II. 



FRANCIS GALTONi 

 1822 — 191 1 



Francis Galton was born on February i6th, 

 ninety-two years ago, and to-day we are met 

 together to remember him — a word that seems to 

 me more in tune with his nature than the more 

 formal expression commemorate. 



He disliked pomposity, but he seems to have 

 loved little private ceremonials. For instance, 

 when he opened the first notebook in preparation 

 for his autobiographical Memories, he began page i 

 with Falstaif's words : "Lord, Lord, how subject 

 we old men are to this vice of lying " — an inverted 

 appeal to truth which no man ever stood less in 

 need of. And again, at the foot of the very last 

 page of his Memories is a drawing of Galtonia 

 candicans, a little ceremony without words, a 

 hieroglyphic glorification of the honour paid him in 

 giving his name to this African plant. 



Many persons, and even some reviewers, form 

 their opinions of books by reading half-a-dozen 

 passages at random. I have been more scientific 

 in selecting the first and last pages, and from these 

 I conclude that a simple and kindly commemora- 



* This, the first Galton Lecture, was delivered before the 

 Eugenics Education Society, February i6th, 1914, and is, by per- 

 mission, reprinted, with some changes, from the Eugenics Review, 

 1914. 



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