M Lift aiid Letters of Francin Galtuu 



anooMsiul tradesmen ! And yet Galton is above all an aristocrat. When we 

 read his 'Jiulfjes' and his 'Statesmen' we see him almost swept ofl" his 

 feet when he discovei-s for the fii-st time from liis own reading the character- 

 istic ahility of the Montjii^us and Nortlis, or of the Temples and Wyiidhams. 

 There was almost a simplicity about his adoration of ability and he positively 

 gloated over it, if it t(X)k an nniisiial and individual turn. Many very able 

 men scarcely appreciate higl» ability in others, l>ecause, as in the matter of 

 wealth, a man is apt to judge relatively to his own holding. Not so Galton ; 

 had he u.sed himself as a standard measure, 1 fear his modesty would have 

 led him to revise more than one of his estimates. 



"A collection of living magnates in variouH branches of intellectual achievement is always 

 « feast to my eyes; being as they generally are such massive, vigorous, capable-looking 

 uumals'". (p. 332.) 



Galton had an immense veneration for genius as he defines it; not only 

 like Carlyle would he have made his heroes rulers of the mediocre, but 

 unlike Carlyle he would have had his heroes steadily and surely replace the 

 latter. That men of genius are unhealthy puny beings — all l)iain and no 

 muscle — weaksighted, and generally of poor constitutions, Galton will not 

 accept for a moment. 



"I think most of my readers would be 8urptis(>tl at ihe .stjiturcs iiiid i>iiy.sieal frames of the 

 heroes of hibtory, who fill my pago-S if they emild be assembled together in a hall. I would 

 undertake to pick out of any group of them, even out of that of the Divines, an 'eleven' who 

 should compete in any physical feats whatever, against similar selections from groups of twice 

 or thrice their numbers, taken at luipliazard from equally well-fed classes." (p. 331.) 



Perhaps Galton laid too great stress on the higli wranglers and classics 

 of his own day who had been ''varsity blues'; or again on the big-headed 

 men on the front benches at the Royal Society meetings in tfie early 

 'seventies'. 



One chamcteristic, but an all-important one. Galton admits both his 

 'Judges' and 'Statesmen' did not possess; the power of being prolific. It 

 will be obvious that if men of ability are unprolific, as they are often sup- 

 posed to be, then the families of great men will l)e apt to die out, and 

 Galton's project for creating a race of 'supermen' must be defeated. This 

 point — whether or no a breed of men gifted above the average could main- 

 tain itself during an indefinite number of generations — is so miportant that 

 Gralton devotes a special chapter to the subject. Turning to the 'Judges ' he 

 first cites Lord Campbell's statement that when he first became acquainted 

 with the English Bar, one-half of the Judges had married theii- mistresses, 



* "One comfort is that Great Men taken up in any way are profitable company. We 

 caauot look, however imperfectly, upon a Great Man, without gaining something by him. 

 He is the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near." Lectures on 

 Htrot;*, p. 2. 



* He was very unhappy about the low cori-elations I found lietwetui int<?lligeiice and size of 

 llMd, and would cite against mc thotte 'front benches'; it wa.s one of the few iustaiices 1 noticed 

 when impreMions seeme<l to have more weight with him than me^isuremenls. It is possible, how- 

 erer, that Ijetween his day and mine science changed its recruiting fields, and 'eminence ' became 

 leu common. 



