"It has not the simplicity and the inevitableness of the very greatest work; it would be greater if it were less strange. One gift it shows... profound and invincible originality. He would probably been a greater mathematician if he could have been caught and tamed a little in his youth; he would have discovered more that was new, and... of greater importance. On the other hand he would have been less of a Ramanujan, and more of a European professor, and the loss might have been greater than the gain... the last sentence is... ridiculous sentimentalism. There was no gain at all when the College at Kumbakonam rejected the one great man they had ever possessed, and the loss was irreparable..."