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Section 10 of Genetic Studies of Genius, Volume 2, The Early Mental Traits of 300 Geniuses, by Catherine Cox. For more information or volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recorded by Leon Harvey. Chapter 10. Discussion and Analysis of the IQ Ratings Concluded. AI IQ 180 The reliability of the material for the three cases at 180 IQ is 0.80.

The least reliable case, Pascal, relative coefficient of data 0.75, is here the only one which maintains its level in the second AII rating. Macaulay's phenomenal precocity is well known. His AIIQ is rated on early intellectual brilliance and extraordinary literary production, combined with memory, the power of which has seldom been equaled and scarcely exceeded by any individual in the study. Table 37 is displayed on the page, group of cases rated AI IQ 180.

Bertham's precocity appeared in learning his letters before he was able to speak, in enjoying the perusal of Rapin's history of England when he was not yet three and a quarter, in learning to read and write Latin and Greek at four, and in an intensity of intellectual enthusiasm that led him at six to find a refuge from boresome conversation among his beloved books.

He enjoyed reading Pope's Homer at six, while Telemach became his passion at six or seven. A little later he was reading Voltaire's works. At Westminster School, Bentham, aged seven to twelve, was the smallest and probably the youngest member of his class. Or with his sensitive, he committed to memory in order to avoid disgrace, what he would like to have avoided because it was dull and stupid.

At ten, he obtained, as the last and least of nine candidates, the right to enter the university. But the family feared to send the tiny precocious lad away from home, and so he remained at Westminster until he was twelve. His fame as a little philosopher was considerable. At twelve, Bentham entered Oxford, and there he took to the study of mathematics of his own accord and without the aid of a tutor.

At thirteen, he wrote a Latin ode that made some noise, and was praised by Dr. Johnson as a very pretty performance of a young man. Verses and letters of this period give evidence of a singularly mature mind. When just under sixteen, Bentham received the degree of bachelor, a rare honour for so young a lad. Immediately he became a law student in the court of King's Bench. Pascal was no less precocious, but he was fortunately without Bentham's neurotic sensitivity.

As soon as he was old enough to take part in conversation, he showed signs of an unusual intelligence by the clever remarks he made, and particularly by the questions he asked regarding the nature of things, questions which amazed everyone. As he grew, his ability continued to develop, so that he was always much advanced for his age. Pascal's father, like James Mill, devoted himself to the education of his son. He planned to wait until the boy was 12 to teach him Latin and Greek, and still later to introduce him to mathematics.

In the meantime, taught him everything which he considered him capable of learning, showed him the underlying principles of grammar, and taught him the nature of language. He also taught him natural sciences, in which the boy took great pleasure. Young Pascal wanted to know the reason for everything. He was not at all content with the half answer.

To know the truth was always a single aim of his mind, and he was never content with less than the whole truth. When he once started on anything, he would never give it up until he had found a satisfactory explanation. Once he noticed that when a knife was struck against a plate, it made a loud noise. This stopped as soon as one put his hand against the plate. He once desired to know the cause, and this led him to make a series of experiments that sound.

He discovered many things, so that at the age of 11 he wrote a thesis on sound which was found to be very logical and well thought out. The older Pascal promised to teach his son mathematics, once he should have mastered the classical languages. But young Pascal was not satisfied to have the subject of his desire thus postponed. He persisted in the demand to know at least of what the science of mathematics treated. Hoping to put an end to the boy's importunity, his father told him that in general,

it was a means of making accurate figures and finding the relation they bear to each other. At the same time, he forbade his son to think or speak of the subject again. But the boy could not forget. He began to dream of what his father had said and to mark figures on the walls of his playroom, seeking to make a circle perfectly round with a triangle with equal sides and angles.

He devised his own mathematical terms, discovered the relations between the figures, made axioms, and built up perfect demonstrations. It was only when he had reached the 32nd proposition of Euclid, the sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles, that his father discovered what he was doing. Now the delighted parent contributed assistance to the progress he had previously attempted to thwart. After this, young Paschal continued his studies, advancing in them so far that he was invited to attend the weekly conferences in Paris, where all the clever people assembled to bring that work or to examine that of others.

He soon held the first rank, as much for his inquiries as for his production, though he is one of the members who most often brought in new ideas. His opinions were given as much weight as any, and his advice was always listened to, because he had so keen a mind. that he discovered falsities which were hidden from others. His mathematical work was carried on in his spare time, but he advanced so rapidly in the hours he did spend at it,

that at the age of 16 he wrote a small work on chronic sections, which his father sent to Descartes, who received with the suspicion and distrust he generally awarded to the labours and inventions of other thinkers. Saint-Beeuve remarks that Descartes was jealous of the rising genius of Pascal.

Regarding the youth of 16 as a possible rival, at 16 and 17, Pascal continued to study Latin and Greek, as well as logic, physics and philosophy, and delighted his father by the wonderful progress he made in all the sciences. Pascal's later career fulfilled the expectations aroused in his youth.

At 19, he invented a calculating machine. At 25, he established the theory of atmospheric pressure by a famous barometric experiment. Converted at 26 to religious life, he gave up his scientific studies for a time, but at 30 and 31 he was again writing important treatises on physics and mathematics. At 31 he entered the cloister at Port Royal,

and at 33 published his Provincial Letters, which according to Ham, did more to ruin the name of Jesuit than all the controversies of Protestantism or all the former nations of the Parliament of Paris. At 35 and 36, he made some important discoveries with reference to the cycloid. He then challenged the mathematicians of Jörg to solve his problem and offered a prize.

When no one succeeded, he published his treatise containing the necessary solution. His death at the age of 39 left an incomplete and extensive and systematic work on the fundamental truths of religion. The evidence of Pascal's early years is confirmed by his latter achievement. In Ion Paschal, we find rare language mastery combined with critical powers. The ability to reason independently, to recognize essential elements, to abstract, to generalize, and to isolate and compare elements in the manner which characterizes intelligence of a high order.

The true lower limit of the early IQs of Macaulay, Bentham and Paschal may be 160. The true upper limit is probably above 200. AII IQ 180 Six cases, average reliability coefficient of data, 0.78 The younger Pitt was called to the bar at 21.

He took his seat in the House of Commons within a year. At 23, after refusing the Vice Treasurer Ship of Ireland, he became Chancellor of the Escher under Sherborne. Before he was 24, he had declined an offer of the Premiership because he knew his party then lacked strength. A year later, when the situation altered to his satisfaction, and before he was 25, he became Prime Minister. Pitt's early career can scarcely be duplicated. Perhaps the average IQ

rating of youths who became able Prime Ministers when they're not yet 25 depends on this one case. AI IQ 185. Three cases, Grotius, relative coefficient of data 0.75, Leibniz, relative coefficient of data 0.75, and Goethe, relative coefficient of data 0.82. Average 185 IQ on the basis of the records. A single estimate for Grotius is 190. Two for Liebnitz reach that figure, while one for Goethe reaches 195. No single rating for any one of the three falls

below 180. The three cases in this group are characterised by a universality and level of interest and ability in the early years that are far above the usual precocity of childhood. Table 38 is displayed on the page. Group of cases rated AI IQ 195. Mental development, as reported, occurred with such rapidity and early reached such proportions that present norms are not adequate measures of the ability shown. Voltaire, Mirabel, and Pascal gave similar indications, but he reports a sufficiently complete given adequate basis for rating to some extent commensurate with true endowment.

The ratings indicate that the individuals in the 185 AI IQ group have as reported seldom been equalled and the present study only once exceeded in early evidences of intellectual superiority. In the Annals of Macrocy's genius, there is no greater prodigy on record than Hugo Grotius. Brilliance, untiring diligence, enthusiasm that could not be curbed, characterised this boy's early development. At seven or eight, he wrote Latin verses which entitled him to a composition IQ rating of 200, and indicated in him a degree of language mastery and an ability to abstract and to generalise than a typical twice his age.

This boy's distinguished record at the University of Leiden, and the impression he made there in his twelfth year upon such scholars as Joseph, Skellinger, and Dorisar, indicate a rare combination of sound and mature scholarship, with practical adequacy in the affairs of every day. Attention to detail, readiness in acquiring information, a superior memory, and the ability to analyse, generalise, compare, and contrast were among his early characteristics. He did not limit himself to a single field, but exercised himself thoroughly in history, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, religion, and law.

He wrote poems of merit, two of which were published when he was 12 and another when he was 13. At 14 he wrote a new edition of Martina's Cappella, which Scaliger regarded as an excellent piece of scholarly learning and bently thought worthy of attention and study. The same year he took part in two public debates upon philosophical questions. These exercises called forth mature powers of reasoning and of comprehension, and that skill in the organisation of abstract ideas, discrimination, and the making of fundamental distinctions which are fundamental to the highest intellectual processes. Before he was fifteen, Grotius was spoken of by distinguished scholars as a prodigy.

At fourteen, he was called by one a youth of greatest hopes. At sixteen, he was pronounced by another to be a youth without an equal. At fifteen, Grotius accompanied the Dutch ambassador Bonneveld to the court of France, where the king was pleased to lord the boy as the miracle of Holland. At the end of a year in France, Grotius received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Orleans,

with high testimony to the scope of his abilities and attainments. The same year his scholarly Martianus Capella was published with its brief clear notes. Butler says, There is not, perhaps, an instance of a person acquiring at an age equally early this reputation which attended the first publication of Grullius.

A few months after the publication of his great work, the young scholar followed it by a Latin translation of a treatise on navigation by compass, A work which involved a knowledge of mathematics and showed its author to be as well informed in science as in letters. In the account of Grotius, there is every indication of the presence of the highest native endowment. There is no indication of disproportionate knowledge or ability.

Grotius' gifts were harmonious, and as far as intellect was concerned, universal. At eight, his ability was at least that of a youth of sixteen. At sixteen, he was that of a mature scholar, and combined with a rare intellect, was his complement a noble character. The universality of Leibniz's interests, his astounding intellectual progress, the character and volume of his reading, as mature philosophical and scientific productions at an early age, are evidence of native gifts similar to those which Grot is possessed,

and which are the essentials of superior intellectuality. Goethe's early development, his scholastic progress, his interests, and his reading warrant a rating for phenomenal ability. His astounding literary performance before the age of eight entitles him to a composition IQ, rating far above 200. A rating of 225 IQ indicates the impression, in terms of intelligence, made upon one rated by Goethe's later record. Grotius, Leibniz, Goethe, three universal geniuses,

the evidence of whose overpowering intellect appeared and was recognized in earliest childhood as it was later in their youth, are devils among the greatest minds with whom this study is concerned. A minimum childhood IQ for these cannot be less than 180. The maximum is probably close to the maximum for the human race. AII IQ 185. No cases.

AI IQ 190 The three AI IQ ratings for a single case, that of John Stuart Mill, average 190. The reliability of the data is estimated at 0.82. No other record of the early development of an eminent man is more complete. No other gives more detailed evidence for each succeeding year.

In no other is there a more satisfactory basis for estimating the presence of the elements of intelligence. Data like those recorded for Mill's early years afford a comparatively adequate basis for history and metric measurement, and the results obtained are fairly comparable to an IQ rating based upon mental test results. The account of the first 17 years of Mill's life contains detailed evidence of Bricosius' intellectual development, material interests and activities, extraordinary school progress in literature, history, philosophy, mathematics and logic, early association with men of deep and critical thought, a program of reading exceeded intensity, extensity and depth in no other reported instance,

an extraordinary production beginning at the age of six with the history of Rome, which ranks as writer above IQ 200 on a composition scale, and ending for the first period, with serious political and critical essays published shortly before the writer's 17th birthday. Table 39 is displayed on the page, case rated AI IQ 190.

The most striking items in Mill's early mental progress may be summarised in a brief chronicle of successive years. At five, the precocious lad maintained an animated conversation with Lady Spencer on the comparative merits of Marlborough and Wellington. This alone indicates the level of development of which the IQ index reaches or exceeds 200. At six and a half, the child was able to use intelligently such words as government, conquest, defeat, expulsion, reign, opposed, and to write such expressions as the country had not been entered by any foreign invader.

established a kingdom, succeeded in the government, engaged in wars. Both the words and the expression are typical of somewhat more than an average 12-year-old vocabulary. Before he reached the age of 7, young Mill evidenced the ability adequately to handle historical material and to prepare erudite and critical notes, a performance which indicates an IQ near 200, thus corroborating the vocabulary rating.

At the age of eight, the child was giving instruction in Latin and being held responsible for the errors of his pupil. Both ability and its recognition are educated in this report. Teaching a foreign language involves mastery of his own and the foreign idiom. Success depends in no small degree upon ready familiarity with a considerable vocabulary in each language. Mill's achievement indicates facility in comprehending and using new symbols,

and is substituting them for old ones. It is proof of the capacity to compare, abstract and generalise more characteristic of 16U than of 8U intelligence. In connection with his teaching, he expounded Latin grammar, nepos, and Caesar's commentaries, indicating thus the possession at the age of 8 of general ability that would register successes in intelligence tests at the 14 or 16 year level. Before he was 9 years old, Mill was reading Greek and studying Euclid and Iuleux.

During the following year, he read Pope's Iliad, and for his own pleasure, he read it some 20 or 30 times. Such intellectual enthusiasm is rare in one of his tender years. In his tenth year, the boy's literary tastes continued to dominate in his choice of pastime. He devoted his leisure hours to a volume of Libby for a very love of it. At the age of 11, Mill was engaged in mathematical studies comparable in character and difficulty to those of many a college student of her own day.

The plan of study for the year included Koenig sections, infinities and flexions, and astronomy. In his eleventh and twelfth years, he composed, as a voluntary exercise, a history of the Roman government, an octavo volume worthy of the authorship of the present-day college sophomore or junior. Based upon Latin sources, this work contained a discussion of constitutional points, including a vindication of the agrarian laws and a defence of the Roman Democratic Party.

Between his ninth and his thirteenth year, and having read Pope's Homo, the youth attempted an epic in imitation of the older work, after completing as much as one book of a continuation of the Iliad. Essential elements of intelligence, such as facility and invention, maturity of association, comprehension and logical reasoning, are fundamental to performances of this nature. Their significance is peculiarly striking when the activities in which they appear are carried on as free pursuits. In addition to his literary and mathematical activities, young Mill was at the same period enthusiastically engaged in a study

of the theory of experimental science and logic. This study began at the age of 12 and carried on under the tutelage of James Mill, gave the boy a far more thorough and severe training than the usual college course of today. The really important part of Mill's education was the association with the strenuous character and vigorous intellect of his father,

And the most important evidence of the son's ability is the fact that his father found him at the early age of 11, a capable assistant and co-worker in difficult historical or economic writing. Mill's activities at the age of 12 were comparable to those of the second or third college year. In addition to his study of the higher mathematics and logic, he read Latin and Greek works, especially those significant for thought as well as language. At 13, he advanced to political economy, which he continued during the following year. He prepared notes from his daily conversations with his father,

which served the latter as a basis for the first draft of his elements of political economy. The boy had further to detect the fallacies in Adam Smith's system, by comparing it with the reasoning in Ricardo's work. I thought for myself, almost from the first, says Mill. Mill's activities at 15 and 16 were no less distinguished.

The chronicle of his formal studies, the record of his numerous essays, published and unpublished, and the account of his participation in the founding of the utilitarian society, complete the evidence in this unusual case. The analytical powers displayed by Mill at a very early age were not exceeded by any of our other subjects so far, as reported. And Mill's earliest productions gave evidence of bricasticity as striking as any we have found.

But in many of our cases rated above 125 IQ, and in most of those rated above 145 IQ, we noted indications of the presence of gifts equal or even superior to years. And in some of these records, there was no contradictory evidence. The low ratings in such cases indicate nothing more than the fact that the rate was regressed towards the mean, IQ 100, not because the rating was definitely limited by the evidence, but rather because the information was indefinite or insufficient. Thus Mill is rated above Voltaire and Goethe

because the IQ estimated from incomplete historical records is not an adequate measure of spontaneity and intellect. He is rated above Leibniz and Grudius because the estimated IQ is not an adequate measure of universality, of interest and significance of achievement.

He is rated above Pascal because the estimated IQ is not an adequate measure of originality. Mill's AII IQ, 170, indicates more nearly than the AI his relative position as compared with the more brilliant geniuses. It may be stated here that wherever the IQ estimates of

two or more raters have conspicuously differed, the disparity has been due to a lack of adequately standardized norms by which available evidence could be judged or else to a lack of definite statements in regard to the particular forms of mental activity of which the adequate standards are available. These defects sometimes corrected by the AII IQ ratings, because the latter are based on more information,

sometimes on much more than the AII ratings. The records upon which the AII ratings are based add the chronicle to the period from the age of 17 to 26 to the more complete itemised report of the first 17 years. Hence the AII ratings for the various members of the group may often approach the true IQ scores more nearly than the AI ratings, and they may be more adequate measures of relative standing. Mill's AI IQ is 170. 15 cases are rated above him, including Berkeley,

Davy, Melanchthon, Schelling, Voltaire, Grudius, Leibniz, and Goethe. Had the records of these use been as complete as Mill's, or had comparable and adequate tests been made of both, the obtained AI IQ rating would have been without any doubt higher in every case. Although Mill probably belongs with the other youths named to select group whose true IQ was above 160, there was a level of intellectual power and of creative endowment, an insight

which he did not reach, nor did he in childhood and youth, give evidence that he would reach it. Certain others of the group reached this level. Relatively, Mill's first rating is too high, but as a measure of his performance in terms of intellectual norms is not too high. The second rating indicates that his latter achievement was a striking that and that of many other youths.

If we could venture to assign to these other IQs above 200 and the evidence shows a closer relationship and intelligence to the highest IQ reported in recent literature, 214, than to any other clinical case, Mill will attain his place at 190 IQ on the first rating and will reach that level on the second rating also,

for it belongs without question to Galton's X grade of the illustrious, and in the IQ distribution of the human race, his place is undoubtedly beyond six standard deviations. AII IQ 190. Two cases, average reliability coefficient of data 0.75. Since the two cases included here give evidence of higher intelligence than any except one case in the study, they are both reported at some length. Leibniz studied law, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Leipzig, Jena and Altdorf from his 16th to his 21st year.

Before he was 17, he had received the bachelor's degree and written a treatise de principe individui. At 18 he received the master's degree and wrote specimen difficulties endure. At 19 he wrote specimen certidunis endure. At 20 he was refused the doctorate at Leipzig because of his youth, but he was awarded the degree by the University of Altdorf later in the same year.

Before he was 21 he had written five Latin dissertations. In his 21st year he became the secretary of the Society of Rosicrucians, and before the year ended, he had entered the service of the Elector of Mainz. During the next seven years, he was occupied with literary and political labourers, making significant contributions in many fields.

After fulfilling various responsible missions, in which his ability and success did not pass unnoticed, but in which he remained without official recognition, Leibniz at 24 was named councillor in the Upper Revision College in Mainz. His varied activities continued unabated. The account of Leibniz's progress from the age of 17 to that of 26 is scarcely to be equaled in the annals of many nations at many ages.

There are indications in the record of his childhood and youth of political, philosophical, scientific and literary genius. The rating of 190 IQ is not too high. It may be far too low. Grotius began to practice law at the age of 17 and soon was pleading before the highest tribunal of the land. Before he was 18, he had written an historical poem of some length and had republished the Phenomena of Aratus, containing Greek-Helatic texts to which the young editor had added notes and appropriate Latin verses.

The leading scholars of Europe, including Skellinger, Thau, Lipsius, Kessowon, and Vulcanus, voiced their prayers for the boy who at 17 had published such a book. The learned Vosius, comparing the youth of Erasmus, declared that the whole world could not produce a more learned man than Grotius. The Prospia, an occasional piece published anonymously,

was so well thought of that it was described as Scaliger. French poets translated it in French, and Cassibon put it into Greek. At 18, Grotius won universal praise on the appearance of his first tragedy, Adamus Exul. Before he was 19, the young celebrity was chosen historiographer of the United Provinces over the head of Baudius, professor in the University of Leiden.

For the age of 19 to 21, Grudius was actively engaged in legal literary work. At 21, his legal reputation was so great that it was called upon to aid in settling an important state question. In his 22nd and his 23rd years, Grudius was engaged in preparing up substantial work di jure per day. By this time it almost seemed as though the learned men of Holland were afraid of the tremendous intellect of the young scholar. Professor Baldius, on seeing young Grotius unexpectedly entering his classroom,

was so overcome with terror from the extraordinary presence that he had got Lockjaw, and was unable to carry his lecture to a satisfactory conclusion. At the age of 24, Grotius was made attorney general of the court of Holland, Zealand and Friesland. At 25, he repaired for publication a portion of his discussion in Digiore Prede, the famous Mere Liberum, the same year the youth published his second tragedy, Christus Peggians, which was greatly admired by Casulban,

and Sandes, translated it into English. The book was praised by many scholars as a model of perfect tragedy. In the case of Grotius, as in that of Leibniz, rare genius is the only explanation for a meteoric rise by a genuine achievement of the highest order to a position of extraordinary eminence. The true IQ of young Grotius may well have been above 200. AI IQ 195, no cases.

AI IQ 195, no cases. AI IQ 200, no cases. AI IQ 200, one case, reliability coefficient of data 0.82. An estimated AII IQ of 200 was obtained in a single case, one however of which the early records are unanimously complete. The intellectual achievement of young Goethe and the rapidity of his mental development was so extraordinary that they had discussed here at some length.

From his 17th to his 23rd year, Goethe was enrolled as a student of law at the University of Leipzig and then at the University of Strasbourg. In addition to his judicial studies, he devoted himself idly to the pursuit of literature, art and medicine. At 17, he wrote innumerable occasional verses in the manner of the day. At 18, he wrote much, studied much, and lived the life of an enthusiastic student of art and literature. At 18 or 19, he wrote two minor plays.

At 19, Goethe suffered a serious illness, pulmonary tuberculosis, but his intellectual enthusiasm was undiminished. He read and wrote with scarcely an interruption. At 20, his first volume of poems was printed. While continuing his legal studies in Strasbourg, Goethe found great delight in the study of art and literature, and in addition to his other pursuits, he devoted as much time and energy to the study of medicine as if he were to become a physician.

The eminent teacher and critic, Herder, five years Goethe's senior, became the young poet's friend and mentor. At 21, Goethe wrote lyrics that had never been surpassed by any poet. Two university professors, representing the departments of law and history, sought at about this time to turn the brilliant youth to an academic career. Before he was 22, Goethe had prepared a dissertation for the doctorate.

But the freedom with which he here discussed a question of state policy was thought unseemly, and so he was advised to apply for the degree of licentiate instead of that of doctor. He prepared and defended 65 theses, and thus, before the close of the year, successfully qualified for the new degree. At 22, the young jurist began the practice of his profession, but he did not neglect literature. He worked on four powerful dramatic productions, wrote essays on architecture, composed songs, and was actively engaged as a reviewer.

Before he was 23, he wrote Goethe von Berlichingen, which was published in a revised form the following year and created in literary circles as the worthy production of a great creative mind and a poem of immortal beauty. Goethe continued his legal practice, but at 23 and 24, he was pouring the expression of his deepest experience into Werther, published when its author was 25.

With gigantic strides, Goethe's genius had risen to highest power. Nothing that he afterward accomplished could outshine the crown of glory which Goethe laid upon his head. Before he was 26, Goethe was world famous, for he produced a perfect work of consumer genius. Scales to measure the highest creative achievement are needed to give in quantitative terms an estimate of the capacity of this brilliant youth. On the basis of intelligence norms alone, the estimated radiance is probably too low.

One rater, M, has scored on the basis of the record of Goethe's youth an IQ of 225. Goethe's true IQ may, in the history of mankind, have been equaled in a few instances. One may well wonder whether it has ever been exceeded. End of section 10