Volume 1

Life and letters of Thomas Henry Huxley / by his son Leonard Huxley.

  • Leonard Huxley
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Life and letters of Thomas Henry Huxley / by his son Leonard Huxley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    away without knowing it—and let me remember this— that it is better to read a little and thoroughly, thau cram a crude undigested mass into my head, though it he great in quantity. (This is about the only resolution I have ever stuck to—1845.) [Well do I remember how in that little narrow surgery I used to work morning after morning and evening after evening at that insufferably dry and profitless book, Hume’s History, how I worked against hope through the series of thefts, robberies, and throat-cutting in those three first volumes, and how at length I gave up the task in utter disgust and despair. Mackintosh’s History, on the other hand, I remember reading with great pleasure, and also Guizot’s Civilisation in Europe; the scientific theoretical form of the latter especially pleased me, but the want of sufficient know- ledge to test his conclusions was a great drawback. 1845 ] There follow notes of work done in successive weeks—June 20 to August 9, and September 27 to October 4. History, German, Mathematics, Physics, Physiology; makes an electro-magnet; reads Guizot’s History of Civilisation in Europe, on which he remarks “an excellent work—very tough reading, though.” At the beginning of October, under “ Miscel- laneous,” “Became acquainted with constitution of French Chambre des deputes and their parties.” It was his practice to note any sayings that struck him:— Truths : “ I hate all people who want to found sects. It is not error but sects—it is not error but sectarian error, nay, and even sectarian truth, which causes the unhappiness of mankind.”—Lessing. VOL. I 0