^l] ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA gi 



enlightened teachers of eugenics. . . . All this genius is scat- 

 tered somewhat uniformly through the whole mass of the 

 population.^ 



There are three reasons why these propositions of 

 Ward do not seem acceptable. In the first place, it does 

 not appear to be proved that a good environment will 

 make a genius of nearly everyone, as would be the case 

 if, as Ward asserts, *' some measure of genius exists in 

 nearly everyone." Vast numbers of persons who enjoy 

 every opportunity never rise beyond mediocrity. This 

 fact seems so obvious so to need no futher comment. 



In the second place, many persons achieve success 

 when every environmental condition seems unfavorable. 

 Apparently this fact indicates that some persons possess 

 greater power of overcoming difficulties than do others. 

 It appears, for instance, that ninety-six men and women, 

 sixty-two of whom were writers, succeeded in achieving 

 a reputation sufficient to gain a place on the roll of a 

 thousand American literati, in spite of the fact that they 

 enjoyed no more than the equivalent of a grammar school 

 education (Tables XVI and XVII). When one remem- 

 bers that a good formal education seems little less than 

 a prerequisite to literary success, the importance of this 

 fact will be realized. No doubt some of these ninety-six 

 literati enjoyed special advantages which compensated 

 for their apparent lack of education. At all events they 

 must have possessed unusual innate ability which enabled 

 them to overcome so great a handicap. 



In the third place, there seems to be positive evidence, 

 in facts about to be presented, that genius is not " scat- 

 tered somewhat uniformly through the iwhole mass of 

 the population," as Ward believed. The results of a 



1 Cf. supra, pp. 15, 16. 



