

Photogrdjihic Researches and Portraiture ti97 



Just as in the composite photograph some images may be alien to the 

 :feiiu8, so in the case of the mind superficial and fallacious resemblances may 

 X! iussociated. 



"Sflpiiif,' a,s we easily nmy, what inon.strous composites result from ill-sorted combination* 

 of portraits, and how much nicety of iidjuHtnient is n-quirod to pro<lui'<> the truest fioHsible 

 generic image, we cunnot wonder at the alwunl ami fri'i|iii'iit fulhicies in our mental con- 

 ceptions and general impressions," 



Galton continues: 



" Our mental generic composites are rarely defined ; they have that blur in excess which 

 photographic composites have in a Minall degree, and their background is crowded with faint 

 and incongruous imagery. The exceptional efl'ects are not ovormast<;reci, as they are in the 

 photogiiiphic composites, by the large bulk of ordinary effects. Hence in our general impres- 

 sions far too great weight is attached to what is strange and marvellous, and experience shows 

 that the minds of childr»>n, sjivages and uneducated persons have always had that tendency. 

 Experience warns us against it, and the scientitic man takes care to base his conclusions u|>on 

 actual numhei-s. 



The human mind is therefore ii most imperfect iippiinitus for the elalwration of general 

 ideas. Compared with those of brutes its powers are marvellous, but for all that they fall 

 vastly short of perfection. The criterion of a [>erfect mind would lie in its cajmcity of always 

 creating images of a truly generic kind, dctluce<l from the whole range of its past experiences. 

 General impre^ssions are never to be trusted. Unfortunately when they are of long standing 



I^_^ they l)econie fixed rules of life, and assume a prescriptive right not to l)e questione<l. Con- 

 ^H 8e<|uently, tho.se who are not accustonuxi to original inquiry entertain a hatred and a horror 

 ^"^ of statistics. They cannot endure the idea of submitting their sacred impressions to cold- 

 bUxKled verification. Hut it is the triumph of scientific men to rise superior to such super- 

 stition.s, to devise tests by which the value of lx^liefs may lie a.scertained, and to fee! sufficiently 

 niasttM-s of themselves todiscard contemjituously whatever may be found untrue." (pp. 168-70.) 



The words just cited — almost lost in their manner of publication — are 

 iunong the finest Galton ever wrote in the service of science. 



In reply to the recent inquiry of a friend as to what point I had reached 



in my account of Galton's labours, I said : To the discussion of composite 



|)ortraits in his researches on psvchology. It seemed to him an inappropriate 



association. Yet almost all Galton's photographic work in liis own mind had 



j relation to psychology, and up to the end of his life he continued to develop 



photographic methods for statistically studying mental charactei*s. From 



composite portraiture the stage was for liim an easy one to generic mental 



images, thence he passed to the Wel)er-Fechner Law, and this turned his 



thoughts to the statistical l)earings of the latter as we have already seen. The 



_ relation Galton held to exist between generic mental images and composite 



Ih photographs is well illustrated by Galton's paper entitled "Generic Images" 



IH publis^ied in The Nineteenth Century for July, 187!)'. This is in some respects 



IH an enlaigenient of the Royal Institution Lecture, with less technical descrip- 



IH tion and no plate. The point he emphasises in this paper is the bearing of 



I^H composite portraitm-e on then current metaphysical conceptions. He writes : 



1^^" " Composite portraits are, therefore, much more than averages, because they include the 



features of every individual of whom they are composed. They are pictorial equivalents of 



those elaborate statistical tables out of which averages are deduced. There cannot be a more 



perfect example than they affoixJ, of what the metaphysicians mean by generalisations, when 



the objects generalised are objects of vision, and when they belong to the .same typical group, 



one important characteristic of which is that medium characteristics should be far more 



' Vol. VI, pp. 157-69. In this paper Galton compares the composite portrait to Quetelet's 

 "mean man." (p. 162.) 



p u II 88 



