106 NATURAL INHERITANCE. [chap. 



joint effect of all of them is to weaken the original 

 alcoholic strength in a constant ratio. 



The law of Eegression tells heavily against the full 

 hereditary transmission of any gift. Only a few out of 

 many children would be likely to differ from mediocrity 

 so .widely as their Mid-Parent, and still fewer would 

 differ as widely as the more exceptional of the two 

 Parents. The more bountifully the Parent is gifted 

 by nature, the more rare will be his good fortune 

 if he begets a son who is as richly endowed as himself, 

 and still more so if he has a son who is endowed yet 

 more largely. But the law is even-handed ; it levies an 

 equal succession-tax on the transmission of badness as of 

 goodness. If it discourages the extravagant hopes of a 

 gifted parent that his children will inherit all his powers ; 

 it no less discountenances extravagant fears that they 

 will inherit all his weakness and disease. 



It must be clearly understood that there is nothing in 

 these statements to invalidate the general doctrine that 

 the children of a gifted pair are much more likely to be 

 gifted than the children of a mediocre pair. They 

 merely express the fact that the ablest of all the 

 children of a few gifted pairs is not likely to be as 

 gifted as the ablest of all the children of a very great 

 many mediocre pairs. 



The constancy of the ratio of Eegression, whatever 

 may be the amount of the Mid-Parental Deviation, is 

 now seen to be a reasonable law which mio-ht have been 

 foreseen. It is so simple in its relations that I have 



