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310 Life and Letters of Francis Galton matters bear on national welfare, indeed that right views on them are essential to healthy patriotism. I trust no further news is good news. I had a line from Mrs Weldon in which she speaks with much warmth of feeling of having received a very kind letter from you. Affectionately yours, KARL PEARSON. I see you are an optimist and believe in the existence of eleven men of judgment to one crank ; 7 am inclined to think we too often get eleven foolish to one wise, and this average gives the latter a chance!* 3, HOE PARK TERRACE, PLYMOUTH. March 7, 1907. MY DEAR KARL PEARSON, It is now fixed that both Eva Biggs and I return on the 13th [414th], this day week, to 42, Rutland Gate. I have been much better of late. Illness seems gone out of me, and I walked a total of between 22 and 3 miles yesterday, which 1 have not been able to do for many months. If you have time, it would be useful, I think, to your Boyle Lecture, to read Sir John Gorst's Children of the Nation. At first I only read a chapter here and there, which seemed superficial and inadequately proven, but knowing that be has far from a superficial mind, I re-read it from beginning to end to my great profit. He shows the awful waste of good human material by bad administration, such as is not only preventable, but is prevented in some other countries. He wants to rouse public opinion. Eugenics as I pointed out when first adopting the word has the two-fold meaning of good stock and good nurture; in short " well-bred " in its fullest sense. If you include " nurture" in your lecture, Sir J. Gorst's book might give useful hints. Also it shows the machinery (with its drawbacks) that exists for carrying through new plans. When we meet I should like to ask a question which you and Mrs Pearson could greatly help in solving, namely if I were to give up my house in Rutland Gate (being unable to live in London except for a few months in the year) would Hampstead be a good place to go too I don't want more than a smallish house, but with a sunny (small) garden, and everything healthy. Such things seem to abound in Hampstead. Is it so 7 Ever affectionately yours, FRANCIS GALTON. BIOMETRIC LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. March 9, 1907. MY DEAR FRANCIS GALTON, I am so glad to hear that you are feeling the revivifying influences of spring. It is glorious to feel the sun again and to realise that summer is approaching. I am glad beyond that to hear there is even the slightest chance of your coming to Hampstead! I don't want my joy, however, to run away with me; I must not be too biased by it in telling you all the "ills " and " wells " of Hampstead as I know it. [Here follows a rather too detailed account for reproduction of the advantages and disadvantages of Hampstead, especially the latter in the winter.] Of course to me personally it would be a very great gain, I can hardly say how great, because I don't want that to weigh with you when health and environment generally must be considered in the first place ;;--but Sunday afternoons would be more of a possibility, and you know what nearness means in an overcrowded life ! The Eugenics Laboratory goes steadily along. Miss Elderton has got the ten types of cousins worked out for two characters and will soon have them done for four. The general conclusion is that cousins have almost exactly the same degree of resemblance as grandparents and grandchildren, i.e. correlation equal about 0.3. This seems to me of very considerable importance, because (i) cousins are contemporaries and can be more easily and accurately investigated than grandparents, (ii) there are far more of them than in the case of grandparents, and hence a closer estimate can probably be made from them t. Further, as far as I can judge, the marriage of first * From a postcard of nearly the same date. This had reference to Galton's " Vox populi" letter to Nature of March 7, 1907. See pp. 403-4 of Vol. II of this Life. t I may add that two cousins can of course be found who have no correlation inter se, only with the subject, which is an advantage not possessed by brothers. Thus the multiple correlation of four properly chosen cousins (.53) does not fall much short of that of two brothers (P58).
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