Heredity, Variation and Genius 63 



ters it did not in the least suit ; or the patronage 

 and companionship of persons of high rank, 

 whose loose pleasures he freely shared; or the 

 old plays stored in the Blackfriars theatre of 

 which he made such large and profitable use ; 

 or the practical experience of the stage which 

 served him so well to construct his dramatic 

 scenes. It is the one acorn falling by happy 

 chance, out of millions of acorns which have no 

 such good fortune, that grows into the majestic 

 oak. And the eminently successful man in the 

 struggle of life, were he modestly grateful, might 

 build an altar to fortune whose favour he has 

 specially enjoyed ; for oftentimes it is not unto 

 him but unto it that the glory should be given. 

 Of course there must be the requisite virtue in 

 the seed to co-operate with the circumstances. 

 It may perhaps be taken for granted that Shak- 

 speare was the only one of all the persons living 

 in Stratford when he left the town who, had 

 they left it as he did, could have done what he 

 did. Nevertheless it is a just opinion that the 

 average normal ability of the race is capable of 

 much higher development than it reaches in the 

 narrow and repressing circumstances of its exis- 

 tence ; that the constant tendency to variation 

 is largely repressed by a social and economic 

 environment as hostile to the particular person 

 sometimes as the human environment is generally 

 to the present evolution of animal life, and as 

 the lowest forms of present life on earth perhaps 



