Max-Müller, FRIEDRICH, philologist, was born at Dessau, in the duchy of Anhalt-Dessau, 6th December 1823. His father, Wilhelm Müller, distinguished not only for his worth as a man and his extensive and thorough scholarship, but as one of the first German lyric poets, was librarian of the ducal library, but died prematurely, October 1827. Max-Müller received the elements of his education at Dessau, and then went to Leipzig, where he studied Greek and Latin under Hermann and Haupt, and took his degree in 1843. He began the study of Sanskrit under Professor H. Brockhaus, and soon chose it as his special pursuit. The first fruits of his labours appeared in a translation of the Hito padesa (Leip. 1844). In 1844 he went to Berlin to study under Bopp and Schelling, and consult the Sanskrit MSS. to be found there. In Paris, whither he repaired in 1845, he began, at the instigation of Burnouf, to prepare for an edition of the Rig-Veda, with the commentary of Sâyanâcârya. With this view he came to England, June 1846, to examine the MSS. in the East India House, London, and the Bodleian Library at Oxford; and, on the recommendation of Professor H. H. Wilson, the East India Company commissioned him (1847) to edit the Rig-Veda at their expense (6 vols. 1849-74; new ed. 1890). In 1850 Max-Müller was appointed Deputy Taylorian professor of Modern Languages at Oxford; in 1854 he succeeded to the professorship; in 1858 he was elected a Fellow of All Souls; and in 1866 was made professor of Comparative Philology. Max-
Müller has published treatises on a variety of philosophical topics, which have done more than the labours of any other single scholar to awaken in England a taste for the science of language in its modern sense. Inheriting the poetic imagination and fire of his father, Max-Müller has at command such a felicity of illustration that subjects dry under ordinary treatment become in his hands attractive. He has published a translation into German of Kâlidâsa's Megha-dûta (1847); The Languages of the Sea of War in the East (1854); Comparative Mythology (1856); History of Sanskrit Literature (1859); Lectures on The Science of Language (1861-63); Lectures on The Science of Religion (1870). Other works were Chips from a German Workshop (4 vols. 1868-75), the Hibbert Lectures on The Origin and Growth of Religion (1878), Selected Essays (1881), and Biographical Essays (1883). A novel written in German, Deutsche Liebe, which has gone through many editions, is attributed to him. He edited the important series of The Sacred Books of the East. In 1888-92 he delivered at Glasgow the Gifford Lectures published as Natural Religion, Physical Religion, Anthropological Religion, Psychical Religion. He was one of the eight foreign members of the Institute of France; LL.D. of Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Bologna; a Commander of the Legion of Honour (1896); and a Member of the Privy Council (1896). He died at Oxford, 28th Oct. 1900. See his Auld Lang Syne (1898-99).