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42
Hereditary Genius
ample. Therefore, I will compare the sons of eminent men with the
adopted sons of Popes and other dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church.
The practice of nepotism among ecclesiastics is universal. It consists in
their giving those social helps to a nephew, or other more distant relative,
that ordinary people give to their children. Now, I shall show abundantly in
the course of this book, that the nephew of an eminent man has far less
chance of becoming eminent than a son, and that a more remote kinsman
has far less chance than a nephew. We may therefore make a very fair
comparison, for the purposes of my argument, between the success of the
sons of eminent men and that of the nephews or more distant relatives, who
stand in the place of sons to the high unmarried ecclesiastics of the Romish
Church. If social help is really of the highest importance, the nephews of
the Popes will attain eminence as frequently, or nearly so, as the sons of
other eminent men; otherwise, they will not.
Are, then, the nephews, &c. of the Popes, on the whole, as highly
distinguished as are the sons of other equally eminent men? I answer,
decidedly not. There have been a few Popes who were offshoots of
illustrious races, such as that of the Medici, but in the enormous majority of
cases the Pope is the ablest member of his family. I do not profess to have
worked up the kinships of the Italians with any especial care, but I have
seen amply enough of them, to justify me in saying that the individuals
whose advancement has been due to nepotism, are curiously
undistinguished. The very common combination of an able son and an
eminent parent, is not matched, in the case of high Romish ecclesiastics, by
an eminent nephew and an eminent uncle. The social helps are the same,
but hereditary gifts are wanting in the latter case.
To recapitulate: I have endeavoured to show in respect to literary and
artistic eminence:—
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