Noteworthy Families (Modern Science) | Page 4

which was much
emphasized by his gestures and tones. Wordsworth's unexpected sally

was in reply to a timid question by the late Professor Bonamy Price,
then a young man, concerning the exact meaning of the lines in his
famous "Ode to Immortality," "not for these I raise the song of praise;
but for those obstinate questionings of sense and outward things," etc.
I cannot speak from the present returns, but only from my own private
knowledge of the somewhat abnormal frequency with which
eccentricity, or other mental unsoundness, occurs in the families of
very able scientific men. Lombroso, as is well known, strongly asserted
the truth of this fact, but more strongly, as it seems to myself, than the
evidence warrants.
It is, therefore, not in the highest examples of human genius that
heredity can be most profitably studied, men of high, but not of the
highest, ability being more suitable. The only objection to their use is
that their names are, for the most part, unfamiliar to the public.
The vastness of the social world is very imperfectly grasped by its
several members, the large majority of the numerous persons who have
been eminent above their far more numerous fellows, each in his own
special department, being unknown to the generality. The merits of
such men can be justly appreciated only by reference to records of their
achievements. Let no reader be so conceited as to believe his present
ignorance of a particular person to be a proof that the person in
question does not merit the title of noteworthy.
I said what I have to say about the modern use of the word "genius" in
the preface to the second edition of my "Hereditary Genius." It has only
latterly lost its old and usual meaning, which is preserved in the term of
an "ingenious" artisan, and has come to be applied to something akin to
inspiration. This simply means, as I suppose, though some may think
differently, that the powers of unconscious work possessed by the brain
are abnormally developed in them. The heredity of these powers has
not, I believe, been as yet especially studied. It is strange that more
attention has not been given until recently to unconscious brain-work,
because it is by far the most potent factor in mental operations. Few
people, when in rapid conversation, have the slightest idea of the
particular form which a sentence will assume into which they have

hurriedly plunged, yet through the guidance of unconscious cerebration
it develops itself grammatically and harmoniously. I write on good
authority in asserting that the best speaking and writing is that which
seems to flow automatically shaped out of a full mind.
CHAPTER IV.
--PROPORTION OF NOTEWORTHIES TO THE GENERALITY.
The materials on which the subject of this chapter depends are too
various to lead to a single definite and trustworthy answer. Men who
have won their way to the front out of uncongenial environments owe
their success principally, I believe, to their untiring energy, and to an
exceptionally strong inclination in youth towards the pursuits in which
they afterwards distinguished themselves. They do not seem often to be
characterized by an ability that continues pre-eminent on a wider stage,
because after they have fully won a position for themselves, and
become engaged in work along with others who had no early
difficulties to contend with, they do not, as a rule, show greatly higher
natural ability than their colleagues. This is noticeable in committees
and in other assemblies or societies where intellects are pitted against
one another. The bulk of existing noteworthies seem to have had but
little more than a fair education as small boys, during which their
eagerness and aptitude for study led to their receiving favour and
facilities. If, in such cases, the aptitudes are scholastic, a moderate sum
suffices to give the boy a better education, enabling him to win
scholarships and to enter a University. If they lie in other directions, the
boy attracts notice from some more congenial source, and is helped
onwards in life by other means. The demand for exceptional ability,
when combined with energy and good character, is so great that a lad
who is gifted with them is hardly more likely to remain overlooked
than a bird's nest in the playground of a school. But, by whatever
means noteworthiness is achieved, it is usually after a course of
repeated and half-unconscious testings of intelligence, energy, and
character, which build up repute brick by brick.
If we compare the number of those who achieved noteworthiness

through their own exertions with the numbers of the greatly more
numerous persons whose names are registered in legal, clerical,
medical, official, military, and naval directories, or in those of the titled
classes[A] and landed gentry, or lastly, of those of