86 AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS [86 



and his followers are obviously in error in asserting that 

 all persons of unusual natural ability succeed in acquir- 

 ing a good education. 1 



In the second place, the facts shown in Table III con- 

 cerning the increased number of literary women are 

 evidence against the Galtonian theory that nature is 

 strongly predominant over nurture. In that table it was 

 shown that during almost the entire period studied the 

 number of literary women increased much more rapidly 

 than did the number of men. During certain decades 

 the number of women increased while the number of men 

 was actually diminishing. This fact cannot well be ex- 

 plained by any theory of the extreme predominance of 

 nature over nurture. Such interpretation would mean 

 that the innate literary ability of women was increasing 

 while that of men was diminishing, a proposition so un- 

 reasonable as to need no refutation. The case in hand 

 seems to be obviously an instance of the power of environ- 

 ment in stimulating the development of literature. Since 

 therefore, nurture could increase the number of literary 

 women many fold, without any apparent change in their 

 innate ability, it seems that nature cannot be predomi- 

 nant over nurture to the extent that Galton supposed. 



Galton's third proposition, namely, that the people of 

 various nationalities possess highly significant differences 

 in natural ability, must also be questioned. In criticizing 

 this proposition it seemed well to strengthen the argu- 

 ment by meeting Galton on his own ground, that is, by 

 opposing his theory with the results of a study similar 

 to the one on which he bases the foregoing proposition. 2 



1 On page thirty-nine of Hereditary Genius, Galton admits that only 

 persons of very unusual ability can overcome all obstacles, but since 

 elsewhere he includes in his lists of supposed geniuses persons of very 

 modest attainments, it would seem that the foregoing argument can 

 properly be advanced against his position. 



2 Cf. Hereditary Genius, ch. xx. 



