CHAPTER VIII 



TRANSITION STUDIES: ART OF TRAVEL, GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE 



A. ART OF TRAVEL 



"The higheHt niinds in tlm highest races seem to Imve been those who had the longtrst l)oyli<>o<!." 



Francis Galton, Hereditary Talent and Chnraeter, Aug. 1865. 



"I liave been speculating lost night what iimkes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things; 

 and a most perpU-xing problem it is. Manj^ men who are very clever — much clevt-rer than the 

 discoverers — never originate anything. As far as T can conjecture the art consists in Imbitually 

 searching for the causes and moaning of everything which oooui-s. This implies sharp olwerva- 

 tion and requires as much knowledge as possible of the subject investigate*!. Hut why I write 

 all this now I haitlly know, except out of the fulness of my heart." 



CirABLES Dauwin, Letter to his son Horace, Dec. 15, 1871. 



Wk lefl Francis Galton at tlie end of our first volume aged 32, married, 

 with many social friends, an ample competence, and a mind trained Injtli in 

 observation and analysis. His experience had been such that he knew more 

 of mathematics and physics than nine biologists out of ten, more of biology 

 than nineteen nuithematlcians out of twenty, and more (jf pathology and 

 physiology than forty-nine out of fifty of the biologists and mathematicians 

 oi" his dav. Added to these advantages he had gained a knowledge of man 

 and his habits in various lands; this gave him additional width of view, if it 

 rendered less obvious to him that field of investigation wherein his powers 

 were ultimately to achieve their most noteworthy successes. Indeed, had 

 Galton been asked in 1854 what was his calling and the nature of his 

 studies, there is little doubt that he would have replied: "I am a traveller 

 by inclination and ray study is geography." In his Memories^ Galton tells 

 us that he was 



"rather unsettled during a few years, wishing to undertake a fresh bit of geographical explora- 

 tion, or even to establish myself in some colony; but I mistrusted my powers, for the health 

 that had l)een much tried had not wholly recovered." 



Whether marriage or health was the real source of Galton's 'Wanderlust' 

 being reduced to vacation rambles, it would be hard to say, but we have 

 probably to thank one or the other for his continued presence in England at 

 a time when startling new ideas were to strike upon his receptive mind. 

 Immediately, however, travel, geography, and closely associated therewith, 

 climate, were to occupy his attention; and he did not touch these things 

 without leaving his mark upon them. 



"It was not long after ray marriage," he writes, "that the character of a piece of work that 

 lay before me was clearly pei-ceived. It wa.s rt!ady to be taken in hand and most suitable to my 



' pp. lGl-2. 

 p u 11 1 



