People Getting Dumber? Human Intelligence Has Declined Since Victorian Era, Research Suggests

[defacto7]

47. I have spent a great deal of time

reading 17th, 18th and 19th century letters written by average people. It is amazing. The verbal knowledge is so advanced, even simple letters. The handwriting is pure art. What is more interesting is the level of communication and word usage to express nuances of ideas. Look at the length of my own sentences.. short, blunt... Some of the texts I've read from these periods very commonly held a single thread of an idea spread over several lines in what we would call run-on today. But these have articulate information well defined and well thought out and impressively managed to give a broad perspective. No spell check, no cut and paste... handwritten and sometimes perfectly executed.

In other writing, I have read many times about the ability of people from previous centuries having an uncanny ability for memory. Children reciting long lines of poetry, Shakespeare and even political documents and speeches all from memory. Many could remember speeches they heard in public and recite them verbatim.

I have said for a long time that people from past centuries probably were much more intelligent than we are now; that's old news to me. At the least we could say they were more capable of speech, memory and communication than the average person is now, whatever you wish to call it.