Excerpt from Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry Its Laws and Consequences In the second stage of his work, Mr. Galton enters upon a pains-taking and exhaustive research of the histo rical data by which his thesis is supported. The question is here one of difficult detail respecting family affiliations, and could only be safely pursued in the home district. The number of great men and women of various types which England has produced, the intensity of the family feeling there, and the consequent comfleteness of the genealogical records, render that country an especially favorable field for such an investigation, and Mr. Galton has accordingly concentrated his labors upon it. The subjects of his inquiry have been judges, statesmen, com manders, literary men, men of science, poets, musicians, painters, and divines. The results of this extensive te search are given in alphabetical and tabulated forms, and they bring the author to the conclusion that a man's natural abilities are derived by inheritance under exactly the same limitations as are the form and physical features of the whole organic world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.