'This Association believes that every person in the Corresponding Society should pay for the cost of his travels; and the Association is happy for all the members of the Corresponding society to spend as much time on their investigations as they want, as long as they pay for themselves.'

'The Association would like to tell those people in the Corresponding Society that they have considered their suggestion that they pay for the cost of their own letters, and the cost of sending their parcels. This Association thinks that this idea is exactly what they would expect such great minds to make. Because of this the Association is very happy to agree with all the suggestions.'

If anybody had been watching, the secretary of the Association wrote, (and remember it is the secretary's notes that have told us about all this) - anybody who had been watching would have noticed nothing strange about the bald head, and round spectacles which were looking at the secretary while the Association was reporting what it had decided about all these suggestions.

But anybody who knew Mr Pickwick would have been interested, because that person would have known that Pickwick's gigantic brain was working beneath his forehead, and that the bright eyes of Pickwick were shining behind his glasses.