Heredity 



outside of the dwelling. To do nothing is his 

 invariable rule. The bringing-up of the family, 

 therefore, however expensive it may be in 

 certain cases, has not given rise to the instinct 

 of paternity. Then where are we to look for 

 a reply? 



Let us make the question a wider one. Let 

 us leave the animal, for a moment, and oc- 

 cupy ourselves with man. We have our own 

 instincts, some of which take the name of 

 genius when they attain a degree of might 

 that towers over the plain of mediocrity. We 

 are amazed by the unusual, springing out of 

 flat commonplaces; we are spell-bound by the 

 luminous speck shining in the wonted dark- 

 ness. We admire; and, failing to understand 

 whence came those glorious harvests in this 

 one or in that, we say of them : 



"They have the gift." 



A goatherd amuses himself by making com- 

 binations with heaps of little pebbles. He 

 becomes an astoundingly quick and accurate 

 reckoner without other aid than a moment's 

 reflection. He terrifies us with the conflict of 

 enormous numbers which blend in an orderly 

 fashion in his mind, but whose mere statement 

 overwhelms us by its inextricable confusion. 



113 



