“Gaisford himself never learnt German. He is said indeed to have visited the continent only once, when he made an expedition to Leyden to consult some MSS. Here he became acquainted with sundry Professors; and it happened on one occasion that one of these learned men made a slip in some metrical rule. Gaisford interposed, and poured forth (in Latin) a flood of learning from Hephaistion and other Greek authors on metres. The Dutch professor held up his hands and exclaimed, ‘O vir magnae profecto sapientiae, si tam in rebus quam in verbis incaluisses!'” *
*(Oh, you man of undoubtedly great learning, would that you became as passionate about real affairs as you do about words!)
-Henry L. Thompson, Henry George Liddell: A Memoir (New York: Henry Holt and Co.) p. 25
