Waterhouse thought each person strove to find and express his individual genius, and that the highest form of its expression was to be found in literature and art. To him, the great exponent and exemplar of such genius was the German poet Goethe. When Waterhouse describes his own landscaping and gardening as an art, the implication is that the expression of Waterhouse's individual genius is to be found in his gardens. The peak of his career as a Germanist came in 1932 when he delivered the address in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney on the centenary of Goethe's death.
