If we compare the eight hundred odd persons who form the main body of this study with the world in general, we cannot but be struck with the relatively large number of exceptional geniuses who have from time to time appeared in their genealogical charts and have taken their places as actual and undisputed leaders in many of the greatest movements in European history. Among the men alone there are 25 in grade 9 and 10. These are the bearers of the names of unquestioned distinction, names of geniuses who stand without superiors in the practical domains of war and government. Where else could we take eight hundred interrelated names at random and find twenty-five world geniuses?

There is no doubt but that modern royalty as a whole has been decidedly superior to the average European in capacity; and we may say without danger of refutation, that the royal breed considered as a unit, is superior to any other one family, be it that of noble or commoner.33

To this last claim many will take exception. Compare the two following charts.

Elsewhere Woods has shown that eminent persons have a large number of eminent relatives by comparing the fortyseven elected to the Hall of Fame in New York City with a list of 3,500 names taken from two standard biographies.

Coligny

Shaded figures in 3 highest grades. Numbers within symbols indicate grade. Numbers outside symbols indicate the following individuals: 1, William the Silent; 2, The Great Elector; 3, William III, England; 4, Frederick the Great; 5. Gustavus III, Sweden.

Now the chances that an ordinary mortal-any man taken at random-will be as closely related (as close as a grandparent or grandson) to any person in this second group (the 3,500 group) is about one in five hundred to perhaps one in a thousand. In contrast to this, fully one-half of those in the Hall of Fame are closely related to some one in the second group, and, if all their distinguished relatives are added up, they average more than

7

6

FIG. 32. THE INHERITANCE OF LOW ABILITY: THE BOURBONS IN

SPAIN AFTER 1700

35

Shaded figures under Grade 6. Numbers indicate grade.

one apiece. In other words, the amount of distinguished relationship which the Hall of Fame gives is about a thousand times the random expectation.3 36

There is a real danger underlying most of current discussion about genius. The dominant group likes to boast of its ancestors and to assume that equal ability is not found in other groups. The less successful groups always explain their position as due to lack of opportunity. The correlation between existing social classes and ability remains to be proved. The development of great men in countries like America and Australia, the rise of Japan in the last century, the promise of China for this, can hardly be accounted for

solely in terms of heredity. Great ability must have great opportunity, and opportunity and training are not always at hand. Moreover we are comparing the reputations of earlier men, not their capacities. There may have been many men of even greater ability than those we know. The ablest man does not always become president. The actual inventor may have his designs stolen. Society, then, should try to give every man a chance for development.

Wedgwood

Darwin

Galton

FIG. 33.

THE INHERITANCE OF ABILITY IN THE WEDGWOOD,
37
DARWIN, AND GALTON FAMILIES

Shaded squares represent men of exceptional ability; figures in diamonds represent other children, sex not stated.

The trend of the whole investigation has been in the general direction of showing that great men have been produced by the coöperation of two causes, genius and opportunity, and neither alone can accomplish it. But genius is a constant factor, very abundant in every rank of life, while opportunity is a variable factor and chiefly artificial. As such it is something that can be supplied practically at will. The actual manufacture, therefore, of great men, of the agents of civilization, of the instruments of achievement, is not a utopian conception but a practical undertaking.88

So wrote Ward and as evidence he cited the studies of Odin which included 816 eminent men of letters of France. He found that only nine of every hundred came from poor families, although the latter constituted 97 per cent of the population. The nobility had furnished two hundred distinguished men to every one from the laboring classes. But, all these men save sixteen had received university educations and had exceptional opportunities as children. So Odin concludes: "We have thus arrived, by a series of careful approaches and eliminations, at the conclusion that the fecundity of the respective localities in remarkable men of letters rests essentially upon the educational resources that they place within the reach of their occupants." 39

Whether actual genius be as common as Ward held or as rare as Galton and Woods thought, it is none too common and the ambition to achieve great things needs to be stimulated rather than repressed. Suppose, however, it be found as many have held that the superlatively endowed man was so one-sided as to approach the insane, what attitude should be taken? Men like Edison say that genius is "two per cent inspiration and 98 per cent perspiration." This means that great achievement means hard work in some given field and this may lead to one-sided development and interests. There is little evidence that most genius contains anything of abnormality. As Myerson wrote: "Among the 700 families of the insane of Taunton I found no case of 'genius' and few of high grade talent.” 40

EUGENICS

As a result of the discovery of the number of low-grade folks coupled with the revelations of the accomplishments of men and women of good stock, the eugenics movement has developed and gained considerable headway. It has two aspects, negative eugenics, the prevention of the reproduction of the unfit, and positive eugenics, the encouragement of the