The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, vol 1 | Page 7

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to be followed later by "Sartor Resartus," which for many years afterwards was his Enchiridion, as he puts it in an unpublished autobiographical fragment.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.
November 22.--...Had a long talk with my mother and father about the right to make Dissenters pay church rates--and whether there ought to be any Establishment. I maintain that there ought not in both cases--I wonder what will be my opinion ten years hence? I think now that it is against all laws of justice to force men to support a church with whose opinions they cannot conscientiously agree. The argument that the rate is so small is very fallacious. It is as much a sacrifice of principle to do a little wrong as to do a great one.
November 22 (Hinckley).--Had a long argument with Mr. May on the nature of the soul and the difference between it and matter. I maintained that it could not be proved that matter is ESSENTIALLY--as to its base--different from soul. Mr. M. wittily said, soul was the perspiration of matter.
We cannot find the absolute basis of matter: we only know it by its properties; neither know we the soul in any other way. Cogito ergo sum is the only thing that we CERTAINLY know.
Why may not soul and matter be of the same substance (i.e. basis whereon to fix qualities, for we cannot suppose a quality to exist per se--it must have a something to qualify), but with different qualities.
Let us suppose then an Eon--a something with no quality but that of existence--this Eon endued with all the intelligence, mental qualities, and that in the highest degree--is God. This combination of intelligence with existence we may suppose to have existed from eternity. At the creation we may suppose that a portion of the Eon was separated from the intelligence, and it was ordained--it became a natural law--that it should have the properties of gravitation, etc.--that is, that it should give to man the ideas of those properties. The Eon in this state is matter in the abstract. Matter, then, is Eon in the simplest form in which it possesses qualities appreciable by the senses. Out of this matter, by the superimposition of fresh qualities, was made all things that are.
1841.
January