474 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 



new territory we may greatly improve that 

 which we have. 



Jennings has pointed out as one of the great 

 tragedies of life the almost infinite slaughter 

 of potential personalities in the form of germ 

 cells which never develop. A more dreadful 

 though less universal tragedy is the loss of 

 real personalities who have all the native en- 

 dowments of genius and leadership but who 

 for lack of proper environmental stimuli have 

 remained undeveloped and unknown; the 

 "mute, inglorious Miltons" of the world; the 

 Cassars, Napoleons, Washingtons who might 

 have been; the Newtons, Darwins, Pasteurs 

 who were ready formed by nature but who 

 never discovered themselves. One shudders 

 to think how narrowly Newton escaped being 

 an unknown farmer, or Faraday an obscure 

 bookbinder, or Pasteur a provincial tanner. 

 In the history of the world there must have 

 been many men of equal native endowments 

 who missed the slender chance which came 

 to these. We form the habit of thinking of 

 great men as having appeared only at long 

 intervals, and yet we know that great crises al- 



