THROWING BACK 116 



government, are able to succeed in whatever occupa- 

 tion they may turn their hands to. In the second 

 place, we may assume that there is a metamorphosis 

 of talent as there is of disease. The family capacity 

 that raised Heine's uncle Solomon to the position of 

 a millionaire, by dint of metamorphosis made Heine 

 himself a poet. Milton's father was a musician. 

 Jeremy Beutham's brother Samuel was a general, and 

 his nephew George a distinguished botanist. The 

 famous Swiss family of the Bernouillis numbers 

 among its members mathematicians, naturalists, 

 chemists, and mineralogists. Darwin's family in- 

 cludes two medical men of note. Galileo's father 

 was a musician. Examples of this kind might be 

 indefinitely multiplied. 



It is true that not a few great men could be cited 

 who have had no distinguished relatives, Shake- 

 speare, Cervantes, Eabelais, Scott, Voltaire, and New- 

 ton being of the number. But great ability may 

 exist without becoming historical. Literary and 

 artistic capacity probably finds a means of asserting 

 itself under the most adverse circumstances. On the 

 other hand, great commanders and administrators 

 have to await their opportunities, and in many cases 

 probably their opportunities never come. Clive and 



