The Journal of Heredity 



not be a serious hiimilialion for an 

 incli\idual to discover that he has not 

 >iifficient intelligence to undertake a 

 given line ol work. The repl\- is 

 first, whate\'er the nionientar\- hu- 

 miliation, it can ne\'er compare with 

 the humiliation of failure that is sure 

 to come later, or with the unhappiness 

 that is the constant accompaniment 

 of worrying through the >'ears working 

 at a task that is he>ond one's ability. 

 "The second answer is, that it is 

 only a ciuestion of custom and fre- 

 (|uenc\'. For a single individual to be 

 ])ointed out as not having sufficient in- 

 telligence to become a doctor while the 

 rest of his group were supposed to 

 have the requisite intelligence, would 

 be somewhat humiliating; l>ut if the 

 intelligence of each member of the 

 group were determined and all were 

 found to ha\e apf)ro.\i match- the 

 same, even though it were below that 

 required for a particular profession 

 would not be humiliating. Moreover, 

 it is not so new and strange as it 

 first appears. Many people today 

 are advised not to undertake this 

 or that profession or business because 

 they have not the requisite qualifi- 

 cations. The application of the facts 

 of mental le\el is onh' a more scientific 

 way of getting at the same result." 



riir. INFIA KNCE OF EMOTIONS 



It has, of course not infreciuentK- 

 been objected that the mental le\'el 

 of a person is not sufficient; that 

 the emotional nature is quite as 

 important. The man of \iolent 

 emotion is liable to be inefficient 

 through a wasting of his energy in 

 emotional outbursts, while the man 

 of weak emotions is apt to be in- 

 efficient because he does not haw 

 the emotional stimulus to hold him 

 up to his capacity. Besides that, 

 the man who is emotionally despondent 

 or chroni(-all\- unhapp\- does not do 

 good work, and lends to make others 

 unhappy as well as himself. 



"While all this is profoundl>- true, 

 it must not be overlooked that the level 

 of intelligence to a large degree 

 determines the extent to which the 



indi\idual either controls the.se ten- 

 dencies of his emotional life or fails to 

 control them. Nor must we forget 

 the danger of reasoning in a circle here, 

 since much of the chronic imhappiness 

 is directly traceable to the fact that 

 the individual is attempting to do a 

 work for which his intelligence is not 

 equal. Again, many times the emotional 

 outbreak is due to an uncongenial 

 en\ironment which a better intel- 

 ligence would pr()m|)t him to change. 

 Still better, as we shall see later this 

 emotional condition has a physical 

 basis, which while sometimes beyond 

 control, is ne\ertheless in many cases 

 capable of being modified by a use of 

 sufficient intelligence. So that while, 

 in view of these facts of the emotional 

 life, we may not say that one's effi- 

 ciency is entirely proportionate to his 

 mental knel, we can at least feel safe 

 in declaring that a low le\el will exercise 

 little or no control o\er the emotional 

 life and therefore, those instincts 

 and emotions which would tend to 

 inefficiency will ha\'e their full force 

 instead of being modified and con- 

 trolled as the>- are b\- higher intelligence. 

 So that in determining the mental 

 le\el of an indi\idual. we are as- 

 certaining how much power of control 

 he has o\er these fundamental in- 

 stincts and emotions, a fact which is 

 ob\iously of no small \alue." 



But, it is asked, are these le\els 

 fixt'd and unchangeable.-' "To take 

 a concrete exam|ile. suppose a Noung 

 man has the ambition to become a 

 physician. K\'en though he should find 

 he has a low mental kvel, emotional 

 peculiarities and temperamental idio- 

 syncrasies, will not his ambition make 

 up for all these negative conditions, 

 so that he succeeds in spite of themi' 

 The reader will undoubtedly be able 

 to cite instances that seem to indicate 

 that this is the fact, but because the 

 mental le\el has ne\ (.t been determined 

 in these cases, it is possible to say they 

 are not cases in point because the 

 mental level ma\- ha\e been adequate 

 to the accomplishment of the task, 

 and consequent h' it was not a case of 

 the aiubition or tlu' circumstances 



