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Hereditary Genius
45
able reputation, only exceeded by that of his son. Boyhood and youth—the
period between fifteen and twenty-two years of age, which afford to the
vast majority of men, the only period for the acquirement of intellectual
facts and habits—are just seven years—neither more nor less important
than other years—in the lives of men of the highest order. People are too
apt to complain of their imperfect education, insinuating that they would
have done great things if they had been more fortunately circumstanced in
youth. But if their power of learning is materially diminished by the time
they have discovered their want of knowledge, it is very probable that their
abilities are not of a very high description, and that, however well they
might have been educated, they would have succeeded but little better.
Even if a man be long unconscious of his powers, an opportunity is sure to
occur—they occur over and over again to every man—that will discover
them. He will then soon make up for past arrears, and outstrip competitors
with very many years' start, in the race of life. There is an obvious analogy
between the man of brains and the man of muscle, in the unmistakeable
way in which they may discover and assert their claims to superiority over
less gifted, but far better educated, competitors. An average sailor climbs
rigging, and an average Alpine guide scrambles along cliffs, with a facility
that seems like magic to a man who has been reared away from ships and
mountains. But if he have extraordinary gifts, a very little trial will reveal
them, and he will rapidly make up for his arrears of education. A born
gymnast would soon, in his turn, astonish the sailors by his feats. Before the
voyage was half over, he would outrun them like an escaped monkey. I
have witnessed an instance of this myself. Every summer, it happens that
some young English tourist who had never previously planted his foot
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