BOPP, Franz, German philologist: b. Mainz, Germany, 14 Sept. 1791; d. Berlin, 23 Oct. 1867. Hellas been called ((the founder of comparative philology,* and it seems wholly true, as was said at the time of his death, that, but for him, the science of language might not have elevated itself so soon or so indisputably to a height deserving the title of science. A distinguished English scholar who had studied under Bopp showed in the following tribute how deeply the merit of his old instructor was appreciated: ((Bopp must, more or less, directly or Indirectly, be the teacher of all who at the present day study, not this language or that language, but language itself — study it either as a universal function of man, subjected, like his other mental or physical functions, to law and order, or else as an historical development, worked out by a never ceasing course of edu cation from one form into another." (Consult Martineau, R.,
more than a mere dictionary knowledge of Sanskrit was required. The resemblances which he detected between Sanskrit and the Western cognate tongues existed in the syntax, the combination of words in the sentence and the various devices which only actual reading of the literature could disclose, far more than in the mere vocabulary. As a comparative grammarian he was much more than as a Sanskrit scholar,* and yet ((it is surely much that. he made the grammar, formerly a maze of Indian subtilty, as simple and attractive as that of Greek or Latin, introduced the study of the easier works of Sanskrit literature and trained (personally or by his books) pupils who could advance far higher, invade even the most intricate parts of the literature and make the Vedas intelligible. The great truth which his