THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 115 



eccentric. If we did so we should have to exclude from the ranks 

 of genius such men as Shakespeare, Goethe, Aristotle, Darwin 

 and many others who occupy the very highest rank among the 

 great men of the world. It is possible to find little eccentricities 

 or idiosyncracies in such normal men as these, but a similar 

 scrutiny of the life of almost anyone would reveal the same thing. 

 One of the conclusions arrived at by Galton in his study of emi- 

 nent men of science was that these men constituted a group 

 distinguished for physical and mental health. 



One of the circumstances most commented upon in discussion 

 of the inheritance of great men is the fact that the parents of 

 many men of genius never exhibited any evidence of superiority 

 which would lead one to suspect that they would give rise to a 

 person of exceptional eminence. And we are reminded of Newton, 

 Lincoln, Goethe, Shakespeare and others who appear to rise like 

 great isolated mountain peaks out of the level plain of ordinary 

 humanity. Sometimes it is suggested that such men are compar- 

 able to the ''sports" or mutations that appear from time to time 

 in plants and animals. 



It should be borne in mind that greatness involves a peculiar 

 complex of qualities the lack of any one of which may prevent 

 an individual from achieving an eminent position. A great man 

 has to do more than simply exist; he must accomplish labors 

 of a particularly noteworthy kind before he is crowned with fame, 

 and many a man of splendid natural endowments has fallen short 

 of achieving greatness through some inherent weakness of char- 

 acter or the lack of sufficient inspiration or driving force. Great 

 men not only have to be bom great; they also have to achieve 

 greatness ; and if they receive their proper recognition in the eyes 

 of the world, greatness has to be thrust upon them besides. 

 Whatever a man may be or do, his greatness as a matter of fact 

 depends upon the position in which the judgment of the world 

 places him. 



Great men, it is true, seem to rise higher than their source. 

 Generally they come from ancestry considerably above medioc- 

 rity. And I venture to express the opinion that a great man has 



