. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science. otary anda peasant girl, and in themidst of the most com-monplace and practicalsurroundings. It is verywell in speaking ofRaphael, for instance, totalk of race selection, ofhereditary predisposition,of educational truth is, that withthe vast majority of ourfamous artists the apti-tudes and special facultiesof the parents count fornothing, and that thepersonal vocation, themysterious gift, is everything. Oh, vain theories of Darwin and ofLombroso, does not the unaccountable apparition of great talentsand genius perpetually
. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science. otary anda peasant girl, and in themidst of the most com-monplace and practicalsurroundings. It is verywell in speaking ofRaphael, for instance, totalk of race selection, ofhereditary predisposition,of educational truth is, that withthe vast majority of ourfamous artists the apti-tudes and special facultiesof the parents count fornothing, and that thepersonal vocation, themysterious gift, is everything. Oh, vain theories of Darwin and ofLombroso, does not the unaccountable apparition of great talentsand genius perpetually set your theories at naught ? Just as nothingin the profession of Leonardos forefathers gave any promise ofdeveloping the artistic vocation, so the nephew and grand-nephews ofthe great man sank to simple tillers of the soil. Thus does nature mockour speculations ! Could the disciples of Darwin carry out their schemeof cross-breeding on the human species, there is every chance thatthe result would be a race rather of monsters than of superior beings. c. STUDY OF OLD MAN. (The Uffizi, Florence ) lo LEONARDO DA VINCI However, if it were not in the power of Leonardos parents totransmit s^enius to him, they at least were able to provide him withrobust health, and a generous heart. As a child, Leonardo must have known his paternal grandfather,Antonio di Ser Piero, who was eighty-four years of age when the boywas five ; also his grandmother, who was twenty-one years youngerthan her husband.^ Further details as to these two personages arewanting, and I confess frankly that I shall not attempt to pierce theobscurity which surrounds them. But it would be inexcusable in menot to employ every means in my power to follow up at least somecharacteristic traits of their son, the father of Leonardo. Ser Piero was twenty-two or twenty-three years of age at the timeof Leonardos birth. He was—and despite their apparent dryness,existing documents testify to this—an active, intelligent, and ent
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