436 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



earnestly, but with a saving sense of humour ; he would have been of earth's 

 elect even if he had never achieved high rank in science. It was the loss 

 of that ever-flowing spring of understanding human sympathy that we felt 

 most bitterly. His teaching days were already over, and his clearly stated 

 creed would remain with us, if he himself had passed away ; but the gracious 

 friendship and the long-continued series of affectionate letters were for ever 

 broken. There was no one left who would have the same keen and enlightened 

 interest in all forms of biometric work, nor indeed anyone to whom a Report 

 on the work of Galton's own Laboratory would be in future of capital 

 importance. 



From many talks with Francis Galton about the future of his Laboratory, 

 I knew he desired the whole time and energy of a relatively young and 

 strong man of science to carry it successfully through its infancy. It did 

 not occur to me to think of myself as the first director of the Laboratory 

 to be created by his testament, for I should have been wholly unwilling 

 to give up the superintendence of the Biometric Laboratory I had founded 

 and confine my work to Eugenics research. It was because in 1909 after 

 much discussion we could not hit upon the really suitable man for the first 

 Galton Professor, that Francis Galton added the codicil to his will allowing 

 the University to delay for a few years the appointment to the chair. 

 I only learnt after his death the clause relating to myself which, after 

 showing the codicil to me, he had added to it, granting me the liberty, if the 

 University were willing to elect me to the professorship, of continuing my 

 Biometric Laboratory. He had realised I should not desert it, even to be 

 freed from elementary teaching. This was for me a last token of affection, 

 and the creation of an obligation which I have sought in the past nineteen 

 years to repay to the extent of my powers. May this book in part bear 

 witness thereof. 



Fortunatus ego, cui in vestigiis ejus, tametsi graviter elaudicans, 

 spatiari conceditur ! 



