because it has seemed to the author to be profitless in view of the approximate equality of the instances pro and con.
The above estimates for the characteristics of offspring are in accordance with Galton's law of ancestral heredity, except that provision is made for the fact that mental and moral qualities do not freely blend, so that a child is apt to 'take after' pretty completely some one of his ancestors, more often the near one, less and. less often the remote one, until the chances of reversion to a very distant one are exceedingly slight.
Once in a large number of times occurs one of those fortuitous[1] combinations of ancestral qualities that is destined to make a person inheriting them vary much from any of his kind, and in fortunate instances shine as a genius, springing from a mediocre stock. The figures drawn from Lehr's 'Genealogy' were about one in five hundred for this sort of occurrence.
At this point it may be well to consider a popular misconception concerning the value of hereditary influence—a mistake very frequently made. Many people argue that great geniuses, coming as they frequently do from humble families, Franklin and Lincoln for instance, discount our belief in mental heredity; when, on the other hand, these men should only strengthen our reliance in this same force. We should consider the thousands, indeed millions, of mediocrities, who have to be born from mediocrities, before one mind of the type of Franklin's is produced.
That they rise superior to their circumstances is in itself a proof of the inborn nature of their minds and characters. A man of this sort represesents just the combination of the best from many ancestors. It would be possible in a great many throws to cast a large number of dice so that they would all fall aces. But here in certain regions of royalty as among the Montmorencys and Hohenzollerns where the dice are loaded, such a result may be expected in a large percentage of throws.
- ↑ It is to be remembered that when we speak of chance as a cause of the combinations of characteristics, that even the throwing of dice or pitching of pennies is entirely subject to the laws of mathematics, as has been abundantly proved by experiments. (Conf., K. Pearson, 'Chances of Death,' etc.)
