THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL ABILITY 101 
Galton, however, did not fail to ascribe a certain degree of 
importance to environment in the making of great men, but 
it is probable that he unduly minimized its influence. The 
number of distinguished men per century has rapidly increased 
as civilization has advanced and as education has become more 
widely diffused, but we cannot maintain that there has been a 
commensurate increase in the amount of inherited ability in the 
race. Great men appear more abundantly near centres of learn- 
ing than in regions less subject to the intellectual leaven of 
culture. It is true that many men born in poverty have attained 
greatness only after a long struggle that seemed to develop their 
intellectual powers and force of character. But there is no way 
of ascertaining how many others there have been who might have 
achieved greatness had they received the proper stimulus for 
developing their latent power, or who may have become discour- 
aged in their strivings by the deadening influence of a life of toil. 
Among people who are financially able to give their children 
the advantages of a good school and college education, the 
environmental conditions that tend to give rise to greatness in 
a country like England are not apparently very unequal. Chil- 
dren in families with intellectual tastes may have a somewhat 
better chance to become distinguished than if they had a less 
stimulating home environment. It cannot be assumed, however, 
that the home of a great man usually affords a much better 
nursery for genius than many another home among people of 
intelligence and culture. So far as environment is concerned it is 
probable that the family of an English judge of the Court of 
Chancery might be as favorable for the production of an eminent 
person as the family of a Lord Chancellor. We might admit that 
Galton underestimated environmental influence, but his critics 
have never shown, with any degree of plausibility, that environ- 
ment accounts for the striking tendency of eminent people to 
have eminent near relatives. 
Valuable contributions to the subject on the inheritance of 
ability were later made by Galton in his work on English Men 
of Science, and especially in his volume on Noteworthy Families 
