A STUDY OF BRITISH GENIUS. 6i 



Full particulars are not given by the Eegistrar-General of New Zealand 

 in any report in my possession, but it appears that at least 45 per cent, 

 of New Zealand children whose fathers died under the age of sixty- 

 five were under fifteen at the time. This, of course, does not tell us 

 what proportion these children bear to the children of the same age 

 whose fathers are living. In English reformatories, Douglas Morrison 

 notes, as a very high proportion, that 33 per cent, of the children ad- 

 mitted under the age of sixteen had lost one or both parents. 



The chief feature in the childhood of persons of eminent intellectual 

 ability brought out by the present data is their precocity. This has 

 indeed been emphasized by previous inquirers into the psychology of 

 genius, but its prevalence is very clearly shown by the present investi- 

 gation. It has certainly to be said that the definition of 'precocity' 

 requires a little more careful consideration than it has sometimes 

 received at the hands of those who have inquired into it, and that 

 when we have carefully defined what we mean by 'precocitj* it is its 

 absence rather than its presence which ought to astonish us in men 

 of genius.* Judging from the data before us, there are at least three 

 courses open to a child who is destined eventually to display preemi- 

 nent intellectual ability. He may (1) show extraordinary aptitude for 

 acquiring the ordinary subjects of school study; he may (2), on the 

 other hand, show only average, and even much less than average, 

 aptitude for ordinary school studies, but be at the same time engrossed 

 in following up his own preferred lines of study or thinking; he 

 may, once more (3), be marked in early life solely by physical energy, 

 by his activity in games or mischief, or even by his brutality, the 

 physical energy being sooner or later transformed into intellectual 

 energy. It is those of the first group, those who display an extraordi- 

 nary aptitude for ordinary school learning, who create most astonish- 

 ment and are chiefly referred to as proving the 'precocitjr' of genius. 

 There can be no doubt whatever that even in the very highest genius 

 such extraordinary aptitude at a very early age is not infrequently 

 observed. It must also be said that it occurs in children who, after 

 school or college life is over, or even earlier, display no independent 

 intellectual energy whatever. It is probable that here we really have 

 two classes of cases simulating uniformity. In one class we have an 

 exquisitely organized and sensitive mental mechanism which assimilates 

 whatever is presented to it, and with development ever seeks more com- 

 plicated problems to grapple with. In the other class we merely have 

 a sponge-Uke mental receptivity, without any corresponding degree of 

 aptitude for intellectual organization, so that when the period of 



* For a summary of investigations into the precocity of genius, se* A. F. Cham- 

 berlain, 'The Child,' pp. 42-6. 



