GREAT MEN OF THE WORLD. l6l 



abilities says that there is only one chance in ten that I find him 

 born in class A and only one chance in fifty that I find him born 

 in sub-class A 3 . If I look to China for the greatest Chinaman, 

 it is again only one chance in ten that I find Confucius born in 

 class A, one chance in fifty that I find him born in sub-class A 3 , 

 one chance in one hundred that I find both Moses and Confucius 

 born in class A, and only one chance in twenty-five hundred that 

 I find them both with the birth-ranks as high as A 3 . If I then go 

 to India for the greatest man produced there, the chances rise to 

 one in a thousand in one case and to one in one hundred and 

 twenty-five thousand in the other. If I continue this process, pick- 

 ing out the greatest known intellects in Greece, in Rome, in Egypt, 

 in England, in France, in Germany and in America, the chances rise 

 to the enormous total of one in five hundred millions of millions, 

 a number which is equal to three hundred thousand times the total 

 population of the earth. And yet these figures ignore the com- 

 pounding arising from successive generations born in class A, and 

 depend only upon the birth-ranks of the individuals themselves. 

 Surely this can be no longer considered a question of probabilities. 

 We must hold with Aristotle that what occurs regularly cannot be 

 the result of chance, but must be dependent upon some law, and 

 that that law says that the mental ability of the offspring is depend- 

 ent upon the age of the parent at the time of reproduction. 



TEN MEN FROM TEN COUNTRIES. 



Aristotle, A 2 . Cuvier, A 2 . 



Augustus, A 3 , A 3 , A 8 . Franklin, A 2 (A 8 , A), A 8 



Bacon, A 2 . Humboldt, A. 



Buddha, A 8 . Moses, A 3 (A 3 , A 8 ), A 3 . 



Confucius, A 8 . Ptolemy II, A 3 . 



