26 FRANCIS GALTON 



taken rank with Darwin, Lyell, Hooker and 

 Huxley, men whose pens have dinted the world, 

 leaving their ineffaceable mark on the road trodden 

 by the march of science. 



When I was working at the Life and Letters of 

 Charles Darwin, I naturally asked Mr. Galton for 

 leave to publish the letters he had received from my 

 father. But he would not agree. Mr. Darwin, he 

 said, had spoken far too kindly of his work, and he 

 preferred to keep the praise to himself. But later, 

 when he wrote his Memories,^ he fortunately 

 realised that it is wiser to think of the value to the 

 world of such documents, than of private likes or 

 dislikes. The letter my father wrote about Here- 

 ditary Genius which Galton says "made him most 

 happy" begins : 



"I have only read about 50 pages of your book 

 .... but I must exhale myself, else something 

 will go wrong in my inside, I do not think I ever in 

 all my life read anything more interesting and 

 original."^ 



In reading this great book it is, I think, 

 impossible to doubt the strength of the work. 

 The quiet relentless way in which his territory is 

 pegged out, and the clear wisdom with which the 

 terms of the new science are defined, are equally 

 impressive. And for lighter enjoyment his illustra- 

 tions are to be recommended. He has to settle 

 precisely what he means by a man being eminent 

 or illustrious before he can begin to ask — are these 



1 He had already allowed Professor Seward and myself to 

 publish them in More Letters of Charles Darwin. 



* Memories, p. 290. .,--' 



