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328
Hereditary Genius
female descent, and that the apparent inferiority is in exact proportion
to that difficulty. Thus the parentage of a man's mother is Invariably
stated in his biography; consequently, an eminent g. is no less likely to
be overlooked than a G.; but a u. is more likely to be overlooked than
a U., and an n. and p. much more likely than an N. and P. However,
the solution suggested by these facts is not wholly satisfactory,
because the differences appear to be as great in the well-known
families of the Statesmen and Commanders, as in the obscure ones of
the Literary and Scientific men. It would seem from this and from
what I shall have to say about the Divines, that I have hunted out the
eminent kinsmen in these degrees, with pretty equal completeness, in
both male and female lines.
The only reasonable solution which I can suggest, besides that of
inherent incapacity in the female line for transmitting the peculiar
forms of ability we are now discussing, is, that the aunts, sisters, and
daughters of eminent men do not marry, on the average, so frequently
as other women. They would be likely not to marry so much or so
soon as other women, because they would be accustomed to a higher
form of culture and intellectual and moral tone in their family circle,
than they could easily find elsewhere, especially, if, owing to the
narrowness of their means, their society were restricted to the
persons in their immediate neighbourhood. Again, one portion of them
would certainly be of a dogmatic and self-asserting type, and
therefore unattractive to men, and others would fail to attract, owing
to their having shy, odd manners, often met with in young persons of
genius, which are disadvantageous to the matrimonial chances of
young women. It will be observed, in corroboration of this theory, that
it accounts for g. being as large as G., because a man must have an
equal number of g. and G., but he need not have an equal number of
u., n., p., and U., N., P. Owing to want of further in-
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