100 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



characterising such mechanical work as counting. I think 

 he personified each seed as a small demon trying to elude 

 him by getting into the wrong heap, or jumping away alto- 

 gether ; and this gave to the work the excitement of a game. 

 He had great faith in instruments, and I do not think it 

 naturally occurred to him to doubt the accuracy of a scale, 

 a measuring glass, &c. He was astonished when we found 

 that one of his micrometers differed from the other. He 

 did not require any great accuracy in most of his measure- 

 ments, and had not good scales ; he had an old three-foot 

 rule, which was the common property of the household, and 

 was constantly being borrowed, because it was the only one 

 which was certain to be in its place unless, indeed, the last 

 borrower had forgotten to put it back. For measuring the 

 height of plants, he had a seven-foot deal rod, graduated by 

 the village carpenter. Latterly he took to using paper 

 scales graduated to millimeters. I do not mean by this 

 account of his instruments that any of his experiments 

 suffered from want of accuracy in measurement, I give them 

 as examples of his simple methods and faith in others 

 faith at least in instrument-makers, whose whole trade was 

 a mystery to him. 



A few of his mental characteristics, bearing especially 

 on his mode of working, occur to me. There was one 

 quality of mind which seemed to be of special and extreme 

 advantage in leading him to make discoveries. It was the 

 power of never letting exceptions pass unnoticed. Every- 

 body notices a fact as an exception when it is striking or 

 frequent, but he had a special instinct for arresting an ex- 

 ception. A point apparently slight and unconnected with 

 his present work is passed over by many a man almost un- 

 consciously with some half-considered explanation, which is 

 in fact no explanation. It was just these things that he 

 seized on to make a start from. In a certain sense there is 

 nothing special in this procedure, many discoveries being 

 made by means of it. I only mention it because, as I 

 watched him at work, the value of this power to an experi- 

 menter was so strongly impressed upon me. 



Another quality which was shown in his experimental 

 work, was his power of sticking to a subject ; he used al- 

 most to apologise for his patience, saying that he could not 

 bear to be beaten, as if this were rather a sign of weakness 

 on his part. He often quoted the saying, " It's dogged as 

 does it ; " and I think doggedness expresses his frame of 



