 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Hereditary Genius
329
formation, I am compelled to leave this question somewhat
undecided. If my column C of the tables had been based on facts
instead of on estimate, those facts would have afforded the
information I want.
In the case of Poets and Artists, the influence of the female line is
enormously less than the male, and in these the solution I have
suggested would be even more appropriate than in the previous
groups.
Among the Divines we come to a wholly new order of things. Here,
the proportions are simply inverted, the female influence being to the
male as 73 to 27, instead of as, in the average of the first five
columns, 30 to 70. I have already, in the chapter on Divines, spoken
at so much length about the power of female influence in nurturing
religious dispositions, that I need not recur to that question. As
regards the presumed disinclination to marriage among the female
relatives of eminent men generally, an exception must certainly be
made in the case of those of the Divines. They consider intellectual
ability and a cultured mind of small importance compared with pious
professions, and religious society is particularly large, owing to habits
of association for religious purposes; therefore the necessity of
choosing a pious husband is no material hindrance to the marriage of
a near female relation of an eminent divine.
There is a common opinion that great men have remarkable
mothers. No doubt they are largely indebted to maternal influences,
but the popular belief ascribes an undue and incredible share to them.
I account for the belief, by the fact that great men have usually high
moral natures, and are affectionate and reverential, inasmuch as
mere brain without heart is insufficient to achieve eminence. Such
men are naturally disposed to show extreme filial regard, and to
publish the good qualities of their mothers, with exaggerated praise.
 |
|
 |
|