VI 



SOCIOLOGY AND HERO-WORSHIP 



IN his interesting article entitled " Great 

 Men, Great Thoughts, and the Envi- 

 ronment," published in " The Atlantic 

 Monthly" for October, 1880, Dr. William 

 James calls attention to the striking analogy 

 between " geniuses " and what are known to 

 modern zoologists as " spontaneous variations." 

 Nothing could be more satisfactory than the 

 manner in which (on pages 444-447) Dr. James 

 expounds the nature of this analogy, and em- 

 phasizes the truly philosophic character of Mr. 

 Darwin's method of dealing with so-called spon- 

 taneous variations. The analogy between those 

 variations, on the one hand, of which the zoolo- 

 gist takes cognizance, and on the other hand 

 those " sociological variations " known as gen- 

 iuses or " great men," consists essentially in the 

 similarity of causal relations in the two cases. 

 Both kinds of variations may be described as 

 deviations from an average which are severally 

 unaccountable. Every species of animals or 

 plants consists of a great number of individuals, 

 which are nearly but not exactly alike. Each 



