FRANCIS GALTON 27 



qualities hereditary ? An eminent man is one in 

 four thousand, and to make clear what this implies, 

 he writes : "On the most briUiant of starlight nights 

 there are never so many as 4000 stars visible to the 

 naked eye at the same time ; yet we feel it to be an 

 extraordinary distinction to a star to be accounted 

 as the brightest in the sky."^ If we could imagine 

 that each new night shows us a fresh set of stars, 

 we might speculate as to how many nights we 

 should watch the sky before we found one bright 

 enough for a Galton. 



In the same way he tries to make us see a 

 million, because in that number there is but one 

 illustrious man. He worked it out in Bushey Park, 

 where he had gone to see the horse-chestnuts in 

 flower, and came to the astonishing conclusion that, 

 taking one half only of the avenue and the flowers 

 visible on the sunny side of that row, it would 

 requke 10 miles of avenue to give 1,000,000 spikes 

 of blossom. 



Later he defines mediocrity in a way not very 

 flattering to those, who, like myself, live in the 

 country. Mediocrity* then ' 'defines the intellectual 

 power found in most provincial gatherings, because 

 the attractions of a more stirring life in the metro- 

 polis and elsewhere are apt to draw away the abler 

 classes of men, and the silly and imbecile do not 

 take a part in the gatherings." On this last point, 

 by the way, I am not convinced. The research 

 on the heredity of mental and moral characters 



' Hereditary Genius, p. 9. 

 " Ibid., p. 31. 



