VARIATION AND HEREDITY 21 



six can be assigned to the mothers' family. Of these 

 relatives of ability the Wesley family is responsible 

 for nine, while the Wordsworths supply six and the 

 Wollastons four. These three families afford an in- 

 structive example of the persistence of talent, owing to 

 a series of appropriate marriages. 



These results are certainly striking, and at first sight 

 one might be tempted to think that high administrative 

 capacity was heritable, and the other aptitudes, artistic, 

 literary, inventive, were not so or were only heritable 

 in a much less degree. 



A superficial explanation of these differences might 

 refer them all to the family influence possessed by 

 members of the first group, who had attained to the 

 rank of a peerage. As regards the descendants and 

 younger relatives of the men of distinction, such a con- 

 sideration must probably be taken into account. But 

 on a closer examination it seems to be insufficient to 

 explain the results. It would be a bold man who 

 would refer to the influence of a great official the 

 success of grandparents and great-uncles, living before 

 the birth of the fortunate man who obtained the peerage. 

 Yet the figures show that it is as necessary to explain 

 the pre-eminence of the forebears as the distinction of 

 the descendants, so that, with all due allowance for 

 family interest, it seems more rational to endeavour to 

 find a further reason which will account for both 

 phenomena. 



It must be remembered, too, that the Dictionary of 

 National Biography professes to notice merit, ability and 

 eminence, and not merely high station or important 

 office. Moreover, it is impossible to study its pages 



