WITH HIS CHILDREN. IO g 



patients. And never was any one more genial, more con- 

 siderate, more friendly, more altogether charming than he 

 universally was." .... He " never aimed, as too often hap- 

 pens with good talkers, at monopolising the conversation. It 

 was his pleasure rather to give and take, and he was as good 

 a listener as a speaker. He never preached nor prosed, but 

 his talk, whether grave or gay (and it was each by turns), was 

 full of life and salt racy, bright, and animated." 



Some idea of his relation to his family and his friends may 

 be gathered from what has gone before ; it would be impos- 

 sible to attempt a complete account of these relationships, 

 but a slightly fuller outline may not be out of place. Of his 

 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, writ- 

 ten 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. 



