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22
Hereditary Genius
necessarily one-sided in their natural gifts. There are numerous instances of
the reverse, of whom the following will be found, as instances of hereditary
genius, in the appendix to my chapter on “SCIENCE.”
I would especially
name Leibnitz, as being universally gifted; but Ampere, Arago, Condorcet,
and D'Alembert, were all of them very far more than mere mathematicians.
Nay, since the range of examination at Cambridge is so extended as to
include other subjects besides mathematics, the differences of ability
between the highest and lowest of the successful candidates, is yet more.
glaring than what I have already described. We still find, on the one hand,
mediocre men, whose whole energies are absorbed in getting their 237
marks for mathematics; and, on the other hand, some few senior wranglers
who are at the same time high classical scholars and much more besides.
Cambridge has afforded such instances. Its lists of classical honours are
comparatively of recent date, but other evidence is obtainable from earlier
times of their occurrence. Thus, Dr. George Butler, the Head Master of
Harrow for very many years, including the period when Byron was a
schoolboy, (father of the present Head Master, and of other sons, two of
whom are also head masters of great public schools,) must have obtained
that classical office on account of his eminent classical ability; but Dr.
Butler was also senior wrangler in 1794, the year when Lord Chancellor
Lyndhurst was second. Both Dr. Kaye, the late Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir
E. Alderson, the late judge, were the senior wranglers and the first classical
prizemen of their respective years. Since 1824, when the classical tripos
was first established, the late Mr. Goulburn (brother of Dr. Goulburn, Dean
of Norwich, and son of the well-known Serjeant Goulburn) was second
wrangler in 1835, and senior classic of the same year. But in more recent
times, the necessary labour of preparation, in order to acquire the highest
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