20 FRANCIS GALTON 



spy." The trial was only too successful ; by the 

 time he had walked 1 1 miles to the cab-stand at the 

 east end of the Green Park "every horse in the 

 stand seemed watching" him, "either with pricked 

 ears, or disguising its espionage." He adds that 

 hours passed before this uncanny sensation wore 

 oflF. On another occasion he managed to create 

 in his mind the feelings of a savage for his idol, the 

 idol in his own case being^^ picture of Mr. Punch. 



These experiments seem to me very character- 

 istic of the man in their originality, their humour, 

 and their unexpected measure of success, for 

 personally, I should have prophesied failure in all. 

 They have a special bearing on Galton's belief that 

 a quasi-religious enthusiasm for eugenics may be 

 built up. I have sometimes wondered that he 

 should believe this great change so feasible, but I 

 understand how he came to think so when I read of 

 his strange power of impressing beliefs on himself, 

 with such force as to leave a trail of discomfort in 

 the mind after the make-believe had ceased. 



These and similar trials were, I think, made in 

 relation to his desire to weigh and measure human 

 faculty in a broad sense. I remember his telling 

 me of his experiments on the mind of the British 

 cabman. His method was to use alternately two 

 different forms of the address to which he wished to 

 go. Thus on Monday he would tell the man to 

 drive him home to 42, Rutland Gate, on Tuesday 

 he would say, "Rutland Gate, 42," and so on. My 

 recollection is that the cabmen understood more 

 quickly the familiar formula in which the number 

 precedes the name of the street. 



