The general conclusion is that Success is, statistically speaking, a magnified, but otherwise trustworthy, sign of Ability, high Success being associated with high, but not an equally high, grade of Ability, and low with low, but not an equally low.  A few instances to the contrary no more contradict this important general conclusion than a few cases of death at very early or at very late ages contradict the tables of expectation of life of a newly-born infant.

CHAPTER VI.—­NOMENCLATURE OF KINSHIP.

Specific kinships are such as “paternal uncle” or “maternal uncle,” as distinguished from the general term “uncle.”  The phrase “first cousin” covers no less than eight specific kinships (four male and four female), not taking the issue of mixed marriages into account.  Specific kinships are briefly expressed by a nomenclature in which fa, me, bro, si, son, da, Hu, Wi, stand respectively for father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, Husband, Wife.  Each of these syllables is supposed to have the possessive ’s added to it whenever it is followed by another syllable of the set, or by the word is when it is not. Example:  Let the person from whom the kinships are reckoned be called P, and let Q and R be two of P’s kinsfolk, described respectively as fa bro and me si son.  That means that P’s father’s brother is Q, and that P’s mother’s sister’s son is R.  It is a simple and easily intelligible nomenclature, and replaces intolerable verbiage in the description of distant kinships.  My correspondents used it freely, and none of them spoke of any difficulty in understanding it.  Its somewhat babyish sound is soon disregarded.

TABLE IV.—­ABBREVIATIONS.
____________________________________________________________

__________
|                                 |                                    |
|              Males.             |              Females.              |
|_________________________________|_________________________

___________|
|                                 |                                    |
| Grandfather, paternal   fa fa | Grandmother, paternal      fa me |
|     "        maternal   me fa |     "        maternal      me me |
| Father                     fa | Mother                        me |
| Uncle, paternal        fa bro | Aunt, paternal             fa si |
|   "    maternal        me bro |   "   maternal             me si |
|                                 |                                    |
| Brother                   bro | Sister                        si |
|                                 |                                    |
| Son                       son | Daughter                      da |