248 Lifv and Letters of FraueU Galtou 



\valke<] from Kuthuul (iate to the Green Park calxstand in Piccarlilly every 

 horse even on the stand seemed watching him, either with pricked eare, or 

 else disguising its espionage. Hours elapsed before the uncanny sensation 

 wore ott and Galton sjiid that he could only too easily re-establish it. 



In his third experiment Galton strove to gain an insight into the abject 

 feeling which a savage has for his fetish or idol, and he fixed on the grotesfjue 

 figure on Punch's wrapper, and made believe in Punch's possession of divine 

 attributes, and his mighty power to reward or punish men according to their 

 treatment of him. The experiment gradually succeeded, and for a long time 

 he retained for Purich's image a large share of the feelings that a barbarian 

 luis for his idol and learnt "to appreciate the enormous potency they might 

 have over him." 



Pereonally I have been much puzzled by the rasurrection in modern days 

 of the mascot, and by the apparent depth of feeling in some minds with 

 regard to mascots ; re-reading Galton's experiment with Punch, explained to 

 my unimaginative mind how easily such reversions to fetishism may arise in 

 the case of more emotional natures among modern men. 



These three experiments aptly illu.strate what serious endeavours Galton 

 made to understand and appreciate the workings of his own and other men's 

 minds. 



C. INQUIRIES INTO HUMAN FACULTY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT, 1«83. 



This is the third of the larger works of Francis Galton, but it differs to 

 some extent from the earlier two in being more completely a summary of the 

 memoirs of the preceding ten to twelve years'. It is true there is a good 

 deal added, but there is a considerable amount omitted, and those omissions 

 to some extent may lead the reader of the book to suppose the conclusions 

 based on less substantial evidence than a reader of the memoirs would h.ave 

 before him. On this account I have considered it best to discuss the memoins 

 at length, and in this section merely to supplement the earlier sections of 

 this and those of the following chapter by drawing attention to novel points. 



Writing of the memoirs he had published since the appearance of 

 Hereditary Genius in 1869 Galton says : 



"They may have appeared tlesult(jry wlien read in the order in which tlicy apjieared, but 

 as they had an underlying connection it seems worth while to bring their subst-iince together 

 in logical sequence into a single volume. I have revised, condensed, largely rewritten, trans- 

 posed old matter, and interpolated much that is new; but traces of the fragmentary origin of 

 the work still remain, and I do not regret them. They serve U) show that the Ixjok is intended 

 to be suggestive, and renounces all claim to l>e encyclopae<lic. I have indeed, with that object, 

 avoided going into details in not a few ca-ses where I should otherwise have writt^'n with 

 fullness, especially in the anthropometric part. My general object has l)een to take note of the 



' Of the twenty-two memoirs on which the work is based seventeen have been alrea<ly 

 considered in this or earlier chapters, four will lie dealt with in Chapter XII and one in 

 Chapter XIII. For the titles of tlieso memoirs: see Appendix, pp. 338-9 of the work. Three 

 memoirs on composite photography (including that on 'Generic Images'), the memoir on the 

 fertility of Town and Country jx)pulations, that on Test VV(!iglits and that on (Jalton's Whistles, 

 together with the (jucstionnaire on visualising, are repnHiuce<i on j)p. .IJO-SO of the Appendix. 



