Hereditary Genius, an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences

Abstract

IN this book Mr. Galton proposes to show that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world. Many who read it without the care and attention it requires and deserves, will admit that it is ingenious, but declare that the question is incapable of proof. Such a verdict will, however, by no means do justice to Mr. Galton's argument, which we shall endeavour to set forth as succinctly as possible. He first discusses the classification of men by “reputation,” and from a study of biographical dictionaries and obituaries for certain years taken at wide intervals, arrives at the conclusion that not more than 250 men in each million or 1 in 4,000, can be termed “eminent”; and he shows what a small proportion that is, by the well-known fact that there are never so many as 4,000 stars visible to the naked eye at once, and that we feel it to be an extraordinary distinction in a star to be the brightest in the sky. These “eminent” men are the lowest class he deals with. The more illustrious names are as one in a million or one in many millions; but unless a man is so much above the average that there is only one like him in every 4,000, he is not admitted into the ranks of the eminent men on whom Mr. Galton founds his deductions.

Hereditary Genius, an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences.

By Francis Galton, &c. (Macmillan & Co.)