32 galton.org
32
Inquiries into Human Faculty
the white table-cloth wholly loses its colour by candle light, and becomes
as white as a snowdrop.
In the inquiries I made on the hereditary transmission of capacity, I
was often amused by the naive remark of men who had easily distanced
their competitors, that they ascribed their success to their own exertions.
They little recognised how much they owed to their natural gifts of
exceptional capacity and energy on the one hand, and of exceptional love
for their special work on the other.
In future chapters I shall give accounts of persons who have unusual
mental characteristics as regards imagery, visualised numerals, colours
connected with sounds and special associations of ideas, being
unconscious of their peculiarities; but I cannot anticipate these subjects
here, as they all require explanation. It will be seen in the end how greatly
metaphysicians and psychologists may err, who assume their own mental
operations, instincts, and axioms to be identical with those of the rest of
mankind, instead of being special to themselves. The differences between
men are profound, and we can only be saved from living in blind
unconsciousness of our own mental peculiarities by the habit of informing
ourselves as well as we can of those of others. Examples of the success
with which this can be done will be found farther on in the book.
I may take this opportunity of remarking on the well-known hereditary
character of colour blindness in connection with the fact, that it is nearly
twice as prevalent among the Quakers as among the rest of the
community, the proportions being as 5.9 to 3.5 per cent.
[1]
We might have
expected an even larger ratio. Nearly every Quaker is descended on both
sides solely from members of a group of men and women who segregated
themselves from the rest of the world five or six generations ago; one of
their strongest opinions being that the fine arts were worldly snares, and
their most conspicuous practice being to dress in drabs. A born artist
could never have consented to separate himself from his fellows on such
grounds; he would have felt the profession of those opinions and their
accompanying
[1]
Trans. Opthalmological Soc., 1881, p. 198.
