all classes. It seems clear that we are not obliged to
limit our hopes for "flowers of the family" to the few at the top of
the social pyramid. For the testimony of history agrees rather with
Doctor Ward than with the extreme eugenists, and we have often had
arising from the common life splendid examples of human capacity and
achievement. When the eugenists list their double columns of those
whom humanity takes pride in and those of whom humanity is ashamed it
is most often from the degenerative or defective members of society
that the second list is taken. From the great common life of average
condition, neither too rich nor too poor, too cultured nor too
ignorant, for "human nature's daily food," one rises now and then to
leave a mark high up on the list of great ones of the earth. Hence,
humble fathers and mothers can build magnificent hopes on the newborn
baby of their love. It is to be considered also that there is
difference of opinion as to what constitutes genius and what may be
called exceptional talent. One sociologist thinks that there are but
three really important classes of men, namely, "Mechanical Inventors,
Scientific Discoverers, and Philosophic Thinkers." Another type of
judgment may consider that genius shows itself almost exclusively in
those creative minds that give us great music, great pictures, great
sculptures, great temples, and great books of poetry, drama, and the
novel. Another type of mind, now growing fast among us in this
machine-dominated industrial era, may find genius the most appropriate
name for the master engineer or business-builder who rules a wide
realm of successfully administered economic order. There is, also,
although it is not often bold enough to claim loud voice, a small
section of those who look for supreme excellence in religious or
ethical attainment, a line of genius in mastery of the Way of Life.
Certainly serviceable goodness, that which does big things for others'
safety or help, may be given some place among the specially talented.
For example, the little French girl of nine years of age who, bereft
of her mother by the accidents of war, has brought up almost unaided
five little brothers and sisters, the youngest only seven months old
when her task began, and for two years, it is said, washed, cooked,
and dressed her charges, and "saw to it that those old enough went to
school where she went herself and took prizes for her scholarship,"
might well be called one of