16 HEREDITY. 



10. Suppose, therefore, that we have in the great 

 century of Athenian history two hundred and sev- 

 enty thousand free-born persons, that is,- three 

 times the ninety thousand. Of these there would 

 be one hundred and thirty-five thousand and ninety 

 males. Of these one-half, or sixty-seven thousand 

 five hundred, would survive the age of twenty-six, 

 and one-third the age of fifty. 



11. There was, therefore, in free Attica, in her best 

 century, one illustrious man to every four thousand 

 eight hundred and twenty-two above the age of 

 twenty-six, or say one to every five thousand of mature 

 men. 



There is the fact. This is what the human race 

 can do. That one to every five thousand of mature 

 Greek men in Attica was illustrious, is an absolutely 

 indisputable circumstance, on which, standing here 

 with the audience upon the Acropolis, I desire you 

 to fasten your attention as a headlight in the per- 

 haps tortuous labyrinth of our discussion as to the 

 natural laws of descent. Galton in his work on 

 Hereditary Genius (American edition, p. 341) makes 

 several mistakes in dates, but, from a narrower in- 

 duction, arrives at this same result, that one in 

 five thousand of mature men of the great age of 

 Athens was in such a sense distinguished that to this 

 hour we are proud to make these men our teachers 

 in philosophy, oratory, poetry, and art. The sug- 

 gestive course of thought pursued by Galton is freely 

 used in this discussion, and is credited to him ; but 

 so many changes in the way of enlargement and cor- 



