202 MY LIFE 



upon the countenance. We should see the effects of pain or 

 pleasure, of idleness or activity, of dissipation or study, and 

 thus watch the action of the various passions of the mind in 

 modifying the form of the body, and particularly the expres- 

 sion of the features." 



Now that photography is so widespread and so greatly 

 improved, it is rather curious that nothing of this kind has 

 been done. Some of our numerous scientific societies might 

 offer to take such photographs of any of their members who 

 would agree to be taken regularly, and would undertake to 

 have one or two of their children similarly taken till they 

 came of age, and also to prepare a very short record each 

 year of the main events or occupations of their lives. If this 

 were widely done in every part of the country, a most inter- 

 esting and instructive collection of those series which were 

 most complete would be obtained. I have given the con- 

 cluding passage of the lecture as it appears in the rough draft, 

 which never got rewritten. 



" Can we believe that we are fulfilling the purpose of our 

 existence while so many of the wonders and beauties of the 

 creation remain unnoticed around us? While so much of 

 the mystery which man has been able to penetrate, however 

 imperfectly, is still all dark to us? While so many of the 

 laws which govern the universe and which influence our lives 

 are, by us, unknown and uncared for? And this not because 

 we want the power, but the will, to acquaint ourselves with 

 them. Can we think it right that, with the key to so much 

 that we ought to know, and that we should be the better for 

 knowing, in our possession, we seek not to open the door, but 

 allow this great store of mental wealth to lie unused, pro- 

 ducing no return for us, while our highest powers and capa- 

 cities rust for want of use? 



" It is true that man is still, as he always has been, subject 

 to error; his judgments are often incorrect, his beliefs false, 

 his opinions changeable from age to age. But experience of 

 error is his best guide to truth, often dearly bought, and, 

 therefore, the more to be relied upon. And what is it but 

 the accumulated experience of past ages that serves us as a 



