get the _fifteen_ of the Royal Society.

AND ALSO TO A QUESTION OF EVIDENCE.

[I make a remark on the different colors which the same person gives to one
story, according to the bias under which he tells it. My friend Galloway
told me how he had quizzed the Council of the Royal Society, to my great
amusement. Whenever I am struck by the words of any one, I carry away a
vivid recollection of position, gestures, tones, etc. I do not know whether
this be common or uncommon. I never recall this joke without seeing before
me my friend, leaning against his bookcase, with Bungus open in his hand,
and a certain half-depreciatory tone which he often used {58} when speaking
of himself. Long after his death, an F.R.S. who was present at the
discussion, told me the story. I did not say I had heard it, but I watched
him, with Galloway at the bookcase before me. I wanted to see whether the
two would agree as to the fact of an enormous budget of fifteens having
been fired at the Council, and they did agree perfectly. But when the
paragraph of the Budget appeared in the _Athenaeum_, my friend, who seemed
rather to object to the _showing-up_, assured me that the thing was grossly
exaggerated; there was indeed a fifteen or two, but nothing like the number
I had given. I had, however, taken sharp note of the previous narration.

AND TO ANOTHER QUESTION OF EVIDENCE.

I will give another instance. An Indian officer gave me an account of an
elephant, as follows. A detachment was on the march, and one of the
gun-carriages got a wheel off the track, so that it was also off the
ground, and hanging over a precipice. If the bullocks had moved a step,
carriages, bullocks, and all must have been precipitated. No one knew what
could be done until some one proposed to bring up an elephant, and let him
manage it his own way. The elephant took a moment's survey of the fix, put
his trunk under the axle of the free wheel, and waited. The surrounders,
who saw what he meant, moved the bullocks gently forward, the elephant
followed, supporting the axle, until there was ground under the wheel, when
he let it quietly down. From all I had heard of the elephant, this was not
too much to believe. But when, years afterwards, I reminded my friend of
his story, he assured me that I had misunderstood him, that the elephant
was _directed_ to put his trunk under the wheel, and saw in a moment why.
This is reasonable sagacity, and very likely the correct accou