38 The Production of Ability, 



Martin Luther, to whose life and labours they owed Protestantism, 

 civil and religious liberty, and modern civilisation to some extent; 

 and John Knox, from whom Scotch Presbyterianism and Scotch 

 education had sprung, and many generations of Scotchmen had 

 had their lives greatly altered by the fact that that man lived. 

 Having referred to Homer and Plato, Mr. Scott proceeded to 

 emphasise the results, so far as the history cf humanity is 

 concerned, which have been derived from the lives and actions 

 of the great men who had lived and worked in this world. 

 The next question considered was what produced those great 

 men, why they appeared at particular times, and why it was 

 that there were long stretches of time in which such men did 

 not appear ? Every man and woman had several things in 

 common, and the basis of the child's character and intellect was 

 derived from his parents and from no other source. The 

 necessary qualities were energy, courage, force of character, 

 industry, perseverance, and capability. Those qualities were 

 distinctly hereditary. No man could attain any eminence or 

 success in this life without those qualities developed in a greater 

 or less degree. He called these qualities the practical qualities 

 of life, and many men possessed of high intellect, imagination, 

 and deep feeling had become hopeless wrecks in this world 

 from the want of those great qualities. Intellect was that 

 godlike power which raised men above the mere animal 

 creation. Intellectual power was derived from the in- 

 dividual's parents. No education, training, or surroundings 

 could change a man born with feeble intellect to the level of 

 the man born with a large amount of intellect. The great 

 power was imagination, and this great power was also 

 strictly hereditary. Parents of little imagination would have 

 children of little imagination, and vice versa. Imgination was 

 the great creative power in man. Shakspere's creative imagina- 

 tion saw before his mind's eye the great figures in history, and 

 his intellect and literary skill gave them true form. Thousands 

 of men before James Watt saw steam issuing from a kettle, but 

 his great imagination pictured the problem in very many forms. 



