354 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



Memories of my Life*. Galton's letters indicate how busy he was during 

 the latter half of 1908 with this book. It would not be fitting — were it indeed 

 feasible — to give an analysis of his work here. Our biography has, indeed, 

 endeavoured to give a picture of Galton's personality, his deep affection for 

 his relatives and for his friends ; it has been able to say what he could not 

 say of himself. An autobiography can only indirectly characterise its subject, 

 unless its writer be as unabashed as Benvenuto Cellini, or as self-soddened 

 as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. But beyond this characterisation, we have en- 

 deavoured to lay stress on Galton's contributions to science and to reproduce 

 his thoughts in his own words. The reader will find little of this in the 

 Memories ; they deal not wholly, but chiefly, with the men — many of them 

 noteworthy in their day — whom Galton had known in the course of a long 

 lifetime. They are delightful reading, full of anecdotes and reminiscences, 

 but the Galton of our volumes — the scientific originator, the modest inquirer, 

 the intensely affectionate and reliable friend — is not easily recognised in the 

 pages of his autobiography. 



There are, however, two or three passages I should like to quote here 

 for the benefit of those who are unable to read the Memories — now, alas, out 

 of print. The first illustrates the depth of Galton's feelings for his friends. 

 He is speaking of his college friend, Henry Fitzmaurice Hallam, born in 

 1824, only to die when he was 26 years old. He was the younger son of 

 the historian, and brother to Arthur Hallam, who died at 22 and was the 

 subject of Tennyson's In Memoriam. 



"Henry Hallam had a singular sweetness and attractiveness of manner, with a love of harm- 

 less banter and paradox, and was keenly sympathetic with all his many friends. He won the 

 Second Chancellor's Medal. Through him I became introduced to his father's house, still 

 shadowed by the sudden death of his son Arthur and of a daughter. Mr Hallam was very kind 

 to me, and the friendship of him and of his family) - was one of the corner-stones of my life- 

 history Henry Hallam, like his brother and sister, died suddenly and young, to my poignant 



grief. His death occurred while I was away in South Africa. I have visited the quiet church 

 at Clevedon, where all the Hallams lie, each memorial stone bearing a briefly pathetic inscrip- 

 tion, and kneeling alone in a pew by their side, spent part of a solitary hour in unrestrained 

 tears." (pp. 65-6.) 



Another passage I wish to cite bears upon the nature of Time ; it should 

 be compared with Galton's view of Time in the Inquiries into Human 

 Faculty %. 



"I will mention here a rather weird effect that compiling these 'Memories' has produced 

 on me. By much dwelling upon them they became refurbished and so vivid as to appear as 

 sharp and definite as things of to-day. The consequence has been an occasional obliteration of 

 the sense of Time, and the replacing of it by the idea of a permanent panorama, painted throughout 

 with equal vividness, in which the point to which attention is temporarily directed becomes for 

 that time the Present. The panorama seems to extend unseen behind a veil which hides the 

 Future, but is slowly rolling aside and disclosing it. That part of the panorama which is veiled 

 is supposed to exist as vividly coloured as the rest, though latent. In short, this experienoe 



* Methuen & Co., London, 1908. 



t There was another daughter Julia Hallam, who travelled with Emma and Francis Galton : 

 see "Vol. i, p. 180, and also pp. 140-1, 171, 191, 205-207, and 238. 

 % See Vol. II, p. 263. 



