, and among ruins that should teach us the lessons of former ages,—we need not be discouraged nor ashamed, for in true science even a disappointment is a result.