4 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



somewhat "colored" by our prepossessions. Naturally in the "Tables" 

 it often becomes necessary to place individuals into certain categories 

 not named by the biographer. For the full data that justify this assign- 

 ment the reader must consult the work or works cited at the ends of the 

 biographies in Part II. In a word, we have tried to approach this sub- 

 ject in the inductive spirit and to draw only such conclusions as the 

 facts seem to warrant. How far the attempt has been successful each 

 reader, being in possession of all of the facts, may judge for himself. 



III. RESULTS OF STUDY. 

 1. TYPES OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



Successful naval officers are of various types. This is because, as 

 Mahan (1901, p. 151) says: "Each man has his special gift, and to succeed 

 must act in accordance with it." It is also true that different kinds of 

 gifts can be utilized to advantage in the navy; for the navy needs not only 

 fighters and tacticians, but also strategists, administrators, diplomats, 

 explorers, and surveyors. It can make use of inventors, constructors, 

 teachers, and writers. Indeed, especially hi times of peace, advancement 

 is made chiefly by seniority, and a naval officer may reach highest rank 

 merely by longevity. The term "naval officers" consequently corresponds 

 to a single trait no more than "officer," but a larger proportion of naval 

 officers have a common trait than the group of "officers." The three 

 commonest traits are: (1) love of sea; (2) capacity for fighting; (3) capac- 

 ity for commanding or administering. One person may combine in himself 

 all these three and even other important traits; so in studying a trait at 

 a time we may consider an individual more than once. For example, 

 Nelson was a great strategist and a great tactician, and had the traits 

 that make a man a brilliant, gallant fighter. 



2. TEMPERAMENT IN RELATION TO TYPE. 



Temperament is the general quality of response shown by a person. 

 Three principal kinds of temperament are recognized, and they are sub- 

 divided and combined in various ways. We may reckon the tempera- 

 ments as overactive, hyperkinetic; underactive, hypokinetic, and inter- 

 mediate or normal. The hyperkinetic temperaments are the choleric 

 and the nervous (or sanguine). The hypokinetic temperaments are the 

 phlegmatic and the melancholic. The intermediates are prevailingly calm 

 and cheerful. "The nervous person is active, irritable, excitable, ambitious, 

 given to planning, optimistic, usually talkative and jolly. The choleric 

 person is overactive, starts on new lines of work before completing the 

 old, brags, is usually hilarious, hypererotic, often profane, liable to fits of 

 anger, destructive, assaultative, and even homicidal." " The phlegmatic 

 temperament is characterized by quietness, seriousness, conservativeness, 

 pessimism. The person of melancholic temperament is unresponsive 

 (often mute), lachrymose, given to worry, weak and incapable, feels life 

 a burden, often longs for death as a relief." The possessor of the inter- 

 mediate or normal mood "works and plays moderately, laughs quietly, does 



