THE INHERITANCE OF ABILITY 75 



cess, it is certain that ability, and the other desirable 

 qualities which depend, like it, on the conjunction of 

 many factors, are inherited also. 



Thus, although we cannot analyse completely ability 

 or beauty into a number of definite Mendelian factors, 

 we are safe in supposing that we shall tend to improve 

 the average ability and beauty of the race by encour- 

 aging the growth of families in which those qualities 

 are manifest, and discouraging those in which they are 

 deficient. Whether our knowledge eventually becomes 

 more exact, or whether we find the complete analysis of 

 the problem for ever too difficult for solution, the 

 general facts of inheritance remain. We may never be 

 able to predict more than roughly the probable ability 

 of the children of any one union ; but we know already 

 that, in a large number of unions, we may look for a 

 general resemblance between parents and children both 

 in body and mind. We can predict the effects on the 

 nation, perhaps on the family, though not with certainty 

 on the individual. 



The first to point out the overwhelming effect of 

 heredity in the history of ability was Sir Francis Galton. 

 His great work Hereditary Genius, published in 1869, 

 marks an epoch in the evolution of sociology, though 

 the prevailing individualist philosophy of life pre- 

 vented it from receiving adequate recognition till 

 recent years. 



Galton pointed out that the results of examinations, 

 such as the old Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, showed 

 that, instead of men being born equal, as was believed in 

 the nineteenth century, one man had natural abilities 



