BRITISH ASSOCIATION 217 



standing a man's character was to mimic his ways, and 

 that he frequently mimicked new acquaintances in his 

 imagination for that purpose. This seems to me very 

 subtle and true. If we want to raise in our minds a 

 quick sympathy, say, for a friend's tale of grief, we in- 

 stinctively screw our features into an expression of 

 sorrow, and the required emotion follows almost as a 

 matter of course. It is needless to dwell on the 

 existence of accomplished hypocrites, who screw their 

 faces without the slightest desire to evoke the feeling 

 they appear to express. 



My last attempt to utilise the British Association 

 failed owing to my increasing age and infirmities. 

 I wanted to methodise the preservation of records 

 of pedigree stock to serve as data for future inquiries, 

 and wrote memoirs [146, 147] on the subject, in which 

 I showed that photographs of animals, taken under 

 certain simple and feasible conditions, afforded means 

 of calculating their measurements with considerable 

 exactitude, as tested by myself on horses. I took 

 great pains, and was given facilities for photography 

 at one of the ereat horse shows at the Agricultural 



o o 



Hall. The attempt was perfectly successful in 

 essentials, though several alterations of detail were 

 suggested by that experience, but the effort was far 

 too much for my health. Most of these exhibitions 

 are held during the winter months, and, being now 

 very liable to bronchitis, I found it quite impossible 

 to endure the draughty passages and other dis- 

 comforts during that season. I could not delegate it 

 to my satisfaction, so was obliged, to my great regret, 

 to abandon all further attempts in that direction, 

 otherwise some useful work might have been done. 



