532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
delightful task to join with his other friends and admirers in praise 
of his character and his influence.” ® 
An anonymous writer in the Eagle, a magazine supported by 
members of the St. Johns College, gives the following account of 
his personality. “ He was essentially a man of intuitions and con- 
victions. The intuition of some scientific men runs sympathetically 
with the working of the natural universe, and they contribute to 
knowledge leading ideas which experiments hasten to verify. Others 
only arrive by plodding, strenuous analysis of phenomena until the 
unity within them is laid bare, free of the diversities which obscured 
it. Bateson was of the former gifted type, and his enthusiasms were 
for clear-cut new ideas. In his scientific work, as in all things that 
really counted with him, he was filled with a very intense earnest- 
ness. Working rapidly but thoroughly through the evidence on com- 
plex problems, he could arrive at firm conviction of where the truth 
lay. Such a conviction would fill his vision, and all his intense 
vitality be concentrated at the center of what he saw. He was im- 
patient of expositions which involve elaborate quantitative treat- 
ment and then still leave residual suspense accounts. 
“ Bateson was a born leader. He loved to lead a cause and win, and 
was at his best in attracting young men to the good scientific causes he 
had at heart. Never for half-measures or compromises, it some- 
times happened that when he was up against men of older genera- 
tions, whose views were inflexible, he could make no progress, but 
only camp over against them in stubborn opposition. This is a 
situation that does not make for personal happiness in a scientific 
community, and Bateson certainly sacrificed something for his 
faiths.” ® 
“ Bateson was a born leader. He loved to lead a cause and win, and 
hand familiarity with plants and animals. He had also an extensive 
knowledge of the literature of his subject at command and an ability 
to express himself fearlessly in classical and clear English. His 
personal interests extended far beyond the immediate fields of his 
researches. His deep interest in painting and other forms of art 
must have surprised his scientific friends when they discovered it 
for the first time, and his artistic friends would no doubt have been 
equally surprised to have discovered his far-reaching influence on 
the biological science of his time.” ?° 
“Such in brief outline was Bateson’s record of scientific achieve- 
ment. Fearless in criticism and generous in appreciation, he stood 
above all for that spirit of freedom in inquiry through which alone 
the world may progress to better things.” ** 
8 Proceedings of the Linnean Society. 
©The Eagle, Vol. XLIV, pp. 330-331, 1926. 
10 Science, Vol. LXIII, p. 535, 1926. 
11 Nature, vol. 117, p. 313, 1926. 
