74 
A  Pilgrimage  to  Bri'mn. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   February,  1915. 
powers  of  analysis,  indomitable  courage,  and  unswerving  devotion 
to  whatever  task  he  undertook.  These  were  the  qualities  that  led 
him  to  analyze  the  problems  of  heredity  on  the  basis  of  single  char- 
acteristics, and  which  led  him  (quite  unlike  all  previous  students  of 
the  phenomena  of  hybridization)  to  continue  his  studies  on  the  sim- 
plest possible  material  until  the  problems  zvere  solved,  though  it 
required  seven  years  of  close  application  and  painstaking  labor. 
The  same  characteristics  probably  cost  him  the  satisfaction  of  see- 
ing, before  he  died,  the  triumph  which,  by  fortunate  accident,  has 
come  to  his  work  two  decades  after  his  death ;  for  about  two  years 
after  the  publication  of  his  great  work  he  was  elected  to  the  Prelacy 
of  the  Monastery,  and  his  time  and  attention  were  thenceforth 
absorbed  with  heavy  administrative  duties,  and  his  investigations 
in  the  field  of  heredity  came  to  an  end.  The  intensity  of  his  devo- 
tion to  the  problems  of  his  institution  thus  prevented  his  following 
up  his  first  report  with  others  which  would  have  sooner  or  later 
attracted  the  attention  of  other  students. 
As  we  proceeded  on  our  tour  of  inspection,  Father  Barcina 
told  me  of  this  little  clock  which  still  hung  on  the  chamber  wall 
where  it  had  been  placed  by  Mendel,  and  said  that  when  I  departed 
he  would  give  it  to  me  as  an  "  Andenken"  of  my  visit.  Such  care 
had  been  obviously  taken  to  preserve  the  relics  of  Mendel's  exist- 
ence and  work  at  the  Monastery  that  I  feared  I  might  be  misunder- 
standing the  Father's  rather  swift-moving  German,  but  when  he 
had  repeated  the  statement  and  sent  one  of  his  brethren  to  pack  it 
up  for  me,  I  knew  that  I  had  not  mistaken  his  intention.  Thus  it 
is  that  I  have  on  my  study  wall  this  little  alarm-clock  which  may 
many  times  have  wakened  Mendel  to  an  early-morning  competition 
with  the  bees  in  hybridization  experiments  on  the  peas  in  his  gar- 
den. I  have  permitted  it  to  awaken  me  in  the  same  manner,  and  it 
has  also  assisted  in  keeping  awake  the  enthusiasm  which  must  sus- 
tain the  long-continued  effort  necessary  to  the  solution  of  evolu- 
tionary problems. 
Before  taking  my  departure  we  also  spent  a  few  moments  in 
the  chapel  which  is  attached  to  the  Monastery  by  a  short  covered 
passage.  This  is  said  to  be  the  most  beautiful  small  chapel  in  cen- 
tral Europe.  It  is  built  of  gray  stone  in  Gothic  style  in  the  form  of 
a  cross,  is  splendidly  harmonious  in  its  proportions,  and  is  not 
spoiled  by  over-decoration.  The  groups  of  statuary  overlooking 
the  apse  are  of  real  artistic  merit  as  well  as  of  allegorical  signif- 
