Fig. 2. Galton's Forecast Machine for Stature, set at Mediocrity of the Race; The average height of men being about 68.25, that of women 63 25. The circumference of the wheels at the top are to each other as two to three. If the average height of the parents is increased or decreased above or below mediocrity by a given quantity the average height of the offspring is increased or decreased by two thirds such amount. To convert the female statures into the corresponding male stature, multiply the female stature by 1.08. may be determined. "Of the individual we can assert nothing as certain, only state the probable."
It is evident from these laws that, if any fond parents feel that they are in any way remarkable, their apparently remarkable offspring are on an average only two thirds as remarkable as they themselves. Also if there are any fond sons or daughters who rely on really gifted parents for their standing among their fellows, the sooner they begin to look to themselves to make up by individual effort their probable loss by the law of regression the better, for, on an average they are but two thirds as gifted as their parents. I should not mention this fool-killing law if it did not have its bright side. If any individual feels it in him to do and be something, a mediocre parentage need not discourage him, for, on the average, exceptional individuals, as we all think ourselves to be, exceed the average of humanity by one half as much again as their parents exceeded this average. (Fig. 3.)
It is a reassuring fact that, starting from any standpoint above the average, our relatives are on the average not quite equal to us. Moreover, a gifted individual is more likely to be the exceptional offspring of mediocre parents than the average offspring of gifted parents. "Among mankind we trust largely for our exceptional men to extreme variations occurring among the commonplace."[1]
- ↑ Galton in his 'Hereditary Genius' found one hundred gifted men to possess on an average the following number of relatives equally gifted:
Gr.-grandfathers 3 Grandfathers 17 Brothers 41 Fathers 31 Granduncles 5 Nephews 22 Gifted Men 100 Uncles 18 Grandnephews 10 Sons 48 Cousins 13 Grandsons 14 Great-grandsons 3 The isolation of gifted men is graphically illustrated by arranging the facts given in the middle line in a frequency polygon. (Fig. 4.)
