Philology … is an historical science. Language is here treated simply as a means. The classical scholar uses Greek or Latin… as a key to the understanding of the literary monuments which bygone ages have bequeathed to us, as a spell to raise from the tomb of time the thoughts of great men in different ages and different countries, and as a means ultimately to trace the social, moral, intellectual, and religious progress of the human race…. In comparative philology the case is totally different. In the science of language, languages are not treated as a means; language itself becomes the sole object of scientific inquiry.
-Max Müller quoted in Sandys • History of Classical Scholarship Vol 1, p. 3
