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4
Hereditary Genius
Such errors as I may and must have made, which give a fictitious support
to my arguments, are, I am confident, out of all proportion fewer than such
omissions of facts as would have helped to establish them.
I have taken little notice in this book of modern men of eminence who are
not English, or at least well known. to Englishmen. I feared, if I included
large classes of foreigners, that I should make glaring errors. It requires a
very great deal of labour to hunt out relationships, even with the facilities
afforded to a countryman having access to persons acquainted with the
various families; much more would it have been difficult to hunt out the
kindred of foreigners. I should have especially liked to investigate the
biographies of Italians and Jews, both of whom appear to be rich in families
of high intellectual breeds. Germany and America are also full of interest It
is a little less so with respect to France, where the Revolution and the
guillotine made sad havoc among the progeny of her abler races.
There is one advantage to a candid critic in my having left so large a field
untouched; it enables me to propose a test that any well-informed reader
may easily adopt who doubts the fairness of my examples. He may most
reasonably suspect that I have been unconsciously influenced by my
theories to select men whose kindred were most favourable to their
support. If so, I beg he will test my impartiality as follows:—Let him take a
dozen names of his own selection, as the most eminent in whatever
profession and in whatever country he knows most about, and let him trace
out for himself their relations. It is necessary, as I find by experience, to
take some pains to be sure that none, even of the immediate relatives, on
either the male or female side, have been overlooked. If he does what I
propose, I am confident he will be astonished at the completeness with
which the results will confirm my
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