132 REMINISCENCES. 



married life I cannot speak, save in the briefest manner. In 

 his relationship towards my mother, his tender and sympa- 

 thetic nature was shown in its most beautiful aspect. In her 

 presence he found his happiness, and through her, his life, 

 which might have been overshadowed by gloom, became one 

 of content and quiet gladness. 



The ' Expression of the Emotions ' shows how closely he 

 watched his children ; it was characteristic of him that (as 

 I have heard him tell), although he was so anxious to observe 

 accurately the expression of a crying child, his sympathy 

 with the grief spoiled his observation. His note-book, in 

 which are recorded sayings of his young children, shows his 

 pleasure in them. He seemed to retain a sort of regretful 

 memory of the childhoods which had faded away, and thus 

 he wrote in his ' Recollections ' : " When you were very 

 young it was my delight to play with you all, and I think 

 with a sigh that such days can never return." 



I may quote, as showing the tenderness of his nature, some 

 sentences from an account of his little daughter Annie, 

 written a few days after her death : 



" Our poor child, Annie, was born in Gower Street, on 

 March 2, 1841, and expired at Malvern at mid-day on the 

 .23rd of April, 1851. 



" I write these few pages, as I think in after years, if we 

 >live, the impressions now put down will recall more vividly 

 her chief characteristics. From whatever point I look back 

 :at her, the main feature in her disposition which at once rises 

 before me, is her buoyant joyousness, tempered by two other 

 characteristics, namely, her sensitiveness, which might easily 

 have been overlooked by a stranger, and her strong affection. 

 Her joyousness and animal spirits radiated from her whole 

 countenance, and rendered every movement elastic and full of 

 life and vigour. It was delightful and cheerful to behold her. 

 .Her dear face now rises before me, as she used sometimes to 



