HEREDITARY TRAITS. 



35 



a single force but a complex of faculties, we shall 

 find little to perplex us in the phenomenon of 

 spontaneity " — that is (in this case), in the ap- 

 pearance of a man of genius in a family not be- 

 fore remarkable in any way. " Suppose a family 

 who have possessed some of the attributes of 

 greatness, but who, in virtue of a principle equal- 

 ly true in psychology and in mechanics, that 

 ' nothing is stronger than its weakest part,' has 

 remained in obscurity. Let a man of this family 

 marry a woman whose faculties are the comple- 

 ment of his own. It is possible that a child of 

 such a couple may combine the defects or weak- 

 nesses of both parents, and we have then the case 

 of spontaneous imbecility or criminality. But it 

 is also possible that he may combine the excel- 

 lences of both, and burst upon the world as a 

 spontaneous genius. . . . Again, we must remem- 

 ber that, even if we consider the intellect as ' one 

 and, indivisible,' it is far from being the only fac- 

 ulty needful for the attainment of excellence, even 

 in the fields of pure science. Combined with it, 

 there must be the moral faculties of patience, 

 perseverance, and concentration. The will must 

 be strong enough to overcome all distracting 

 temptations, whether in themselves good or evil. 

 Lastly, there must be constitutional energy and 

 endurance. Failing these, the man will merely 

 leave among his friends the conviction that he 

 might have achieved greatness, if — We once 

 knew a physician, resident in a small country 

 town, who from time to time startled his asso- 

 ciates by some profound and suggestive idea, 

 some brilliant apergu. But a constitutional lan- 

 guor prevented him from ever completing an in- 

 vestigation, or from leaving the world one written 

 line." 



The effect of circumstances also must not be 

 •overlooked. It is certain that some of those who 

 stand highest in the world's repute would have 

 done nothing to make their names remembered 

 but for circumstances which either aided their ef- 

 forts or compelled them to exertion ; and it can- 

 not be doubted, therefore, that many who have 

 been by no means celebrated have required but 

 favoring opportunities or the spur of adverse cir- 

 cumstances to have achieved distinction. We 

 note the cases in which men who have been in- 

 tended by their parents for the desk or routine 

 work have fortunately been freed for nobler work 

 to which their powers have specially fitted them. 

 But we are apt to forget that for each such case 

 there must be many instances in which no fortu- 

 nate chance has intervened. The theory that 

 genius will make its way, despite all obstacles, is 



much like such popular notions as that " murder 

 will out," and the like. We note when events 

 happen which favor such notions, but we not only 

 do not note — in the very nature of things it is 

 impossible that we should have the chance of 

 noting — cases unfavorable to a notion which, af- 

 ter all, is but a part of the general and altogether 

 erroneous idea that what we think ought to be, 

 will be. That, among millions of men in a civ- 

 ilized community, trained under multitudinous 

 conditions, for divers professions, trades, and so 

 forth, exposed to many vicissitudes of fortune, 

 good and bad, there should be men from time to 

 time — 



" Who break their birth's invidious bar, 

 And grasp the skirts of happy chance, 

 And breast the blows of circumstance, 

 And grapple with their evil star "— 



is no truer proof of the general theory that genius 

 will make its mark, despite circumstance, than 

 is the occasional occurrence of strange instances 

 in which murder has been detected, despite seem- 

 ingly perfect precaution. 



It must, however, be in a general sense ad- 

 mitted that mental powers, like bodily powers, 

 are inherited. If the ancestry of men of genius 

 could be traced, we should in each case probably 

 find enough, in the history of some line at least 

 along which descent could be traced, to account 

 for the possession of special powers, and enough 

 in the history of that and other lines of descent 

 to account for the other qualities or character- 

 istics which, combined with those special powers, 

 gave to the man's whole nature the capacity by 

 which he was enabled to stand above the average 

 level of his fellow-men. We might, with knowl- 

 edge at once wider and deeper than we actually 

 possess of the various families of each nation, 

 and their relationship, predict in many cases, not 

 that any given child would prove a genius, but 

 that some one or other of a family would prob- 

 ably rise to distinction. To predict the advent of 

 a man of great genius as we predict the approach 

 of an eclipse or a transit, will doubtless never 

 be in man's power; but it is conceivable that, 

 at some perhaps not very remote epoch, anticipa- 

 tions may be formed somewhat like those which 

 astronomers are able to make respecting the re- 

 currence of meteoric showers at particular times 

 and seasons, and visible in particular regions. 

 Already we know so much as this, that in certain 

 races of men only can special forms of mental 

 energy, like special bodily characteristics, be ex- 

 pected to appear. It may well be that hereafter 



