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Hereditary Genius
and perhaps to break down altogether. Their inborn excitability and
peculiarity may be expected to appear in some of their relatives also, but
unaccompanied with an equal dose of preservative qualities, whatever they
may be. Those relatives would be “crank,” if not insane.
There is much that is indefinite in the application of the word genius. It is
applied to many a youth by his contemporaries, but more rarely by
biographers, who do not always agree among themselves. If genius means
a sense of inspiration, or of rushes of ideas from apparently supernatural
sources, or of an inordinate and burning desire to accomplish any particular
end, it is perilously near to the voices heard by the insane, to their delirious
tendencies, or to their monomanias. It cannot in such cases be a healthy
faculty, nor can it be desirable to perpetuate it by inheritance. The natural
ability of which this book mainly treats, is such as a modern European
possesses in a much greater average share than men of the lower races.
There is nothing either in the history of domestic animals or in that of
evolution to make us doubt that a race of sane men may be formed who
shall be as much superior mentally and morally to the modern European, as
the modern European is to the lowest of the Negro races. Individual
departures from this high average level in an upward direction would afford
an adequate supply of a degree of ability that is exceedingly rare now, and
is much wanted.
It may prove helpful to the reader of the volume to insert in this
introductory chapter a brief summary of its data and course of arguments.
The primary object was to investigate whether and in what degree natural
ability was hereditarily transmitted. This could not be easily
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