CHAPTER XXV 



1895 



I HAVE often regretted that I did not regularly take 

 notes of my father's conversation, which was striking, not 

 so much for the manner of it though that was at once 

 copious and crisp as for the strength and substance of what 

 he said. Yet the striking fact, the bit of philosophy, the 

 closely knitted argument, were perfectly unstudied, and as 

 in other most interesting talkers, dropped into the flow of 

 conversation as naturally as would the more ordinary ex- 

 periences of less richly stored minds. 



However, in January 1895 I was staying at Eastbourne, 

 and jotted down several fragments of talk as nearly as I 

 could recollect them. Conversation not immediately noted 

 down I hardly dare venture upon, save perhaps such an 

 unforgettable phrase as this, which I remember his using 

 one day as we walked on the hills near Great Hampden : 

 " It is one of the most saddening things in life that, try 

 as we may, we can never be certain of making people happy, 

 whereas we can almost always be certain of making them 

 unhappy." 



January 16. At lunch he spoke of Dr. Louis Robinson's 

 experiments upon simian characteristics in new-born chil- 

 dren. He himself had called attention before to the in- 

 curved feet of infants, but the power of hanging by the 

 hands was a new and important discovery.* 



* Professor H. F. Osborn tells this story of his : When a fond 

 mother calls upon me to admire her baby, I never fail to respond ; 

 and while cooing appropriately, I take advantage of an opportunity to 

 gently ascertain whether the soles of its feet turn in, and tend to sup- 

 port my theory of arboreal descent." 



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