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38
Hereditary Genius
a nature which, when left to itself, will, urged by an inherent stimulus, climb
the path that leads to eminence, and has strength to reach the summit—one
which, if hindered or thwarted, will fret and strive until the hindrance is
overcome, and it is again free to follow its labour-loving instinct. It is almost
a contradiction in terms, to doubt that such men will generally become
eminent. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence in this volume, to
show that few have won high reputations, without possessing these peculiar
gifts. It follows that the men who achieve eminence, and those who are
naturally capable, are; to a large extent, identical.
The particular meaning in which I employ the word ability, does not
restrict my argument from a wider application; for, if I succeed in
showing—as I undoubtedly shall do—that the concrete triple event, of
ability combined with zeal and with capacity for hard labour, is inherited,
much more will there be justification for believing that any one of its three
elements, whether it be ability, or zeal, or capacity for labour, is similarly a
gift of inheritance.
I believe, and shall do my best to show, that, if the “eminent” men of any
period, had been changelings when babies, a very fair proportion of those
who survived and retained their health up to fifty years of age, would,
notwithstanding their altered circumstances, have equally risen to eminence.
Thus—to take a strong case—it is incredible that any combination of
circumstances, could have repressed Lord Brougham to the level of
undistinguished mediocrity.
The arguments on which I rely, are as follow. I will limit their application
for the present, to men of the pen and to artists. First, it is a fact, that
numbers of men rise, before they are middle-aged, from the humbler ranks
of life to that worldly position, in which it is of no importance to their future
career, how their youth has been passed.
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