98 Life ami Lettet's of FiiinciH (ialtim 



mediocrity adapted for the occupation of men, who are devoted to pure abstractions, than for 

 thooe whuM inten«t is of a Kocial kind." (p. 198.) 



1 think tliere is also anotlier point which appHes to all men of science 

 but particuhirly to the niatheniatician. Two factors or qualities are needful 

 for a great man of science, namely accurate power of analysis, and an intense 

 power of imagination which equals, if it does not transcend, that of poet or 

 painter. Imagination and analytical power do not seem correlated characters; 

 thev may be most fortunately combined in some individual but separated in 

 his kinsmen. There are many matliematicians who are brilliant algebraists, 

 but lack the imagination which finds problems worth solving and .suggests 

 the solution to be attempted analytically. That is why so many mathema- 

 ticians are dull socially, they are inclined to spend their leisure playing chess 

 or solving mathematical puzzles propounded by their fellows in educational 

 journals — a pursuit akin to solving conundrums. 



The really eminent man of science does, however, }X)s.ses8 imagination; 

 in fact, it is probably the most marked characteristic of all forms of genius, 

 and with it comes the width that counteracts the dangers of specialisation. 

 Galton saw this as fully as Huxley, and would smile in his quiet way when 

 a committee of mediocrities turned down the proposal of a man of great 

 imagination on the ground that it was not 'practical [tolitics.' 



"People lay," he writes, "too much stress on apparent specialities, thinking overrashly that, 

 because a man is devoted to some particular pursuit, he could not p<is.sil>ly hiive succeeded in 

 anything else. They might just as well say that, liecause n youth hiul fallen desperately in love 

 with a brunette, he could not possibly have fallen in love with a blonde. He may or may not 

 have more natural liking for the former type of boiuty than the latter, but it is as prolwble as 

 not that the affair was mainly or wholly due to a general amonjusness of disposition. It is just 

 the same with special pursuits. A gifted man is often capricious or fickle before he selects his 

 occupation, but when it has been chosen he devotes himself to it with a truly passionate ardour. 

 After a man of genius has seUnrted his hobby, and so adapted him.self to it as t<j seem unfitted 

 for any other occu|>ation in life, and to be possessed of but one special aptitude, I often notice 

 with admiration how well he l)ears himself when circumstances suddenly thrust him into a 

 strange position. He will display an insight into new couditions, and a power of dealing with 

 them, with which even his most intimate friends were unprepare<l to accredit hiiu. Many a 

 presumptuous fool has mistaken indifference and neglect for incapacity; and in trying to throw 

 a man of genius on ground where he was unpre|iared for attjick, has himstMf receive*! a most 

 severe and unexpected fall. I am sure that no one who has had the privilege of mixing in the 

 society of the abler men of any great uapital, or who is acquainted with the biographies of the 

 heroes of history, can doubt the existence of gnuui human animals, of natures preeminently 

 noble, of individuals born to be kings of men. I have been conscious of no slight misgiving that 

 I was committing a kind of sacrilege whenever, in the preparation of the materials of this book, 

 I hud occasion to take the measurement of modern intellects vastly superior to my own, or to 

 criticise the genius of the most magnificent historical specimens of our race. It was a process 

 that constantly recalled to me a once familiar sentiment in l)ygone days of African travel, when 

 I U8e«l to take altitude^s of the huge cliffs that dominwre*! above me as I travelled along their 

 bases, or to map the mountainous landmarks of unvtsite<l tribes, that IuouiihI in faint grandeur 

 beyond my actual horizon." (pp. 24-5.) 



As I have tried to impress on the reader, if Galton wiis a freethinker, he 

 still worshipped as one of simpler faith at his own peculiar shrine — a shrine 

 dedicated to the genius of his race. Those, who have not recognised that the 

 inheritance of mental ability is the essential doctrine of Galton's faith — the 



