MEMOIR 
46 
bata or doctor. Had Spencer lived, no doubt the wise men 
and women of the ancient culture would have unburdened 
themselves to the wise man of the modern; for their intuition 
would tell them ‘him goodfellow, him talk true’. Indeed, 
those simple words might serve as Spencer’s epitaph. 
For Baldwin Spencer, as I view him, was the man of 
science at his best. There was room in his life for devotion 
to family and friends, but otherwise it was all work—not 
tame work like money-making, but fiery, impassioned work, 
as all truth-making is for the lover of truth, more especially 
if he is large enough in soul to be a lover of beauty at the 
same time. If, then, Spencer found both truth and beauty 
in Australia in overflowing measure, it was no doubt partly 
because they were there waiting to be found; but partly also 
because he went forth gallantly to seek them. A man cannot 
create out of nothing, but that inevitable condition is no 
offset to the joy of creation, which is the supreme reward of 
being alive and active. Moreover, science, being a truth¬ 
making of the kind that is primarily concerned with fact, 
provides a discipline that fosters a certain sobriety of disposi¬ 
tion; for the man who has learnt not to take liberties with 
Nature will be the less likely to play the prig with his 
neighbours. Spencer, then, as far as I can read his life, was, 
thanks to his devotion to his work, both happy and void of 
all conceit. Complex as were his intellectual interests, he 
remained simple at heart, with the simplicity of the knight- 
errant who identifies his very being with his quest; and, 
when such a knight-errant rides on beyond the verge, we 
bare our heads. 
