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322
Hereditary Genius
with the results in column D, in order to make the required
calculation. They consist of the proportion of men whose relations
achieved eminence, compared with the total number into whose
relationships I inquired. The general result¹ is, that exactly one-half of
the illustrious men have one or more eminent relations. Consequently,
if we divide the entries in column D, of “eminent men of all classes,”
p. 317, by 2, we shall obtain the corresponding column E.
The reader may, however, suspect the fairness of my selection. He
may recollect my difficulty, avowed in many chapters, of finding
suitable selections, and will suspect that I have yielded to, the
temptation of inserting more than a due share of favourable cases.
And I cannot wholly deny the charge, for I can recollect a few
names that probably occurred to me owing to the double or treble
weight given to them, by the cumulated performances of two or three
persons. Therefore I acknowledge it to be quite necessary, in the
interests of truth, to appeal to some wholly independent selection of
names; and will take for that purpose the saints, or whatever their
right name may be, of the Comtist Calendar. Many of my readers will
know to what I am referring; how Auguste Comte, desiring to found
a “Religion of Humanity,” selected a list of names, from those to
whom human development was most indebted, and assigned the
months to the most important, the weeks to the next class, and the
days to the third. I have nothing whatever to do with Comtist
doctrines in these pages: his disciples dislike
1
Lord Chancellors, p. 64, 24 in 30; Statesmen of George III., p. 111, 33 in 53;
Premiers, p. 111, not included in the “Statesmen,” 8 in 16; Commanders, p. 150, 32 in
59; Literary Men, p. 172, 37 in 56; Scientific Men, pp. 194, 199, 65 in 83; Poets, p.
228, 40 in 100; Musicians, p. 239, 26 in 100; Painters, p. 249, 18 in 42; Divines, pp.
274, 283, 33 in 196; Scholars, p. 300, 14 in 36. These proportions reduced to decimals
are .8, .6 and .5, .5, .7, .8, .4, .3, .4, .2, .4; giving a general average of .5 or one-half.
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