GENIUS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9191, 21 March 1908, Page 4

GENIUS.

9 WHERE IT COMES FROM. "What axe the circumstances that are favourable to the production of geniuses? A sociologist says that there are four distinct sets — (1) The Loqal environment, or the contact of men and things j (2) the economic environment, or the material means of subsistence; (3) the social environment, or the social class to which the possessor of native genius belomgisij and (4) the educational environment, or the kind and amount of education that th© born genius has received, especially in youth. Statistical demonstrations of this truth have been supplied for literary genius throughout modern times, especially for France, but also less fully for Italy, Spain, Germany and England. A few of the general results are so strking that they cannot fail to command attention. For the local environment the great factor is found to be in the cities as compared with the rural districts. Thus the number of eminent Frenchmen of letters born in the cities was seventyseven to the hundred thousand inhabitants, while those born in the country were only six to the hundred thousand, showing that the literary productivity of cities was nearly thirteen times that of the whole of France, and more than thirty-five times that of the rural districts. It is the material conditions which cities supply that stimulate and bring out the potential genius of mankind. xne influence of the economic envir- ' onment is even more powerful. It has been shown that only 9 per cent of '. the eminent literary men of France ; were of limited means, while 91 per cent wore rich or well to do. But as the poor formed 97 per cent of the population, it follows that 3 per cent ' of the population furnished 91 per cent ; of the talent. This means that the chances of sue- ' cess of the rich person are more than < three hundred times as great as these of a poorer person endowed with the [ same measure of native genius. The social environment is closely : . connected with the- economic, and the [ results are practically the same. In • France during the modern period the ] upper classes — nobility, government officials, liberal professions bourgeoise furnished 90 1-5 per cent of the eminent men of letters, while only i 9 4-5 per cent were low born. But these latter constituted at least 80 per cent of the population. It follows that the chances of success of a person belonging to the upper classes are nearly 38 times as great as those of one of the same native ability belonging to the lower. But the nobility alone, who constituted only about 1 per cent of the population, furnished 25£ per cent of modern Frenchmen of letters. The chances therefore are nearly two hundred times as great for a person belonging to the mobility as for one belonging to the working class, all other things being equal. Finally, as regards the educational environment, notwithstanding the claim openly made that for me-n of genius education is a negligible factor, it was found that out of eight • hundred and t-wenty-e«ven Frenchmen of letters the only ones whose early history in this respect could be ascertained, 811 received a thorough education in their youth, while only 16 were self-educated. It follows that for an educated man, other ..things equal, the chances of- success are nearly -fifty-two to one for a « man who is compelled to educate him- 1 6©lf . I