158 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



Such are the mysteries of Nature's crucible! The 

 same elements that constitute the illustrious Victor 

 Hugo go to the making of his poor demented brother 

 Eugene, who also in his boyhood was a poet of con- 

 siderable promise.^ In Victor Hugo's daughter Adele 

 the insanity of the family reappeared. 



Among English poets and men of letters it may be 

 noted that Swift, Southey, and Cowper became insane, 

 that Walter Scott was paralysed, and that Milton, 

 Dryden, Addison, Coleridge, and Campbell had de- 

 formed, insane, or imbecile children. Enough has 

 been said to prove the danger of assuming that the 

 man of genius is necessarily a sample of Nature's 

 finest handiwork. Genius borders so closely upon 

 insanity in many cases that any endeavour to transmit 

 it artificially would probably defeat itself. Indeed 

 the crossing of one gifted family with another of 

 the same mould would almost certainlv result in a 

 species of consanguinity and in consequent degeneracy. 

 Every man of genius, says M. Eenan, represents the 

 accumulated mental capital of several generations. 

 The capital is dissipated — transformed into literature 

 or art — and the family line is impoverished for a time 



^ Victor Hugo, Raconti par un Timoin de sa Vie (who is sup- 

 posed to havft been Madame Hugo). 



