The learning of German was one half of the debt he owed to Carlyle,
the other being an intense hatred of shams of every sort and kind. He
had begun to read the fiery-tongued prophet in his earliest teens, and
caught his inspiration at once. _Sartor Resartus_ was for many years
his Enchiridion (he says), while the translations from the German, the
references to German literature and philosophy, fired him to read the
originals.

As to other languages, his testimonials in 1842 record that he reads
French with facility, and has a fair knowledge of Latin. Thus he took
the _Suites à Buffon_ with him on the _Rattlesnake_ as a reference
book in zoology. As to Latin, he was not content with a knowledge of
its use in natural science. Beyond the minimum knowledge needful
to interpret, or to confer, the "barbarous binomials" of scientific
nomenclature, he was led on to read early scientific works published
in Latin; and in philosophy, something of Spinoza; and later,
massive tomes of the Fathers, whether to barb his exquisite irony in
dissecting St. George Mivart's exposition of the orthodox Catholic
view of Evolution, or in the course of his studies in Biblical
criticism. Of Greek, mention has already been made. He employed his
late beginnings of the language not only to follow Aristotle's work
as an anatomist, but to aid his studies in Greek philosophy and New
Testament criticism, and to enjoy Homer in the original. In middle
life, too, he dipped sufficiently into Norwegian and Danish to grapple
with some original scientific papers. When he was fifteen, Italian as
well as German is set down by him in his list of things to be
learnt, though for some time the pressure of preparing for the London
matriculation barred the way; and on the voyage of the _Rattlesnake_
he spent many hours making out Dante with the aid of a dictionary.