Full particulars are not given by the Registrar-General of New Zealand in any report in my possession, but it appears that at least 45 per cent, of New Zealand children whose fathers died under the age of sixty-five were under fifteen at the time. This, of course, does not tell us what proportion these children bear to the children of the same age whose fathers are living. In English reformatories, Douglas Morrison notes, as a very high proportion, that 33 per cent, of the children admitted under the age of sixteen had lost one or both parents.
The chief feature in the childhood of persons of eminent intellectual ability brought out by the present data is their precocity. This has indeed been emphasized by previous inquirers into the psychology of genius, but its prevalence is very clearly shown by the present investigation. It has certainly to be said that the definition of 'precocity' requires a little more careful consideration than it has sometimes received at the hands of those who have inquired into it, and that when we have carefully defined what we mean by 'precocity' it is its absence rather than its presence which ought to astonish us in men of genius.[1] Judging from the data before us, there are at least three courses open to a child who is destined eventually to display preeminent intellectual ability. He may (1) show extraordinary aptitude for acquiring the ordinary subjects of school study; he may (2), on the other hand, show only average, and even much less than average, aptitude for ordinary school studies, but be at the same time engrossed in following up his own preferred lines of study or thinking; he may, once more (3), be marked in early life solely by physical energy, by his activity in games or mischief, or even by his brutality, the physical energy being sooner or later transformed into intellectual energy. It is those of the first group, those who display an extraordinary aptitude for ordinary school learning, who create most astonishment and are chiefly referred to as proving the 'precocity' of genius. There can be no doubt whatever that even in the very highest genius such extraordinary aptitude at a very early age is not infrequently observed. It must also be said that it occurs in children who, after school or college life is over, or even earlier, display no independent intellectual energy whatever. It is probable that here we really have two classes of cases simulating uniformity. In one class we have an exquisitely organized and sensitive mental mechanism which assimilates whatever is presented to it, and with development ever seeks more complicated problems to grapple with. In the other class we merely have a sponge-like mental receptivity, without any corresponding degree of aptitude for intellectual organization, so that when the period of
- ↑ For a summary of investigations into the precocity of genius, see A. F. Chamberlain, 'The Child,' pp. 42-6.
