July J6, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



63 



success in early manhood. Out of 258 cases ex- 

 amined, 101, or nearly 40 per cent, attained suc- 

 cess before the age of twenty-five ; and 155, or 60 

 per cent, attained it before thirty-five. 



In viewing the statistics as a whole, we find 

 tlie following results : — 



1°. The proportions of the various groups show- 

 ing distinct promise before twenty are, mvisicians, 

 ^l ; artists, f ; scholars, | ; poets, novelists, and 

 men of science, each, f ; philosophers, |. 



2^. Taking the age of thirty as the limit, we 

 find the following proportions of the various 

 groups showing early production : musicians, 

 all ; artists, ^ ; poets, \l ; scientists, A ; scholars, 

 f ; philosophers, |- ; novelists, /g. 



This order in respect to precocity answers 

 roughly to the degree of abstractness of the fac- 

 ulty employed. The musicians and artists, rep- 

 resenting the sensuous faculty, are found at one 

 extresne ; and the philosophers, representing the 

 highest degree of abstraction, at the other. Be- 

 tween them are the poets and novelists, the men 

 of imagination. 



Genius, Mr. Sully concludes, is essentially 

 natural. A truly great man is born such ; that is, 

 he is created with a strong and overmastering im- 

 pulse to a definite form of origination : so he usually 

 evidences it early. But actual production implies 

 also opportunity, physical vigor, and leisure; hence 

 circumstances become of importance as aiding or 

 delaying achievement. Allowing for all this, 

 there are some cases which are explicable only as 

 illustrations of a process of slow development. 

 Sometimes, as was the case with Dante, Milton, 

 and Cervantes, the postponement was volitional 

 and not compulsory. 



Genius is precocious, then, in the sense that it 

 manifests itself early. But does it attain the 

 summit of its develojiment quickly, or does it go 

 on improving as long as, or longer than, ordinary 

 inteUigence ? This is a separate question, and one 

 to which Mr. Francis Galton (' Hereditary genius,' 

 p. 44) gives an afi&rmative answer. We hope that 

 Mr. Sully himself will before long throw some 

 light on this question too. 



EVERY-DAY LIFE OF THE WOMEN OF 

 INDIA. 



The Society of arts lately listened to a paper by 

 Capt. Richard Carnac Temple on the life and 

 habits of the women of India. The author's 

 qualifications for writing such a work would seem 

 to be excellent, as he has lived long in the coun- 

 try, and has an extensive acquaintance with its 

 popular literature. He does not treat of all classes 



of Indian women, but chiefly of the higher-caste 

 Hindus, who, however, as he tells us, practically 

 set the example for all the rest. 



An Indian woman's life, he says, in its ordinary 

 course, is divided into two clearly defined parts, 

 which are quite distinct, though separated from 

 each other only by the fateful day on which she 

 first goes to take up her abode within her father- 

 in-law's family. Note that it is not called in the 

 Indian languages her husband's family, for that, 

 under the Indian family system, it can seldom be 

 in the case of a bride. Childhood, rather than 

 girlhood, is the heyday of the Indian woman. 

 Free to play as she pleases, with plenty of com- 

 panions (for children can hardly ever be wanting 

 in a family where all live together, from oldest to 

 youngest) ; free to run in and out of the houses of 

 friends ; never bothered to learn any thing, except 

 what she can pick up from the women about her ; 

 never worried with caste restrictions ; never asked 

 to do more in the way of labor than to help in the 

 housework ; petted by her parents ; spoiled by her 

 aunts and uncles, and beloved by her brothers, — 

 an Indian girl-child is indeed happy, as children 

 count happiness. And then suddenly the ciu'tain 

 falls. At about ten years of age — earlier ui some 

 parts, and later in others — our spoilt child is old 

 enough to work in earnest, and so she is packed 

 ofl", sorely against her will, to join her husband's 

 family, entering it not as our brides enter their 

 future homes, at the head of the female com- 

 munity, but at the bottom. 



At this stage it is necessary to consider two mat- 

 ters, so far as they afliect an Indian bride ; viz., the 

 practice of infant marriage, and what is knovpn as 

 the joint-family. It need hardly be stated that the 

 so-called ' marriage ' of infants is practised among 

 all classes in every part of India, though of course 

 there are many exceptions to the rule. The term 

 ' marriage,' as applied to this ceremony by us, is, 

 however, rather misleading. It is in reality an 

 irrevocable betrothal, — a bargain, not between 

 the infants who are ' married,' but between those 

 who control them, being often nothing else than a 

 purely commercial contract. It arises out of the 

 theory that a woman is for life under tutelage, 

 and her ' marriage ' is therefore merely a transfer 

 of the right over her to another party, — a trans- 

 fer naturally very frequently made in return for a 

 j)ecuniary consideration. After this marriage, or 

 betrothal, the gkl usually remains with her 

 parents, in trust for those to whom she is to be 

 transferred, until the home-coming, or going to 

 her husband's house, which may be looked upon 

 as the real marriage, as we use the word. Until 

 the second ceremony takes place, the child -Avife is 

 still a child to all intents and purposes, and treated 



