cxxx 



MEMOIR 



The pho- 

 nograph. 



probably called others bad only so far as we were wrapped in 

 ourselves and lacking in the transmigratory forces of imagina- 

 tion. I undertook to describe to him three persons irredeemably 

 bad and whom he should admit to be so. In the first case, he 

 denied my evidence : ' You cannot judge a man upon such testi- 

 mony,' said he. For the second, he owned it made him sick to 

 hear the tale ; but then there was no spark of malice, it was 

 mere weakness I had described, and he had never denied nor 

 thought to set a limit to man's weakness. At my third gentle- 

 man, he struck his colours. ' Yes,' said he, ' I'm afraid that is a 

 bad man.' And then looking at me shrewdly : ' I wonder if it 

 isn't a very unfortunate thing for you to have met him.' I showed 

 him radiantly how it was the world we must know, the world as 

 it was, nt a world expurgated and prettified with optimistic rain- 

 bows. ' Yes, yes,' said he ; ' but this badness is such an easy, 

 lazy explanation. Won't you be tempted to use it, instead of 

 trying to understand people ? ' 



In the year 1878, he took a passionate fancy for the phono- 

 graph : it was a toy after his heart, a toy that touched the skirts 

 of life, art and science, a toy prolific of problems and theories. 

 Something fell to be done for a University Cricket Ground 

 Bazaar. ' And the thought struck him,' Mr. Ewing writes to 

 me, ' to exhibit Edison's phonograph, then the very newest scien- 

 tific marvel. The instrument itself was not to be purchased 

 I think no specimen had then crossed the Atlantic but a 

 copy of the Times with an account of it was at hand, and by the 

 help of this we made a phonograph which to our great joy 

 talked, and talked, too, with the purest American accent. It was 

 so good that a second instrument was got ready forthwith. Both 

 were shown at the Bazaar : one by Mrs. Jenkin to people willing 

 to pay half a crown for a private view and the privilege of hear- 

 ing their own voices, while Jenkin, perfervid as usual, gave half- 

 hourly lectures on the other in an adjoining room I, as his 

 lieutenant, taking turns. The thing was in its way a little 

 triumph. A few of the visitors were deaf, and hugged the 

 belief that they were the victims of a new kind of fancy-fair 

 swindle. Of the others, many who came to scoff remained to 



