REMINISCENCES OF HUXLEY 207 
one-sided, dead to some of the most interesting as- 
pects of human life. But Huxley was keenly alive in 
all directions, and would have enjoyed mastering all 
branches of knowledge, if the days had only been long 
enough. He found rest and recreation in change of 
themes, and after a long day’s scientific work at South 
Kensington would read Sybel’s “ French Revolution,” 
or Lange’s “ History of Materialism,” or the last new 
novel, until the witching hour of midnight. This 
reading was in various languages. Without a uni- 
versity education,, Huxley had a remarkably good 
knowledge of Latin. He was fond of Spinoza, and 
every once in a while, in the course of our chats, he 
would exclaim: “Come, now, let’s see what old Bene- 
dict has to say about it! There’s no better man.” 
Then he would take the book from its shelf, and 
while we both looked on the page he would give 
voice to his own comments in a broad and liberal 
paraphrase, that showed his sound and scholarlike ap- 
preciation of every point in the Latin text. A spirited 
and racy version it would have been, had he ever 
undertaken to translate Spinoza. So I remember 
saying once, but he replied, “We must leave it for 
young Fred Pollock, whom I think you have seen; 
he is shy and doesn’t say much, but I can tell 
you, whatever he does is sure to be amazingly 
good.” They who are familiar with Sir Frederick 
Pollock’s noble book on Spinoza, to say nothing 
of his other works, will recognize the truth of the 
prophecy: 
Huxley had also a mastery of French, Italian, and 
German, and perhaps of some other modern lan- 
guages. Angelo Heilprin says that he found him 
