I 4 AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS 



Throughout this study the terms nature and nurture are 

 used in the sense of Gait on' s definition. 



There are three important theories of nature and nur- 

 ture on which impinge the facts presented in this study. 

 These theories are briefly summarized in the following 

 paragraphs. 



Galton states clearly the position of those who hold that 

 nature is stronger than nurture. His opinion can be pre- 

 sented fairly by brief quotations from his classic work, 

 Hereditary Genius. 1 His first proposition is stated in the 

 opening sentence of the volume, as follows : " I propose to 

 show in this book that a man's natural abilities are derived 

 by inheritance, under exactly the same limitations as are 

 the form and physical features of the whole organic world/' 

 In the second place Galton argues for the preponderant in- 

 fluence of nature over nurture, saying: 



I believe, and shall do my best to show, that, if the " eminent " 

 men of any period had been changelings when babies, a very 

 fair proportion of those who survived and retained their health 

 up to fifty years of age, would, notwithstanding their altered 

 circumstances, have equally risen to eminence. 2 



A little later Galton says : 



I have endeavored to show in respect to literary and artistic 

 eminence 



1. The men who are gifted with high abilities . . . easily 

 rise through all the obstacles caused by inferiority of social 

 rank. 



2. Countries where there are fewer hindrances than in 

 England, to a poor man rising in life, produce a much larger 

 proportion of persons of culture, but not of what I call 

 eminent men. 



1 Francis Galton, Hereditary Genius (London, 1869). 

 ' Ibid., p. 38. 



