The Ancestrti of Francis Gallon 59 



Galton's attitude in science ; he delighted in inroads into unexplored 

 territory, or even into what his neighboui's considered as their special 

 preserves. 



The incursions of a pioneer mind, unfettered by the orthodox 

 opinions of a specialised group of workers, however irritating to the 

 established hierarchy, are undoubtedly of the highest service to science, 

 if that mind has exceptional insight and marked novelty of method. 

 Both these Galton possessed in the highest degree. 



Steadfastness of purpose — may we not credit something of this 

 to Robert Button and Jaspar Batt with their many years of gaol 

 experience ? power of control and of inspiring others may be sought 

 legitimately also in that more distant ancestry of great names to which 

 I have but briefly referred (see Pedigree Plate B). 



From Barclay, fi-om Sedley and possibly from Collier came the 

 desire for terse expression, the demand for simple language. Bat 

 I doubt whether the wit of Sedley was akin to the humour of Francis 

 Galton. Speaking of his father, Samuel Tertius, Galton writes : 



" He was devoted to Shakespeare, and I'evelled in Ifudibras ; he i-ead I'om Jones 

 through every yeai-,'and was gifted with abundance of humour'." 



The humour of Samuel Tertius was certainly manifest again in his 

 son-'. Many will remember the immerous personal anecdotes told by 

 Francis Galton with keen appreciation of subtle humour, and never with 

 touch of malevolence. But those who were not thus favoured will recall 

 the famous incident of his desire to impress a Hottentot captain, who 

 might prove dangerous, and how, with this end in view, he rode in a 

 red hunting coat on an ox up to the captain's hut, thrusting the ox's 

 nose into the very doorway of his abode. Or again, having sufficiently 

 impressed a negro chief with his visitor's weight and impoi'tance, he 

 then led him outside, and to emphasise the negro's own worth he pro- 

 ceeded to decorate his sable majesty with a paper crown of gold tinsel. 

 The picture of the resulting figure published in the first edition of 

 his Tropical South Africa, p. 220, and reproduced here (see Plate 



' Memorien, p. 8. 



^ Tt is of importance to empha.sise this because the late Di- John Beddoe declared 

 iu a sliort notice of Francis Galton (Man, 1911, p. 34) that "Humour was the only 

 quality we could conceive as lacking in him ; and we know it is apt to be so in the 

 Quakers." Humour is incapable, perhaps, of definition, and the above statement is of 

 marked interest as indicating how big personal equation can be in its appreciation. 



8—2 



