94 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



To some, I think, he caused actual pain by his modesty ; 

 I have seen the late Francis Balfour quite discomposed by 

 having knowledge ascribed to himself on a point about 

 which my father claimed to be utterly ignorant. 



It is difficult to seize on the characteristics of my father's 

 conversation. 



He had more dread than have most people of repeating 

 his stories, and continually said, " You must have heard me 

 tell," or " I daresay I've told you." One peculiarity he had, 

 which gave a curious effect to his conversation. The first 

 few words of a sentence would often remind him of some 

 exception to, or some reason against, what he was going to 

 say ; and this again brought up some other point, so that 

 the sentence would become a system of parenthesis within 

 parenthesis, and it was often impossible to understand the 

 drift of what he was saying until he came to the end of his 

 sentence. He used to say of himself that he was not quick 

 enough to hold an argument with any one, and I think this 

 was true. Unless it was a subject on which he was just 

 then at work, he could not get the train of argument into 

 working order quickly enough. This is shown even in his 

 letters ; thus, in the case of two letters to Professor Semper 

 about the effect of isolation, he did not recall the series of 

 facts he wanted until some days after the first letter had 

 been sent off. 



When puzzled in talking, he had a peculiar stammer on 

 the first word of a sentence. I only recall this occurring 

 with words beginning with w; possibly he had a special 

 difficulty with this letter, for I have heard him say that as a 

 boy he could not pronounce w, and that sixpence was offered 

 him if he could say " white wine," which he pronounced 

 " rite rine." Possibly he may have inherited this tendency 

 from Erasmus Darwin who stammered.* 



He sometimes combined his metaphors in a curious way, 

 using such a phrase as " holding on like life " a mixture 

 of " holding on for his life," and " holding on like grim 

 death." It came from his eager way of putting emphasis 

 into what he was saying. This sometimes gave an air of 

 exaggeration where it was not intended ; but it gave, too, a 

 noble air of strong and generous conviction; as, for in- 



* My father related a Johnsonian answer of Erasmus Darwin's : " Don't 

 you find it very inconvenient stammering, Dr. Darwin I " " No, Sir, because 

 1 have time to think before I speak, and don't ask impertinent questions." 



