Sfiitisfical Inrextiyations 361 



amoiif,' till', most iliveiveiit ijopulations and the most varied surroundings. 

 The iiKpiiry, Gallon tells us, must l)e statistical in its character, referring to 

 the acts of a nopulation as a whole, and not regarding the units of which it 

 is composed, for it is only in this way that we can neutralise and eliminate 

 the effects of individual character and circumstances, which are far too 

 numerous to he severally allowed for. Galton's notes then turn to the 

 " valuation of motives," and ho as-serts that while they are of the most 

 varied kind, they are yet commensurable; they may I* equally etticacious 

 in producing a particular result. "There are an indefinite variety of hriljes, 

 and experience shows the amount of hribe of each several sort that is neces- 

 sary to produce a given avemge result'." The attractive forces of each of 

 many siiows at a fair, aj)pealing to many diverse tastes, are comparahle in a 

 statistical sense without any other reservation by the money they take. 

 I will not venture to cite more of Galton's rough notes; he wjis thoroughly 

 convinced that "motives" like other psychical charactei-s are capable of 

 stilt istical evaluation. To press the matter would be to call forth from some 

 readi-rs a protest similar to that wliich the editor of the S2>ectator made 

 after Galton's Royal Institution Lecture of 1874, wherein he applied the 

 method of "ranking " to psychical characters. 



" We can only t"X|ircss our wonder, and ropoat our belief that what Mr Galton has succeeded 

 in doing, is in exposing the utter inapplicability of physico-scientific methods to int«llpctual and 

 moral subjects. ...We ean imagine no more pi-ofitles.s or idle task than the attom]>t to draw out 

 a Statistical Scale (say) of Candour or of Power of Kepartee, and to arrange the public men of 

 this generation in it, except ind(H!d doing the same thing for a considerable numlier of qualities, 

 and giving the reiusons for the place a-ssigned in the biographies, which would be rendered 

 unreadable by the process'." 



There might K* dithculty in "ranking " Gladstone and Di.sraeli for 

 "Candour, " but few would que.stion John Morley's position rel.ative to both 

 of them in this quality. It would reijuire an intellect their equal to rank 

 truly in the quality of scholarship Henry Bradshaw, Rol)ertson Smith and 

 Lord Acton, but most judges would place all three above Sir John Seeley, 

 as they would place Seeley above Oscar Browning. After all there are such 

 things as brackets, which only make the statistical theory of ranking slightly 

 less simple in the handling. 



Drafted much about the same time was Galton's first circular on "Fatigue," 

 by which he sought to measure any permanent ill effects of mental work. 

 This again w;is a topic on which Galton felt strongly, having his own ex- 

 perience always in mind. The proposed circular was to be addressed apparently 

 to the fellows and scholars in Cambridge (and possibly O.xford) Colleges, and 

 related not only to mental overwork, but to its possible association with 

 physical overstrain, in both school and college periods of life. He probably 



' "The gingling of the guinea soothes the hurt that honour feels" — which is not exactly 

 Tennyson. (Jalton was wont to say, on seeing a hilarious party of middle-agtxl f>erson.s, that it 

 struck him us strange that notwithstanding their glee they were all of them orphans. 



* See the Spectator, May 23, 1874, and Galton's letter with the wlitorial rejoinder May 30, 

 1874. "It is about time we drew the Spectator again," W. Kingdon Clifford would snv. and 

 Galton was only too apt to do so without malice prepense ! 



