The Origin of Genius 



551 



THE ORIGIN OF GENIUS. 



The word genius must be accepted as implying simply the 

 recognition of consummate ability. It is not to be thought 

 of as a faculty in itself, implanted in the organism and dis- 

 tinct from it. It is the result of organisations more nearly 

 approaching perfection than those of other men. It has its 

 degrees, and it may be either general or restricted to devel- 

 opments in one or more directions. However much its 

 source may appear, in some instances, to be inexplicable, it 

 is never really so, and the appearance results only from our 

 ignorance of the facts, or our carelessness in their investigation. 

 Like all other endowments, it results from inheritance. The 

 fact which is so often forgotten in endeavouring to interpret 

 these laws in individual instances, is that every individual 

 inherits his qualities from two parents, and that it is upon 

 the way in which the endowments of these two are fused in 

 the offspring that the result depends. It is necessary also 

 to remember that the qualities which constitute character are 

 indestructible, and that although they may be non-apparent, 

 or almost so, in one generation, they may reappear in another. 

 The newly discovered facts now recognised under what is 

 called Mendel's law may, when further studied, give us much 

 help in this matter. 



Developments of character become, as is well known, posses- 

 sions of the race ; and thus we expect to find certain forms of 

 ability manifesting themselves frequently in certain races, 

 whilst relatively absent in others. Another law may also 

 here be hinted at ; it is that the older any race has become in 

 its culture, the more likely it is to develop ability and to trans- 

 mit it. Each successive generation gains from its predecessor, 

 and the brain receives modifications which are absolutely 

 permanent. Thus, we do not expect anything of the nature 

 of genius suddenly to manifest itself amongst the Eskimo, 

 whilst we are quite prepared for it in Greece and Italy. Let 



