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40
Hereditary Genius
of the very first-class men—prodigies—one in a million, or one in ten
millions, of whom numbers will be found described in this volume, as
specimens of hereditary genius.
Another argument to prove, that the hindrances of English social life, are
not effectual in repressing high ability is, that the number of eminent men in
England, is as great as in other countries where fewer hindrances exist.
Culture is far more widely spread in America, than with us, and the
education of their middle and lower classes far more advanced; but, for all
that, America most certainly does not beat us in first-class works of
literature, philosophy, or art. The higher kind of books, even of the most
modern date, read in America, are principally the work of Englishmen. The
Americans have an immense amount of the newspaper-article-writer, or of
the member-of-congress stamp of ability; but the number of their really
eminent authors is more limited even than with us. I argue that, if the
hindrances to the rise of genius, were removed from English society as
completely as they have been removed from that of America, we should
not become materially richer in highly eminent men.
People seem to have the idea that the way to eminence is one of great
self-denial, from which there are hourly temptations to diverge: in which a
man can be kept in his boyhood, only by a schoolmaster's severity or a
parent's incessant watchfulness, and in after life by the attractions of
fortunate friendships and other favourable circumstances. This is true
enough of the great majority of men, but it is simply not true of the
generality of those who have gained great reputations. Such men,
biographies show to be haunted and driven by an incessant instinctive
craving for intellectual work. If forcibly withdrawn from the path that leads
towards eminence, they will find their way back to it, as surely as a lover to
his mistress. They do not
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