It is therefore peculiarly interesting to note the cause which determined the young Huxley to take up the study of so little read a language.  I have more than once heard him say that this was one half of the debt he owed to Carlyle, the other half being an intense hatred of shams of every sort and kind.  The translations from the German, the constant references to German literature and philosophy, fired him to try the vast original from which these specimens were quarried, for the sake partly of the literature, but still more of the philosophy.  The translation of “Wilhelm Meister,” and some of the “Miscellaneous Essays” together, with “The French Revolution,” were certainly among works of Carlyle with which he first made acquaintance, to be followed later by “Sartor Resartus,” which for many years afterwards was his Enchiridion, as he puts it in an unpublished autobiographical fragment.

By great good fortune, a singularly interesting glimpse of my father’s life from the age of fifteen onwards has been preserved in the shape of a fragmentary journal which he entitled, German fashion, “Thoughts and Doings.”  Begun on September 29, 1840, it is continued for a couple of years, and concludes with some vigorous annotations in 1845, when the little booklet emerged from a three years’ oblivion at the bottom of an old desk.  Early as this journal is, in it the boy displays three habits afterwards characteristic of the man:  the habit of noting down any striking thought or saying he came across in the course of his reading; of speculating on the causes of things and discussing the right and wrong of existing institutions; and of making scientific experiments, using them to correct his theories.

The first entry, the heading, as it were, and keynote of all the rest, is a quotation from Novalis;—­“Philosophy can bake no bread; but it can prove for us God, freedom, and immortality.  Which, now, is more practical, Philosophy or Economy?” The reference here given is to a German edition of Novalis, so that it seems highly probable that the boy had learnt enough of the language to translate a bit for himself, though, as appears from entries in 1841, he had still to master the grammar completely.

In science, he was much interested in electricity; he makes a galvanic battery] “in view of experiment to get crystallized carbon.  Got it deposited, but not crystallized.” [Other experiments and theorising upon them are recorded in the following year.  Another entry showing the courage of youth, deserves mention:—­]

October 5 (1840).—­Began speculating on the cause of colours at sunset.  Has any explanation of them ever been attempted? [which is supplemented by an extract] from old book.

[We may also remark the early note of Radicalism and resistance to anything savouring of injustice or oppression, together with the naive honesty of the admission that his opinions may change with years.]

October 25 (at Hinckley).—­Read Dr. S. Smith on the Divine Government.—­Agree with him partly.—­I should say that a general belief in his doctrines would have a very injurious effect on morals.