56 Heredity. 



sensibility of ear, nor a painter without an innate gift for colour 

 and form, which presupposes a certain conformation of the visual 

 organ. These physiological conditions are not to the same degree 

 necessary for the poetic faculty. Hence we may say that musical 

 or plastic talent is more dependent than the poetic on the con- 

 formation of the organs. In the former case, psychological 

 heredity is more closely connected with physiological heredity, 

 and this makes its transmission more certain ; for, as will be shown, 

 heredity is a form of necessity (in other words, of mechanism) ; and 

 this is far more inflexible in the domain of life than in that of 

 thought 



In the following list, and in all others of the same kind, it is, 

 of course, not intended to give a complete enumeration of every 

 case of heredity. We merely wish to place facts before the 

 reader's eyes ; we cite only well-known names, or thoroughly con- 

 clusive cases, judging that here, as in every experimental study, 

 the important thing is not the quantity of experiences, but their 

 quality. Although, too, much is to be allowed for education and 

 tradition, in considering a talent hereditary in a family, we must 

 not attempt to explain, by these external means, what we attribute 

 to heredity. The creative imagination is probably, of all the 

 faculties, the one that it is least possible to produce artificially. 

 Perhaps the following summaries of historical facts will be found to 

 embrace enough experimenta lucifera to justify the assertion that 

 heredity is the rule, not the exception. 



II. POETS. 



Poets are scarcely slandered, if it be said that as a rule they 

 form a passionate, ardent, sensitive race ; that is the very condition 

 of the artistic temperament Hence the disorders, extravagancies, 

 and singularities of their lives. These conditions are not favour- 

 able to the foundation of a family. A great artist is only so by a 

 mixture of qualities, which are, so to speak, extra-natural. This is 

 a character which is produced only by a happy accident, and 

 therefore its heredity must be very unstable. 



And yet, in examining the families of the fifty-one poets named 

 below, there will be found twenty-two who have had one or more 

 distinguished relatives. Their names are given in CAPITALS. 



