Abstract
In a letter written during the last year of his life, Max Müller confessed to his son, Wilhelm: “I am prepared to go; it would be strange if I were not, with such a long life behind me, and most of it devoted to religious and philosophical questions.” He then added, with a poetic air, “And having lived this long life so full of light, having been led so kindly by a fatherly hand through all storms and struggles, why should I be afraid when I have to make the last step?” (quoted in Chaudhuri 1974: 382). At age seventy-five, Friedrich Max Müller was dying, barely strong enough to care for himself, let alone continue the heavy demands placed upon him by his private correspondence. Müllers illness had lasted throughout the summer of 1899 and by September his doctors had given up hope for a full recovery. However, in early 1900, the world-renowned Oxford don regained enough of his strength to write one last controversial article—on the Boer War—a pro-British essay that outraged his German compatriots. After the controversy surrounding his article had died down, Müller himself lingered on for only a few months more, finally succumbing to his illness on October 28, 1900 (Chaudhuri 1974: 252–255, 368–370).
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Stone, J.R. (2002). Introduction. In: Stone, J.R. (eds) The Essential Max Müller On Language, Mythology, and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-08450-7_1
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