236 



The Journal of Heredity 



person to have as many as twenty close 

 relatives — as near as an uncle or a 

 grandson — then comi)utation shows that 

 only one person in 500 in the United 

 States has a chance to be a near relative 

 of one of our 3,500 eminent men — 

 provided it is purely a matter of chance. 

 As a fact, the 3,500 eminent men listed 

 by the bioj^raphical dictionaries are 

 related to each other not as one in 

 500, but as one in five. If the more 

 celebrated men alone be considered, 

 it is found that the percentage increases 

 so that about one in three of them has 

 a close relative who is also distinguished. 

 "This ratio increases to more than one 

 in two when the families of the forty-six 

 Americans in the Hall of Fame are 

 made the basis of study. If all the 

 eminent relations of those in the Hall of 

 Fame are counted, they average more 

 than one apiece. Therefore, they are 

 from five hundred to a thousand times 

 as much related to distinguished people 

 as the ordinary mortal is." 



To look at it from another viewpoint, 

 something like 1% of the popula- 

 tion of the country is as likely to produce 

 a man of genius as is all the rest of the 

 population put together — the other 

 99%. And this is due not to en- 

 vironment, but to biological heredity. 

 Let me prove this to you by running 

 rapidly over Dr. Woods' careful studies 

 of the royal families of Europe. Here 

 certainly we may say that— on the 

 whole, at least — environment has always 

 been favorable. It has varied, natur- 

 ally, in each case, but speaking broadly 

 it is certain that all the members of 

 this group have had the advantage of a 

 good education, of all the care and at- 

 tention that could possibly be given. 

 If environment affects achievement, 

 then we ought to expect the achieve- 

 ments of this class to be pretty generally 

 distributed among the whole class. 

 If opportunity is the cause of a man's 

 success, then we ought to expect most 

 of the members of this class to have 

 succeeded, because to every one of the 

 royal bk)od the door of opijortunity 

 usually stands open. We would expect 

 the heir to the throne to show a better 

 record than his younger brothers, how- 

 ever, because his opportunity to dis- 



tinguish himself is naturally greater. 

 I shall discuss this last point first. 



EMINENCE IN ROYALTY 



Dr. Woods divided all the individuals 

 in his study into ten classes for intellec- 

 tuality and ten for morality, those most 

 deficient in these qualities being ]3ut in 

 class 1, while the men and women of 

 preeminent intellectual and moral worth 

 were jjut in class 10. Now if preeminent 

 intellect and morality were at all linked 

 with the better chances that an inheritor 

 of succession has, then we ought to 

 find heirs to the throne more plentiful 

 in the higher grades than in the lower. 

 Actual count shows this not to be the 

 case. A slightly larger percentage of 

 inheritors is rather to be found in the 

 lower grades. The younger sons have 

 made just as good a showing as the ones 

 who succeeded to power: as we should 

 expect if intellect and morality are due 

 largely to heredity, but as we should 

 not expect if intellect and morality are 

 due largely to outward circumstances. 



Are "conditions of turmoil, stress and 

 adversity" strong forces in the produc- 

 tion of great men, as has often been 

 claimed? There is no evidence from 

 facts to support that view. In the 

 case of a few great commanders, the 

 times have seemed particularly fa\'or- 

 ablc. Napoleon, for example, could 

 hardly have been Napoleon had it not 

 been for the French revolution. But in 

 general there have been wars going on 

 during the whole period of modem 

 European history; there have always 

 been opportunities for a royal hero to 

 make his appearance; but often the 

 country has called for many years in 

 vain. Circumstances were powerless 

 to produce a great man and the nation 

 had to wait until heredity produced 

 him. Spain has for several centuries 

 been calling for genius in leadership; 

 l:)ut in vain. England could not get an 

 able man from the Stuart line. des])ile 

 her need, and had to wait for William 

 of Orange, who was a descendant of a 

 man of genius, William the Silent. 

 " Italy had to wait fifty years in bondage 

 for her deliverers, Cavour, Garibaldi 

 and Victor Emmanuel." 



