HEREDITY. 359 



organism retain substantially the same form, that when art produces 

 a rapid modification of structure, or desires to seize upon a valuable 

 and marked variety, repeated and careful selection is required to give 

 it permanence. 



The principle of atavism explains the curious resemblance often » 

 seen in a human family between uncle and nephew ; the likeness in 

 such cases is derived from some common ancestor, the grandfather most 



usually. 



Mr. Galton, in his work on " Hereditary Genius," adopts the sta- 

 tistical method to prove that illustrious men arise oftenest from fami- 

 lies displaying eminent talent, and have relatives approaching to them- 

 selves in ability in a degree proportioned to the nearness of kinship. 

 A man of genius is much more likely to have a remarkable father or 

 son, than a nephew or cousin. Great men, Galton says, seem to arise 

 like islands, isolated and unaccountable ; but this is an illusion — they ^ 

 are given to us usually by parents unknown from the necessarily nar- 

 row limitations of fame ; islands are but the tops of hills whose whole 

 extent is hidden by obscuring ocean. Yet the exceptions to this rule 

 are very numerous : why should Cromwell, Milton, Goethe, and so many 

 others, leave behind them unworthy children ? Was it from unfortu- 

 nate mating with an inferior mother, or because the vitality, physical 

 and mental, was too much drawn upon by the individual life for worthy 

 continuation ? How can it be explained that men like Burns and 

 Faraday should come up from families in which even enthusiastic biog- 

 raphers can find nothing to distinguish them from their neighbors ? 



The wide unlikeness frequently observed between parents and chil- 

 dren in talent and character suggests an analogy with a familiar fact in 

 chemistry. A compound's color, weight, and other properties, may be 

 changed almost bej^ond recognition by adding or eliminating a single 

 element. It is somewhat so in human nature ; a father of warm pas- 

 sions or strong acquisitive impulses may transmit all his traits to a son, 

 except prudence ; and the omission may cause much sympathy for a 

 reputable and worthy man's being afflicted with a boy so unlike him- 

 self. If the lack in inheritance be in perseverance and application, 

 of what value are splendid talents without them ? 



A lens externally not to be distinguished from a perfect one may, 

 from some slight defect in composition or handling, give images blurred 

 and distorted, instead of true and beautiful. A chain is no stronger 

 than its weakest link, and a small lack or discordance in the elements 

 of character may exclude it from the exacting demands of high place. 

 We often hear regrets that men of genius so rarely have living de- 

 scendants, but we must not overrate the persistence of ordinar}'^ fami- 

 lies : taking the first eleven names of acquaintances that occurred to 

 me, I found that three of them were in a fair way of being the last of 

 their race ; every old person can recollect the dying out of many once 

 numerous families. 



