ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the continual focus of Sir Cyril Burt's attention and concern was upon the individual child and the best possible provision of the most appropriate education in relation to his or her level of ability and special talents. It argues that he was consistent throughout the entire body of his work in his arguments on the question of the hereditary basis of intelligence and the effects of social and environmental conditions upon it. One element of explanation commonly agreed among friends as well as opponents who knew Burt well lay in his great vanity; his pride. Vanity, then, together with injured pride, provided one understandable explanation. The chapter analyses Leslie Hearnshaw's explanatory account, listing and commenting on the pathological elements he thought discernible. Perhaps Burt's early inclination towards self-perfection in the world was neither as misplaced nor so open to shallow criticism as his detractors have thought.
