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70   ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE.   [CHAP.

(1) My numerous relatives, though unknown to fame, are mostly characterised by great breadth of thought and rare independence of action." [These characteristics seem clearly traced by the writer to a great grandparent who immigrated from Germany] ; (2) " Counting third cousins, I have scores and scores of relatives, and scarcely an unsteady person among them."

I have numerous returns, in which the writer analyzes his own nature, and confidently ascribes different parts of it to different ancestors. One correspondent has ingeniously written out his natural characteristics in red, blue, and black inks, according to their origin-a method by which its anatomy is displayed at a glance.

My data afford an approximate estimate of the ratio, according to which effective ability (hereditary gifts plus education plus opportunity) is distributed throughout the different degrees of kinship. They state-(1) the number of kinsmen in the several near degrees ; (2) the number of those among them who were in any