66 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



it seems permissible to doubt the wisdom of mediocrity 

 mating with precisely similar mediocrity. Though a 

 happy marriage usually implies a certain community 

 of taste and conviction, there is much to be said for 

 what is in point of fact very frequent — namely, the 

 marriage of dissimilars. 



It is likely enough that true genius is the result of 

 a fortunate merging of two fine inheritances, the result 

 being an unusual intensification of certain qualities, 

 and something of a new pattern without there being 

 disharmony. Of high importance as regards the race 

 is the mating of the wholesome, well-balanced, vigorous 

 types, with at least a spark of originality. Other things 

 equal, we should expect genius to result from such 

 unions rather than from others. 



Modes of Inheritance {continued) 

 To return, however, from this digression to the main 

 line of discourse, we have taken account of two extreme 

 modes of inheritance — {a) almost complete hereditary 

 resemblance, and (h) marked variation in the offspring. 

 Between these two extremes there are perhaps three 

 modes of inheritance : blending or averaging, alter- 

 native or Mendelian, and reversionary or harking back, 

 (c) Blending inheritance is a descriptive term for 

 cases where certain characters in the offspring appear 

 to illustrate an intimate mingling of the corresponding 

 paternal and maternal characters. Thus, though the 

 case is not so simple as it looks, a mulatto is often 

 regarded as a blend as far as skin colour is concerned 



