MENTAL APTITUDES. 



it necessary for him to have assistance in dressing himself and even 

 in walking. Hence we have one factor in his heredity that is 

 smaller with him than with any other of the eight persons. 



SCHILLER, BURNS AND SHAKESPEARE. 



With Schiller we find that his father had a birth-rank higher 

 than he did, a fact that would tend to raise him in the scale of 

 mental capacity. With Burns we find that his ancestors had lim- 

 ited educational facilities, a fact that would act to bring him down 

 in the scale. 



Taking the two arrangements together, we find that a man's 

 birth-rank is a very accurate gauge of his mental aptitude, but only a 

 partially accurate gauge of his mental ability. We also find that 

 when we add to the birth-rank the other factors that enter into a 

 man's heredity, the combination of these factors gives us a remarka- 

 bly accurate gauge of his mental powers. 



Among poets comes Shakespeare, and I have previously shown 

 that his birth-rank is somewhere between 31 and 40, and probably 

 about 35 or 36. I have also shown that the birth-ranks of both 

 of his parents are probably over 45. If there be any truth what- 

 ever in what our tables tell us, then this ancestry is the ideal one 

 for producing such a character as Shakespeare. We have mental 

 power developed in both parents by virtue of both being children 

 of old grandparents, and in at least one case the accumulation ex- 

 tends back still another generation. We then have a case of in- 

 and-in breeding from these two with the production at the time 

 of life which produces the literary and poetical character. This 

 ancestry is very similar to those of Goethe and Schiller, except 

 that the mother was older and the mother's birth-rank was higher 

 with Shakespeare than with either of the other two. 



