Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 79.djvu/184

180 and racial competition. Between this and "Hereditary Genius" a period of sixteen years elapsed, during which the "Origin of Species" had appeared. Thus neither of these volumes was the product of a running pen. The book, he tells us, grew out of a purely ethnological inquiry into the mental peculiarities of different races.

"The theory of hereditary genius," Mr. Galton says in the preface, "though usually scouted, has been advocated by a few writers in past as well as in modern times. But I may claim to be the first to treat the subject in a statistical manner, to arrive at numerical results, and to introduce the 'law of deviation from an average' into discussions on heredity."

This is a late date to review a book like "Hereditary Genius." Some day it may take its proper rank alongside the "Origin of Species." If one wants higher praise than that in the "Descent of Man" he may read Mr. Darwin's letter.

2em 3d December

My dear Galton:—I have only read about 50 pages of your book (to judges) but I must exhale myself, else something will go wrong in my inside. I do not think I ever in all my life read anything more interesting and original—and how well and clearly you put every point! George, who has finished the book, and who expressed himself in just the same terms, tells me that the earlier chapters are nothing in interest to the later ones I It will take me some time to get to these latter chapters, as it is read aloud to me by my wife, who is also much interested. You have made a convert of an opponent in one sense, for I have always maintained that excepting fools, men did not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work; and I still think this is an eminently important difference. I congratulate you on producing what I am convinced will prove a memorable work. I look forward with intense interest to each reading, but it sets me thinking so much that I find it very hard work; but that is wholly the fault of my brain and not of your beautifully clear style.

Yours most sincerely, (Signed)

In 1874 "Hereditary Genius" was supplemented by a little book entitled "English Men of Science, their Nature and Nurture." Abandoning a chronological sequence for the moment we may mention "Noteworthy Families" by Galton and Schuster, published in 1906. These two volumes supply "what may be termed a natural history" of modern English men of Science.

"Inquiries into Human Faculty" of 1883 embodied the supplemented essentials of papers which had appeared subsequently to "Hereditary Genius" of 1869, and which "may have appeared desultory when read in the order in which they appeared" but which had nevertheless "an underlying connection." Possibly the work falls somewhat short of his others, but it is fascinating and above all suggestive reading for the psychologist. Among the topics discussed, such as color blindness, capacity for distinguishing shrill sounds, criminality and