416 



NA TURE 



[March 5, 1903 



youngest in this year was fifty-three, and the oldest — Baron 

 Armstrong — was ninety. 



Last year — 1902 — the same story is repeated. Five 

 millionaires died in 1902, and their average age is seventy- 

 eight. It is also worth remarking that if our inquiries are 

 carried further, it will be noticed that longevity is a striking 

 feature of those whose estates are valued at between 

 500,000/. and 1,000,000/. 



It seems to me that one might have expected this state of 

 things to exist, if we consider how the wealthy — through 

 their wealth — can secure the advantages of change of scene, 

 change of climate, scientific progress, and last, but not 

 least, the aid, skill and advice of our greatest doctors and 

 surgeons. One would have liked to take up other points, 

 but I fear I have already taken up too much of your valuable 

 space. S. Irwin Crookes. 



Secondary and Technical Schools, Clay Cross, 

 Chesterfield, February 17. 



In some respects it appears to me that the excellent re- 

 marks of Sir Oliver Lodge and Mr. A. R. Wallace (Nature, 

 Ixvii. pp. 270, 296) leave this difficult subject in an unsatis- 

 factory condition. 



All inquirers have perceived that great men are of two 

 types, and it would conduce to clear thinking if we could 

 accustom ourselves to classify them under different names. 

 To define them exactly is impossible, for no man of great 

 genius is without talent, and no man of great talent is with- 

 out some genius. 



The first class, to which I should prefer to restrict the 

 name genius., may be described primarily as men of fine, 

 delicate, sensitive, impressionable constitution, and strong, 

 restless innate tendencies which appear early in life, as a 

 rule, and take their own shape. These men work energeti- 

 cally, often at high pressure, and in general die comparatively 

 young, or at least do not often reach a robust old age. 

 They are fearless rather than circumspect, have the ability 

 and courage to open out in new directions of thought and 

 action, are creative, original, daring, and possess either an 

 exquisite sensibility or a wonderful and tenacious faculty ot 

 logical thought. They are, as it were, impelled from within, 

 and are thus able to resist the almost overwhelming influence 

 of social example, and the ties of relationship, exhibiting, 

 for the most part, more independence than their times can 

 tolerate or understand. They introduce most of the new 

 ideas into the world, and touch nothing they do not trans- 

 form. They are always men of strong practical feeling in 

 their own special vocation, but scarcely ever practical in 

 the sense of turning every opportunity to their own advan- 

 tage. Indeed, the height to which thev soar is largely due 

 to their detachment from worldly interests and conventions, 

 and their lack of regard for self, though this may be con- 

 sistent, and is often found in conjunction, with excessive 

 vanity and egotism. They take a sympathetic interest in 

 human affairs, and are most commonly liberal in sintiment, 

 but their actions are often narrow and sometimes inde- 

 fensible. Frequently thev are simple, direct, guileless, not 

 so much unversed in as opposed to the diplomatic ways by 

 which men succeed ; but contact with the world is apt to 

 spoil them, and their very logic leads them into extremes. 

 Despite abundant energy, their powers of resistance are not 

 great, and they most often reach high eminence in music, 

 poetry, painting, philosophy and science, where activity lies 

 somewhat remote from the tension and bustle of practical 

 life. They are said to be inspired because of the enthu- 

 siasm, and unconscious working, of their minds. 



The second class I would describe' as men of talent. When 

 preeminent they exhibit striking aptitude in learning and in 

 imitation, and develop extraordinary powers of work. They 

 are generally men of strong, vigorous build, firm mind and 

 healthy body. They are, accordingly, marked by general 

 sanity of ideas, preferring to think and act in conformity 

 with prevailing conventions rather than to startle men with 

 novel views. Except perhaps in their own particular sphere 

 of activity, they are conservative in character. They possess 

 a clear conception of the value of this world's goods and 

 graces, accumulate honours, and become, in general, more 

 reputable than illustrious. They do the bulk of the world's 

 hard mental work, and are more concerned to protect and 



NO. 1740, VOL. 67] 



improve existing institutions than to seek new methods or 

 discover new paths. When they do achieve greatness it is 

 more bv virtue of immense knowledge and systematic ex- 

 position, or of amazing industry and technique, than of 

 original and independent views. What Galton says of 

 English judges applies with all its force to men of talent 

 in general : thev " are vigorous, shrewd, practical, helpful 

 men ; glorying in the rough-and-tumble of practical life, 

 tough in constitution and strong in digestion, valuing what 

 money brings, aiming at position and influence, and desiring 

 to found families." 



As described, these are of course ideal types, to which 

 actual men more or less approximate. But they are well 

 enough distinguished in nature for mutual antagonism. 

 The man of talent is apt to laugh at the genius ; and the 

 genius too often sneers at the man of talent. The one is 

 pushing, the other retiring ; the one looks for and obtains 

 immediate reward, the other works for fame and posterity. 

 Compared with the man of talent the genius is a rare 

 phenomenon. But this may be because so many geniuses 

 are sacrificed before their activity has produced lasting re- 

 sults, for the existing environment is not favourable to 

 them. As typical of the genius I would name Chopin, 

 Mozart, Beethoven, Raphael, Goethe, Shakespeare, Keats, 

 Shelley, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Descartes, 

 Spinoza ; and of the great men of talent Aristotle, Velasquez, 

 Virchow, Hegel, and, indeed, those numerous men who 

 have attained eminence rather through enormous receptivity 

 and power than by acuteness and creative faculty. 



These types once fairlv discriminated, it is not so difficult 

 to determine their relation to the struggle for existence. 

 Great men, in proportion as they approach the second type, 

 are the more clearly useful in the immediate needs of life, 

 and this, in plain language, is the only usefulness conserved 

 by natural selection. Whoever supposes that natural selec- 

 tion is a being with eyes directed towards the future has 

 wholly misconceived it. Men of genius not only leave few, 

 inferior, or no offspring, but too often find it difficult to live. 

 And explain it how we will, the public opinion that neglects 

 men of genius during their lives is natural selection. Genius 

 never conquers except when the ideas and works to which 

 1 gives origin are taken up and put to practical use by men 

 oi 1 be second type. If the ideas are beyond the men of 

 talent, they are as much neglected as the geniuses, until 

 such time as the world has made progress in its own slow 

 way. There are many ideas now in printed books which 

 are waiting for recognition by men of talent. Much of the 

 work of genius has very little bearing on the struggle- for 

 existence. Music ;ind painting, for example, except in so 

 far as they are .-, source of profit to instrumentalists and 

 collectors, and to teai hers of these arts, do little more than 

 give pleasure and consolation mostly to those who seek 

 refuge from the struggle which, though concealed by many 

 rations, is teal and searching enough beneath the sur- 

 face of civilised life. The error lies in supposing that every- 

 thing comes into existence by virtue of natural selection, 

 when in fact natural selection is only a convenient expression 

 to sum up the action of causes which conduce to survival and 

 persistence. In nature there is great variety, and genius, 

 so far, is one of the varieties which often recur, but scarcely 

 ever survive even for two generations. It is a rare and 

 delicate thing, and the utmost we can hope for it is that 

 endeavours may be made to collect and preserve it like some 

 hot-house plant, in order that it may suggest combinations 

 which men of talent may put to practical account. 



The position of the second type in the struggle for exist- 

 ence is beyond doubt. The stability of a country and its 

 place among the nations depend upon the number and 

 ability of men of this stamp. They obtain rewards pre- 

 cisely because of their usefulness. Thev found families by 

 reason of their strength and virility, and their steadfastness, 

 cheerfulness and conservatism of character are as much the 

 expression of their bodily make as the instability and origin- 

 ality of the man of genius are the expression of his keen 

 sensibility, and his daring suggestions a proof of bodily 

 discomfort and profound dissatisfaction with the conditions 

 of life and knowledge. 



But we are only on the verge of these studies, which are 

 hardly yet within the reach of scientific method, and we have 

 acquired very little insight into the collective action of 



