“As a means of variation from a normal type, sickness in childhood ought to have a certain value not to be classed under any fitness or unfitness of natural selection; and especially scarlet fever affected boys seriously, both physically and in character, though they might through life puzzle themselves to decide whether it had fitted or unfitted them for success.”

— Henry Adams

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

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Henry Adams 311

journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838–1918

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