The Portland daily press., 1886-01-23
Ancestry of Genius.

DR.. c. r. Crandall delivered the lecture in
the free Mechanics course last evening The
speaker began by saying that at different Pc
riods in the history of the human race, there
had lived some man of extraordinary mental
and emotional qualities, and he had been
called genius. Such person had been
thought to be by many, kind of spontane-
GUS growth, and in large degree supernat
ural or insane. The purpose of his lecture
was, however, to combat such views by ex-
planning the laws of heredity and proving
by the citation of historic characters that ge-
MUS is simply the product of competent an
cestry. A lengthy and forcible discussion of
the principles of heredity, especially those
which refer to the descent of intellect, was
entered into, and the fact shown that the
mental and moral faculties are just as trans
missible as the strictly bodily or physical
eordance with the universal law that like
begetS like" parents transmit what they
themselves possess, physically and mentally,
and if they are endowed with special talents
appear as pTedomlnatlng faculties IN their
descendants.
The apparent exceptions to the laws of
heredity were then discussed and explained,
and some of the accepted reasons were given
why superior parents are sometimes the pro-
genitorS of inferior children. 1t was then
"geniuses," such as Titan, the artist; Bach,
the musician; Henry. the orator; Washing
ton, the chieftain; Webster, the statesman !;
Morse, the inventor; Darwin, the scientist !;
Emerson, the philosopher; Longfellow, the
poet; and host more who could be named,
were the descendants from illustrious ances-
tors. In those instances, on the.eontrary,
where the student of heredity is perplexed
by coming upon geniuses like Giotto, the ar
tist; Linneus, the naturalist; or Newton, the
philosopher; who apparently had inferior
ancestry, it was argued that If the curtain
which excludes the past could be raised, there
would appear names and influences capable
of explaining away many seeming contradic-
tions to the laws of inheritance. More of
ssme such lines of thought were elaborated,
and the lecture brought to close by making
q few practical conclusions as follows:
Parents who are healthy, virtuous, kind,
temperate and intelligent, transmit such no
BILE attributes, or tendencies, to their de-
scendants They imbibed in their blood and
brains tendencies. which in the course OF
time, will insure health, intelligence, honor
and happiness. The young man, for in
stance, who inherits good body, fine intel
lectual faculties, moral character and an
ambition for knowledge and position starts
in life on high vantage ground. Such was
the, inheritance of Washington, Sumner,
Phillips and many other noble sons of the
republic. AS it had been shown that .'evil
begets evil" it was concluded that God had
exacted terrible law, saying that wicked,
diseased and intemperate parents shall bring
forth bad descendants. Indeed, children de-
scending from corrupt ancestry and diseased
blood must be the natural heirs of vice,
doomed by birthright to reenact the tenden-
cies and crimes of their ancestors. Such a
law may, at times, seem like fierce vengeance
and one that nature enforces with terrible
certainty; but who will dare deny the wis
dom of its purpose. Maudsley truly says:
MultifuHpS of human hninOS come into the
world weighted with destiny against which
they have neither the will nor the power to
contend; they are the step-children of ma
ture, and groan under the worst of all tyran-
nies, the tyranny of bad organization"
source of human life, the basis of human in
tellect, and the natural foundation for what
ever is good or bad in human character.