160 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



he considered bad from a scientific point of view seemed 

 to him a crime. More than this, much that appeared of 

 great importance to others had no weight with one who 

 regarded the mission of science from so high a standpoint 

 and whose refined nature could not fail to despise all am- 

 biguity, empty phrases and affectations in its literature. He 

 considered the great defect in this to be that, whilst each 

 isolated investigation is deemed a personal achievement 

 and quoted as such, important generalisations were re- 

 garded as impersonal property. He was by no means a 

 man who could not endure contradiction and was always 

 ready to listen to it when well founded ; it was only when 

 the opposition seemed to arise from incapacity and stu- 

 pidity that he was roused to fierce anger. His stand- 

 point is best described in the following words written to a 

 friend at the end of a keen discussion : " After all, in science 

 as in ordinary life, all hinges upon whether a man accept 

 the general point of view of his opponent ; when that is 

 done it is always possible to arrive at some satisfactory 

 conclusion, and I hope this will always be the case 

 with us ". 



Although the purely intellectual side of his nature out- 

 weighed the emotional, he was invariably grateful for the 

 smallest services, and to me he always proved an indulgent, 

 lovable teacher. At the same time he could coldly repel 

 all who were uncongenial to him. He agreed with Goethe 

 " Sage nur von deinen Feinden, warum willst du gar 

 nicht wissen," etc. 



As time went on he became more and more dissatisfied 

 with the state of botanical literature. Such dissatisfaction 

 however did not keep him from incessant toil whenever he 

 was well enough and more especially when the sun shone. 

 Like Goethe and many other sensitive natures, he was 

 strongly affected by sunshine or the lack of it. "If you 

 imagine yourself transplanted from Java to Bavaria and 

 that the sun's face has been veiled for the last three weeks 

 by a layer of sail-cloth ioo metres thick, you may form some 

 conception of the vegetation in our garden. The grass 

 and leaves grow as though this were a dairy-farm ! Every 



