that a healthy infant comes into the world furnished with some hundreds of millions of brain-cells in a rudimentary condition, derived from a variety of ancestral sources, capable either of undergoing complete development or of remaining rudimentary to the close of life, and each presumably limited, if or when developed, to the performance of its own proper function as a source of motion, of sensation, or of thought, it is certain that capacity for development, whether in one direction or in several, increases with the general improvement of the race. The lowest savages cannot count beyond ten; and those somewhat higher in the scale cannot be educated beyond the level of civilized childhood. They go on well to about that point, and there they stop, the limit of their intellectual capacity having been reached. It would require centuries of cultivation to raise such people to the average European level; but, as a process of an analogous kind has clearly been going on during the past in all the countries which are now civilized, there must be ground for believing that descent from cultivated ancestors is not only a step, but an essential step, towards the attainment of a still higher cultivation. To whatever extent ancestry may mean descent from persons of more highly developed intelligence than their neighbors, such ancestry is an advantage which those possessing it should strive to utilize, and which ought to be equivalent to a start in advance of competitors in the race of life. The degree in which, among the prosperous classes of our own day, the conditions assumed are verifled, is often, I think, extremely doubtful; insomuch that the children of the wealthy seem sometimes to be hindered, rather than assisted, by the very circumstances which might appear likely to sources of advantage to them.

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Our

social system has been described by an American observer as an elaborate machinery for putting inferior people into positions of prominence and responsibility; and, I think, it must be admitted that those who are advanced by its agency do not invariably display any special fitness for the duties and responsibilities imposed upon them. The individuals who have been selected for military command have not always been conspicuous for military genius; and, if we may judge from the estimates of prominent politicians which are made by their opponents, it is still true that the world is governed by an extremely small modicum of wisdom. If we except the able lawyers who seek in politics a ladder leading to some goal of professional ambition, few impartial observers will contend that the majority of the occupants even of the front benches in Parliament display sufficient capacity to justify a belief that they could have attained eminence by their unaided efforts; and Mr. Bright's description of a cabinet minister among his contemporaries as "a dull man" might be extended, without manifest impropriety, to many who have grasped the reins of power, and have basked in the smiles of fortune. Descent from a great statesman, or from a great philosopher, unless neutralized by illhealth, or by adverse circumstances, or by some possibly undiscoverable strain of cross-breeding, might reasonably justify an expectation of high intellectual capacity; but descent from a family enriched by trade or politics within the last hundred or hundred and fifty years, as it would afford no evidence of any special powers in the progenitors, so it would not justify great expectations from the offspring. On the contrary, it is more in harmony with experience for a young man born "with a silver spoon in his mouth" to allow the possibilities of his

intellect to remain dormant, and to waste his time in frivolous and unworthy amusements, than for him so to cultivate his faculties as to advance beyond the standard of his forefathers, and to pave the way for a still farther advance on the part of his children. The Emperor Napoleon III., writing from Ham in 1840 on certain of the acts of his uncle, regretted "la création d'une noblesse qui, dès le lendemain de la chute de son chef, a oublié son origine plébéienne pour faire cause commune avec ses oppresseurs." The gilded youth of our own time, whatever latent possibilities they may possess by virtue of descent, are too often ignorant of things which every wise man would seek to know, and are learned, if at all, chiefly about things of which a wise man would be contentedly ignorant. Even the supreme satisfaction with themselves which they sometimes display cannot be without its influence in rendering them unconscious of deficiencies which, if they were only recognized, night not be beyond the reach of remedy. They often need to learn that their favorite occupations, even when they excel in them, are not of a kind by which improvement, either of brain or of body, is likely to be promoted either in themselves or in their descendants. Montaigne says truly that "la précellence rare et au-dessus du commun messied à un homme d'honneur en chose frivole," and Plato did not admire the skill of Anniceris, who drove his chariot a hundred rounds without once deviating from the same track. The philosopher said that a person who took so much pains to perfect himself in so useless an art could have no leisure for any great or noble employment, and must of necessity neglect those things which were really praiseworthy. It is certain that the degradation of the faculties to unworthy pursuits, or to vulgar amuse

ments, is likely to induce a corresponding degradation of brain tissue, and that this in its turn is likely to be handed down to offspring. An analogous effect is likely to be produced, relatively at least, in the cases of those persons of good ancestry who are content to confine their energies within some narrow field, and to leave uncultivated the larger and more valuable portions of the intellectual inheritance to which they may have been born. If, therefore, there be any advantage in descent from distinguished ancestors (and that there is can scarcely be denied), this advantage can only be realized when the family traditions have been observed and respected, and when opportunities of farther distinction have been sought and grasped by successive generations. Any such advantage, as deterioration is usually easier and more rapid than improvement, is likely to be lost when a position gained by the ancestor is accepted as a resting-place by descendants who make no farther effort to excel. I refer, of course, to advantages of organization alone, and not to those which are given by wealth, or by facilities for intercourse with persons of high station. A glance at the world will show that, as far as immediate or temporary success is concerned, the latter are usually more important than the former; but intellectual decadence under the influence of idleness and luxury can only be prevented by sustained intellectual effort. In the absence of such effort, we see people of good station who proclaim belief in superstitions as abject as those of the most degraded savages, in such, for example, as the so-called "Christian Science"; and we see the nominal ruler of a great empire committing its destinies and his own to the control of ignorant priests and mercenary conjurers. The organic advantages of ancestry can at best be only potential, and must be

diligently cultivated in order that they may be secured.

It has already been pointed out that, in this country at least, a comparatively humble social position is by no means incompatible with descent from a distinguished progenitor or progenitors; but physiology has not attained to any definite knowledge either of the degree of remoteness which would probably or certainly prevent the reappearance of ancestral characteristics, or of the circumstances by which those characteristics might be assisted in asserting themselves against others derived from more recent parentage. I am acquainted with a family in which the young people stand in the same degree of collateral relationship, and that the nearest, save by direct descent, which the lapse of time permits, to three remarkable personages: namely, to one of the most beautiful English women of the eighteenth century, whose charms have been preserved by the pencil of Romney, to perhaps the most learned woman of the same period, and to England's greatest naval hero; but I do not know of any grounds on which it would be possible to predict for them an eventual resemblance, either physical or intellectual, to any of their distinguished kinsfolk, or to one of them rather than to the others. If these young people hereafter become in any way eminent, their relationships will no doubt be remembered, and will be accepted as affording at least a partial explanation of their eminence; but, in the present state of knowledge on the subject, these relationships cannot be held to justify prophecy. They are no more than unknown quantities, and they may be counterbalanced, in the equation of life, by quantities equally unknown upon the other side. The common use of the word atavism, with no special reference to ancestors of

the atavus degree, is a sufficient evídence of the frequency with which the reappearance of remote ancestral forms has been observed; and it is noteworthy that, in the lower animals, atavism is most common in the offspring of parents whose own characteristics have been modified in different directions during intermediate generations. The established varieties of pigeon, for example, will usually breed true as between themselves; but a cross between two established varieties is apt to revert towards the original stock. It would be interesting to learn whether a human mésalliance is calculated to produce any similar effect; but the inquiry is complicated by the consideration that an apparent mésalliance may not always be a real one, and that a real one may not of necessity be apparent. If the qualities of nobility are sometimes displayed by the peasant, it is at least equally true that the qualities of the boor are sometimes displayed by the noble. Napoleon's "Grattez le Russe" is of very wide application.

Nor must it be forgotten, in considering the effects of race upon offspring, that standing still is impossible, and that decadence, which is at least as possible as improvement, is perhaps not greatly more uncommon. The saying, fors non mutat genus, sounds prettily, but its accuracy is disproved by a glance at a world in which genus, in the sense of the saying, is of all things the most mutable. If we consider the children of some great men, we shall think that the quot libras of Juvenal is as applicable to descendants as to ashes, and that Ishbosheth and Richard Cromwell are types rather than exceptions. The latter especially, if we contrast his record with that of his brother Henry, affords one of the many examples which suggest that the powers of a race may be exhausted in individuals,

and that the sons of a great man may revert to the inferior type of some less highly developed ancestor.

As far as I am aware, in countries in which a distinction of ranks has, as far as possible, been maintained, there is no evidence of any general preponderance, either of intellectual or of physical development, in the "classes" as compared with the "masses," due allowance being made for the greater opportunities and advantages of the former. In France, at the revolutionary period, a pureblooded aristocracy conspicuously displayed some of the virtues which it had been traditional in their order to cultivate; but the strong men of the period, with a few exceptions such as Mirabeau, Talleyrand, and Le Fayette, were furnished by the ranks of the bourgeoisie. If we turn to the United States, we shall find no lack of heroes, of statesmen, or of philosophers, springing, for the most part, from comparatively unknown or undistinguished progenitors.

In our own country, where there has been a continually increasing admixture of ranks, the descent from which most may be expected is probably one which has afforded to successive generations the advantages of sufficient education for the continuous development of the intellectual powers, and of sufficient position for the continuous exercise of responsibility, coupled with such moderate wealth and station and with such recurring duties as to preserve the persons concerned both from the exhaustion of bodily labor and from the snares of luxury and idleness. The descendants of successive generations of learned and conscientious clergy, of naval or military officers of respectable position, and of country gentlemen supported by their paternal acres, but compelled to send their younger sons into the world, are more likely, other

things being equal, to become statesmen, or fighters, or investigators, or guides of public opinion, than the descendants either of those who have had fewer opportunities of intellectual or moral development, or of those whose powers have been taxed to the utmost in advancing their own interests or in maintaining their own positions. Any one who knows London could point out gentlemen who have ruled over Oriental populations with more than the power of Roman proconsuls, and who, in their retirement, may be seen, umbrella in hand, waiting for the omnibuses which will convey them to the suburban homes in which they live upon modest pensions. These men, and the classes from which they spring, form no small part of the strength of the British Empire; and they are descended, as a rule, from the gentle blood and the moderate affluence which I have described. Their histories exemplify, in many cases, what Kinglake wrote of the position of Lord Clyde at the outbreak of the Crimean War, that, "after serving with all this glory for some forty-four years, he came back to England; but between the Queen and him there stood a dense crowd of families-men, women, and children-extending further than the eye could reach, and armed with strange precedents which made it out to be right, that people who had seen no service should be invested with high command, and that Sir Colin Campbell should be only a colonel." The titled descendants of bakers or candlestick makers, of lord mayors or aldermen, are often found in positions which it would seem the natural prerogative of men of better race and better record to occupy; and it is only in times of public peril that the caprices of fortune or the abuses of patronage are corrected by the hard teachings of necessity.

On the basis of some of the fore

going considerations, there is reason to believe that inherited structure and tendencies may occupy a prominent place among the elements which determine the sum of the faculties in any individual; and, so far, there is reason to regard descent from a strong and wise ancestry as affording at least a probability of inherited strength and wisdom. But the question is manifestly complicated by the consequences of cultivation or of neglect, as well as by the cross currents of inheritance, even from remote ancestors, which may modify or reverse the tendencies proceeding from parents or grandparents. The difficulty of allowing for these cross currents is increased by our ordinary ignorance of their nature. Few people have any knowledge of the characteristics even of the paternal atavus; fewer still of those of more remote ancestors or of the distaff side of the pedigree. A distinguished medical writer has expressed a wish that a knowledge of the influence and consequences of heredity could be more widely diffused than at present; but my own opinion is that the knowledge in question has not yet been gained, and that its acquirement is a necessary preliminary to its diffusion.

In this view, I fear that Mr. Francis Galton would not concur. I gather from his writings that he thinks it possible to bring about a progressive improvement of the human race by selection in marriage, and also that he looks forward to a future when such The Cornhill Magazine.

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selection "will be required by the national conscience, and will become au orthodox religious tenet." Before this time arrives, we must, I think, be able to explain a familiar series of phenomena. It is not uncommon to find, in the same family, children differing widely from one another in physique, in temperament, in capacity, or in all three; and, so long as no one can explain such differences among the children of the same parents, the fact that they arise shows the impossibility of predicting the results of any marriage, or of selecting a husband or a wife in order that any desired result may be produced. cannot but shy a little at Mr. Galton's appeal to "conscience," so much has that unhappy faculty been dragged through the dirt by anti-vaccinators, political dissenters, passive resisters, and the rest; but it would be difficult to read his writings about "Eugenics" without becoming in some degree infected by his enthusiasm. It is none the less manifest that a fulfilment of his expectations would imply a remodelling of our social system, and a radical change in the position now held by money as a factor in matrimonial alliances. Before such a change can be effected, it will at least be necessary that the laws of inheritance should be as firmly established as those of physics, and that the consequences produced by violations of them should have been brought home to successive generations by the hard teachings of experience.

R. Brudenell Carter.