There can not, then, remain
a doubt but that the peculiar type of ability that is necessary to a
judge is often transmitted by descent."
Unfortunately, we can not feel quite as free from doubt on the point as
Galton did. The judicial mind, if that be the main qualification for a
judge, might be inherited, or it might be the result of training. Such a
case, standing alone, is inconclusive.
Galton similarly showed that the sons of statesmen tended to be
statesmen, and that the same was true in families of great commanders,
literary men, poets and divines. In his list of eminent painters, all
the relatives mentioned are painters save four, two of whom were gifted
in sculpture, one in music and one in embroidery. As to musicians,
Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer are the only ones in his list whose eminent
kinsmen achieved their success in other careers than music.
Havelock Ellis, who likewise studied British men of genius, throws
additional light on the subject. "Painters and sculptors," he found,
"constitute a group which appears to be of very distinct interest from
the point of view of occupational heredity. In social origin, it may be
noted, the group differs strikingly in constitution from the general
body of men of genius in which the upper class is almost or quite
predominant.
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