364 



The Journal of Heredity- 



press an authoritative opinion. I must 

 still leave the determination of this 

 question with the biologists ; but Pro- 

 fessor Conklin having called for the 

 evidence upon which my tentative opin- 

 ion was based, I am glad to furnish it. 



My statement appeared to me to be 

 justified by the results of two investi- 

 gations into the social distribution of 

 genius and talent in the United King- 

 dom. The lirst was made by Prof. 

 Havelock Ellis ; the second, which is in 

 continuation of the first, by Dr. Fred- 

 erick Adams Woods. The material 

 worked over in each case was furnished 

 by the "Dictionary of National Biog- 

 raphy" and by the successive supple- 

 ments to that work. The former in- 

 vestigation is embodied in Ellis's 

 "Study of British Genius"; the latter 

 is not yet in print. 



What these investigations disclose is 

 that over a period of several centuries 

 there has occurred a striking and pro- 

 gressive decline in the cultural contri- 

 bution from the "lower" classes, and, 

 of course, a corresponding relative in- 

 crease in the contribution from the rest 

 of the population. 



It appears that, from the earliest 

 times to the end of the nineteenth 

 century, the contribution to eminent 

 achievement made by the sons of crafts- 

 men, artisans, and unskilled laborers 

 vielded 11.7 per cent of the total num- 

 ber of names utilized from the "Dic- 

 tionary of National Biography" ; that 

 the representatives of that class who 

 were born in the first quarter of the 

 nineteenth century yielded 7.2 per cent 

 of the names ; and that those born dur- 

 ing the second quarter of the nineteenth 

 century yielded only 4.2 per cent of 

 the total. 



These figures are of great interesi 

 when they are considered in relation to 

 the social and political history of Eng- 

 land during the nineteenth century. 



Everybody knows that in England 

 the nineteenth century witnessed a 

 rapid and all-pervading democratization 

 of social and political conditions. It 

 was during this century that the Eng- 

 lish parliamentary system became, for 

 the first time in the six hundred years 



of its existence, an institution repre- 

 sentative of the great mass of the peo- 

 ple ; that schooling was made available 

 for all ; that in industry, in politics, in 

 society, the gates of opportunity were 

 opened wide for any person of what- 

 ever parentage who could make any 

 contribution in any field of achievement ; 

 that peers became business men, and 

 business men peers ; thai any scientist, 

 any scholar, any painter, sculptor, musi- 

 cian, poet, novelist, actor, dramatist, 

 engineer, chemist, architect, shipbuilder, 

 lawyer, or merchant, whose talents had 

 made him prominent in his calling, 

 could entertain a reasonable hope of 

 finding wealth in the favor of the pub- 

 lic and a title of nobility in the appre- 

 ciation of the political leaders. 



In England in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, then, there were to be observed, 

 in a measure never before attained in 

 any age in any country, the conditions 

 which give every man a chance, ac- 

 cording to the qualities of his mind and 

 temperament. If social opportunity 

 was less free than in the United States, 

 political opportunity was very much 

 greater — a fact which can be verified 

 by anyone who will take the trouble 

 to compare the number of professions 

 and occupations represented in the 

 House of Lords and in the House of 

 Commons with the number represented 

 in the Senate and the House of Repre- 

 sentatives at any moment during the 

 past fifty years. 



With every circumstance of life grow- 

 ing constantly more favorable to the 

 self-assertion of genius and talent in the 

 "lower" classes in England, how was 

 it that the contributions to eminent 

 achievement from that group fell from 

 an average of 11.7 per cent of the total 

 to a proportion of 4.2 per cent? 



It seems to me that as the vast im- 

 provement in environmental conditions 

 had not only failed to produce an in- 

 crease in high achievement by those 

 whom this improvement had done most 

 to serve, but had, on the contrary, taken 

 place parri passu with a very serious 

 decline in achievement, the cause must 

 be sought in an influence strong enough 

 to oflfset whatever beneficent effects im- 



