502 
Wee OTe 
[March 17, 1870 
features of the whole organic world. Many who read it 
without the care and attention it requires and deserves, 
will admit that it is ingenious, but declare that the ques- 
tion is incapable of proof. Such a verdict will, however, 
by no means do justice to Mr. Galton’s argument, which 
we shall endeavour to set forth as succinctly as possible. 
He first discusses the classification of men by “reputa- 
tion,” and from a study of biographical dictionaries and 
obituaries for certain years taken at wide intervals, arrives 
at the conclusion that not more than 250 men in each 
million, or 1 in 4,000, can be termed “ eminent *»; and he 
shows what a small proportion that is, by the well-known 
fact that there are never so many as 4,000 stars visible to 
the naked eye at once, and that we feel it to be an extra- 
ordinary distinction in a star to be the brightest in the 
sky. These “eminent” men are the lowest class he deals 
with. The more illustrious names are as one in a million 
or one in many millions; but unless a man is so much 
above the average that there is only one like him in every 
4,000, he is not admitted into the ranks of the eminent 
men on whom Mr. Galton founds his deductions, 
He next discusses the classification of men according 
to their natural gifts. He shows first, that each man has 
a certain defined limit to his mental as well as to his 
physical powers, and that this limit is in most cases soon 
discovered and reached. He next shows the enormous 
difference that exists between mediocre and high class 
men, by the evidence of examination papers ; the senior 
wrangler at Cambridge, for example, often getting thirty 
times as many marks as the lowest wrangler, who must 
himself be a man very far above the average. Statistics 
show, that the number of imbeciles and idiots are about 
the same per thousand as the eminent men. He then 
applies QOuetelet’s “law of deviation from an average” 
(which will be new to many of his readers), and deduces 
from it, that if men are divided into sixteen equal grades 
of ability, eight above and cight below the average, the 
six mediocre classes will comprise nineteen-twentieths of 
the whole ; while it will be only the sixth, seventh, and 
eighth above the average who will rank as eminent and 
illustrious men, and form about one in four thousand of 
the adult male population. 
The next chapter relates to the important question on 
which, indeed, the possibility of any solution of the prob- 
lem depends, of whether “reputation” is a fair test of 
“ability.” The subject is very ably discussed, and it is, I 
think, proved, that notwithstanding all the counteracting 
influences which may repress genius on one side, or give 
undue advantage to mediocrity on the other, the amount 
of ability requisite to make a man truly “eminent” will, 
in the great majority of cases, make itself felt, and obtain 
a just appreciation. But if this be the case, the question 
of whether “ hereditary genius” exists is settled. For if 
it does not, then, the proportion of mediocre to eminent 
men being 4,000 to 1, we ought to find that only 1 in 4,000 
of the relations of eminent men are themselves eminent. 
Every case of two brothers, or of father and son, being 
equally talented, becomes an extraordinary coincidence ; 
and the mass of evidence adduced by Mr. Galton in the 
body of his work, proves that there are more than a hun- 
dred times as many relations of eminent men who are 
themselves eminent, than the average would require. 
Turning now to the concluding chapters of the book, 
we meet with some of the most startling and suggestive 
ideas to be found in any modern work. The law of devia- 
tion from an average enables us to determine the general 
intellectual status of any nation, if we are able to estimate 
the ability of its most eminent men, and know approxi- 
mately the amount of the population. We have these 
data in the case of ancient Attica ; and Mr. Galton arrives 
at the conclusion, that the Athenians of the age of Pericles 
were, on the lowest possible estimate, nearly two whole 
grades of ability higher than we are. With all our 
boasted civilisation, and the vast social and scientific 
problems with which we have to grapple; with all our 
world-wide interests, our noble literature, and accumulated 
wealth ; the intellectual status of the most civilised modern 
nation is actually lower than it was more than two thou- 
sand years ago! Well may Mr. Galton maintain that it 
is most essential to the well-being of future generations 
that the average standard of ability of the present time 
should be raised. Not less striking is his exposition of 
the effects of prudential restraints on marriage, on the 
general character of a nation. If one class of people, as 
a rule, marry early, and another class marry late in life, 
the former have a double advantage, both in having on 
the average larger families, and in producing more gene- 
rations in each century. But, by the supposition, it is the 
imprudent who gain this advantage over the prudent ; and 
Mr. Galton therefore denounces the doctrine of Malthus, 
that marriage should be delayed till a family can be sup- 
ported, unless the rule could be imposed on all alike. I 
hardly think that this argument is sound, and I doubt if 
the imprudent who make early marriages do, in the long 
run, increase more rapidly than the prudent who marry 
late. Increase of population depends less upon the num- 
ber of children born, than on those which reach manhood ; 
and I believe that the prudent man who has acquired some 
wealth and wisdom before he marries, will give to the world 
more healthy men and women, than the ignorant and im- 
prudent youth, who marries a girl as ignorant and impru- 
dent as himself. It is also to be remembered that the 
men who marry late often marry young wives, and 
have as good a chance of large families as the im- 
prudent. 
Mr. Galton traces the long-continued darkness of the 
Middle Ages, and our present low intellectual and moral 
status, to the practice of celibacy and to religious perse- 
cution. Whenever men and women were possessed of 
gentle natures, that fitted them for deeds of charity, for 
literature, or for art, the social condition of the times was 
such that they had no refuge but in the bosom of the 
Church; and the Church exacted celibacy, Those gentle 
natures left no offspring; and thus was the race of our 
forefathers morally deteriorated. The Church acted as 
if she had aimed at selecting the rudest portion of the 
community for the parents of future generations ; and the 
rules as to fellowships at our Universities are a relic of 
this barbarous custom, being bribes to men of exceptional 
ability not to marry. Religious persecution acted in the 
same way. The most fearless, truth-seeking, and intel- 
ligent were year by year incarcerated in dungeons or 
burned at the stake; so that, by this twofold selection, 
human nature was brutalised and demoralised, and we 
still feel its hateful effects in the long-continued antago- 
nism to the essential requirements of an advancing civili- 
