Heredity, Variation and Genius 55 



be a welcome surprise perhaps if there was a 

 single specially gifted person alive in the third 

 generation. Pairing two highly gifted intellec- 

 tual beings in hope of breeding equal or higher 

 intellect the result might well chance to be 

 idiocy or sterility ; if two finely strung emo- 

 tional persons were wedded in expectation of a 

 fine poetical or artistic genius the product might 

 be hysterical eccentricity or fanatical folly, if not 

 actual madness ; and if the enthusiastic experi- 

 menter did not conclude in the end to make use 

 of the comparatively gross material creature of 

 mediocre intellect and elemental animal passions 

 he might do well to relinquish his cleverly planned 

 scheme, content to leave the complex business to 

 the chances of Nature's mysterious operations, 

 which, like the sculptor, seems to need the crude 

 material on which to impress its fine forms. Cer- 

 tainly the suspicion is not altogether unwarranted 

 that if a person gets too far from physical nature 

 in spiritual aspiration he is likely to prove a poor 

 sire, not unlikely to breed an emasculate neurotic or 

 an imbecile. In the end the terrestrial mortal must, 

 Antaeus-like, touch earth and imbibe its whole- 

 some material spirit in order to sustain and main- 

 tain the virile strength necessary to carry the 

 species onwards to the golden age of wisdom and 

 happiness which unlimited desire expects in time 

 to come and fancy fables to have been in times 

 of old. 



Statistics regarding heredity do not yet help. 



