1875.] Heredity. 167 
and of education in particular, is comparatively small :— 
“We restrict education, as we think, within its just limits, 
when we say that its power is never absolute, and that it 
exerts no efficacious action except upon mediocre natures. 
Suppose the various human intelligences to be so graduated 
as to form a great linear series, rising from idiocy, the bottom 
of the scale, to genius, which is at the top. The influence 
of education is at its minimum at the two ends of the series. 
On the idiot it has hardly any effect: unheard-of exertions 
and prodigies of patience and ingenuity often produce only 
insignificant and transient results. But as we rise towards 
the middle degrees this influence grows greater. It attains 
its maximum in average minds, which, being neither good 
nor bad, are much what chance makes them; but as we 
ascend to the higher forms of intelligence we see it again 
decrease, and as we come nearer to the highest order of 
genius it tends towards its minimum.’’ So long, however, 
as persons of ‘‘ mediocre natures,” intellectual and moral, 
constitute, as they are always likely to do, the great majority, 
the importance of education—both in a national and in an 
individual point of view—remains unshaken. Men who have 
not that magnificent spontaneity which enables its possessors 
to open new epochs in the history of Science, may yet, if 
properly trained, be capable of useful research. It will 
never be theirs to discover a law of gravitation, an atomic 
theory, a conservation of forces, or a do¢trine of organic 
evolution ; but they may discover and analyse new com- 
pounds, natural or artificial; they may detect new forms of 
organic life, observe their structure and habits, and deter- 
mine their geographical distribution. 
If, then, education can do such things,—if it can call into 
being discoverers of the second order, inventors, and appliers, 
—it must always constitute a main element of national 
greatness, and stands in no need of fictitious or exaggerated 
recommendations. 
Not less important is the bearing of the law of heredity 
upon crime and its treatment. There are evidently two very 
distinct classes of criminals,—the casual offender, who in 
some unguarded moment has yielded to temptation, and the 
normal hereditary villain, such as the Liverpool ‘‘ corner- 
men.” As regards the latter, we have to consider not merely 
the garotter or ruffian brought before the courts, but his 
descendants, actual or possible, of whom the bulk will as 
surely be criminals as the children of a consumptive person 
will be prone to pulmonary disease. Attention has lately 
been drawn to the fact that the ancient san¢tuaries of 
WOL.. V. (N.S.) Y 
