Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... which I include under the general name of nurture-- which have selected that one and left the remainder? The object of this book is to answer this question. DATA. My data are the autobiographical replies to a very long series of printed questions addressed severally to the 180 men whose names were in the list I have described, and they fill two large portfolios. I cannot sufficiently thank my correspondents for the courteousness with which they replied to my very troublesome queries, the great pains they have taken to be precise and truthful in their statements, and the confidence reposed in my discretion. Those of the answers which are selected for statistical treatment somewhat exceed 100 in number. In addition to these, I have utilized several others which were too incomplete for statistical purposes, or which arrived late, but these also have been of real service to me; sometimes in corroborating, at others in questioning previous provisional conclusions. I wish emphatically to add, that the foremost members of the scientific world have contributed in full proportion to their numbers. It must not for a moment be supposed that mediocrity is unduly represented in my data. Natural history is an impersonal result; I am therefore able to treat my subject anonymously, with the exception of one chapter in which the pedigrees of certain families are given. NATURE AND NURTURE. The phrase "nature and nurture" is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed. Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world; nurture is every influence from without that affects him after his birth. The distinction is clear: the one produces the infant such as it...