Francis Galton: Travel and Geography

Not long before he died Galton wrote to a nephew: ‘My version of the saying “Whom the Gods love, die young”, is that they still feel young however old in years they may be. I think, from that point of view, that the Gods must have some tendresse to me, because although I am 87½ years old, I hardly feel myself to be even matured’. It was this perpetual spring of youth, stimulating and sustaining an insatiable curiosity in the world about him, that made Galton such a splendid traveller and his experiences so entertaining to read about. It does not matter that his African safari of 1850–2 is not in itself of great importance in the history of African exploration; what matters is Galton’s description of it all.