Command of the English Language

Oh, how I wish I could write like this:

"Trust a witness in all matters in which neither his self-interest, his passions, his prejudices, nor the love of the marvelous is strongly concerned. When they are involved, require corroborative evidence in exact proportion to the contravention of probability by the thing testified." - Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895).

I guess I ought to read more late nineteenth century literature in an effort to develop my writing, eh? Suggestions?