GENIUS AND HEREDITY. i 93 



tween Aristotle and his father Nicomachus, court-physician, of whom 

 we hardly know anything ; or between Galileo and his father Vicenzo, 

 who wrote on the theory of music ; or between Leibnitz and his father, 

 law-professor at Leipsic ? In fact, only a single example can be op- 

 posed to our criticism, that of the family of the Bernouillis, which was 

 celebrated for the number of mathematicians and physicists whom it 

 produced through several generations. Yet here we have to take notice 

 of the fact that only one of the family, John, was rated by his con- 

 temporaries alongside of Newton and Leibnitz on account of his brill- 

 iant mathematical discoveries. The others were very distinguished 

 men, but that is a different thing. The genius stands apart. 



Still, we can say that in these three orders of the creative art there 

 is something hereditary not genius, indeed, but a kind of necessary 

 apprenticeship, or perhaps a physiological and mental aptitude tend- 

 ing to determine to certain vocations. In this way we can understand 

 why we meet so many musicians, or painters, or men of science, in the 

 same family. In the case of the painters, for example, there is some- 

 thing that inspiration can not do without, there are a number of pri- 

 mary gifts and technical properties in design or color which are easily 

 transmitted by example and imitation in the father's studio, and are 

 distributed as a common patrimony among the children. Only one of 

 the family will rise to the first rank ; but this initiation into his art i& 

 indispensable to him as a matter of economy of time and labor, and. 

 also to give greater freedom to his inspiration. Macaulay has well said 

 that Homer could never have made himself known to us in the lan- 

 guage of a savage tribe, and that Phidias could never have carved his- 

 Minerva out of a log with a fish-bone. It is necessary to take account 

 of these favorable circumstances, which in some families help to over- 

 come the first difficulties of the art, and furnish the future genius with; 

 convenient instrumentalities with which he can make himself familiar 

 and skillful from his earliest childhood. So the taste for music that 

 is, an aptitude for measuring time and distinguishing notes is innate 

 with many children, and is often derived from the father, mother, or 

 other ancestors. If both parents are musicians, all the children will 

 generally have a correct ear ; if only one of them is a musician, some 

 of the children may have the taste, while others may not. Likewise, 

 a facility in quickly grasping and handling numerical or algebraic 

 values is indispensable to the operations of the mathematician, and 

 may be remarked as a peculiar gift in certain families, among whom 

 may some time arise one illustrious in the science. These conditions 

 are not essentials of genius, but they are useful to it in helping it to 

 disengage and reveal itself. They are, as it were, the alphabet of his 

 art to the composer, mathematician, or painter ; and it is not without 

 advantage that the art has, by means of the example and traditions of 

 the family, become a kind of instinct for the future great man. This 

 explains how it is that great painters, mathematicians, or musicians, 



VOL. XXIV. si 3 



