II 
MEMOIR 
By R. R. MARETT 
Rector of Exeter College, Oxford 
HE greatest lives are of strong but simple framework, 
X and the life of Baldwin Spencer furnishes an illustration 
in point. No doubt his gifts were many and various, inas¬ 
much as he was artist, biologist, and anthropologist in one. 
Yet the delicate sense of form fostered an appreciation of the 
niceties of animal structure; while the morphological interest 
in its turn stimulated research into the complex organization 
of primitive society. Thus the entire nature of the man found 
harmonious expression in his work; which in like degree 
bears the stamp of individuality and unity of purpose. Hence 
for an adequate biography of him there is scarcely need to look 
beyond the well-known volumes containing the account of his 
discoveries, and that though whatever he writes is singularly 
devoid of any mention of self. How easy it is, indeed, 
to ignore the romance that lurks behind the dispassionate 
prose of science! For, although truth of fact is but one kind 
of truth, its votaries can have their fill of spiritual adventure, 
so vast and wonderful is the sphere of their manifold activities. 
This holds good even when much seeking leads to little result. 
It holds good likewise when the price to be paid for successful 
study is imprisonment within the four walls of a room. But 
Baldwin Spencer not only sought but found abundantly. 
Again, his inquiries were such as to lead him far afield, so 
that his body, no less than his spirit, was free to voyage amid 
wide spaces. His natural knight-errantry, then, was granted 
by circumstance its full scope, seeing not only how he lived, 
but even how he died. Despite the grim background, his end 
cannot be viewed as a tragedy. He worked on in complete 
