and an opera in his eighth year. Theresa Milanolla played the violin
with such skill that many people thought that she must have played
before her birth. There are many such instances of wonderful powers
exhibited by artists and painters when they were quite young.
Sankaracharya, the great commentator of the Vedanta philosophy,
finished his commentary when he was twelve years old. How can such
cases be explained by the theory of hereditary transmission? Many of
you have heard of the wonderful musical talents of Blind Tom. This
blind negro slave was born on his master's plantation and was brought
up as a typical negro. He received no training in music or in any
other line. One day when his master's family were at dinner he
happened to come into his master's parlor and displayed his marvelous
musical power for the first time by playing on his master's
piano. Afterwards he was exhibited in different states of this
country. Physically he was nothing but a typical negro. His intellect
was very poor, but in music he was a master. His musical talents were
so great that he composed music for himself and played his own
compositions. Sometimes after hearing a new piece of rapid music once,
he could reproduce it note for note. Where did he get all these
powers? From whom did he inherit them? His parents perhaps never heard
of a piano. He never had a lesson in his life, and he could not have
understood even if he had had any. Not long ago I saw a girl of about
six years, who played the piano most beautifully and who could
reproduce the most difficult music after hearing it once. It seems to
me that she must have played the piano in her previous incarnation.
This is the only explanation that we can give.

Does heredity explain such cases? No. These illustrations are
sufficient to disprove the theory of "cumulative heredity".
"Cumulative" means gradualness. The believers in this theory say that