THAPTER X 



I 



THE EARLY STUYD OF HEREDITY: CORRESPONDENCE WITH 

 ALFHONSE DE CANDOLLE AND CHARLES DARWIN 



"Tlit>ro is a vast difference between an intellectual belief in any subject and a living belief 

 which Ix'conies ingrained, sometimes quite suddenly, into the character." 



Francis CIalton, llrreditnry Improvement, p. 123. 



A. DE CANDOLLE AND KNOLISU MEX OF SCIENCE 



Ah [ have already indicated, Galton's writings of 1865-1875 on social 

 topics met with a very mixed reception. The paper on the " Efficacy of 

 Prayer" had l)een refused by Grove and Knowles for their re.'i|>ective journals 

 before it found a place in the FortiiujhtlyK His views on race-betterment 

 met with a variety of remonstrances from the mediocrity which Galton 

 would efface, and which is still the blindest opponent of his ideas. Mrs 

 Grundy- -whom Galton desired to i-aise two 'grades' in intelligence — was 

 naturally outrageously shocked. She is still shocked but, while dumb her- 

 self has a capacious petticoat pocket whence she extracts ample sweetmeats 

 for her e.xpostulatory and rilial scribes. Galton throughout his life rarely 

 permitted himself to be drawn into controversy, and, as Mrs Galton records, 

 his work was approved by men of note. We may add by some women of 

 note too, although they took a line of their own, with which I am lar from 

 certain Francis Galton fully sympathised. While advanced in many ways 

 far beyond his contemporaries, he never struck me as fully recognising the 

 need for the oncoming change in the status of women. He invariably treated 

 them with an old-fashioned courtesy, which had an irresistible and unde- 

 finable charm ; but the gradual entry of highly trained women, even into 

 his own statistical studies, seemed to some extent to find him unprepared 

 and puzzle him. He woidd accept the ability, but hardly appreciated it 

 fully, if it were not accompanied oy personal presence and a recipnwating 

 charm. He could rejoice in the able woman of the salon, but I am less certain 

 that he sympathised tus fully with the etpially able, but more highly trained 

 modern academic woman. But the men who did in 1870 could \)v almost 

 counted on the fingers of one hand ! I caimot refrain from citing (by j)er- 

 mission) the following fine letters from Miss Emily Shirreff, a woman of much 



' "I am afraid," wroU^ Knowles, "that after all my courage is not greater than Grove's, 

 You will think that editors are a 'feeble folk,' and so perhaps they are, but it is cerUin that 

 our constituents (who are largely clergymen) must not be tried much further just now by 

 proposals following Tyndall's friend's on prayer— and of a similar Md, — or as you yourself say 

 'audacious character'.'' 



