Unfortunately, I could not be present, when Verheul publicly assumed his professorship at Leyden University on 26 May 1978, as the successor of W.L.G. Lemaire (1907–1976), so that I only know his address from the printed text. It is highly original, comprehensive, striking owing to many turns of thought of such a nature as will no doubt be unexpected for many readers, and it stimulates further thought about practically everything which he wanted to say – here and there in the form of a cry from his very heart.