A STATISTICAL STUDY OF EMINENT MEN. 371 



while the last thirty years have altered not only critical opinion, but 

 also popular taste. 



If we regard now more especially the racial distribution of our great 

 men, we get results conveniently exhibited in the accompanying figure. 

 The heights of the rectangles are 

 proportional to the numbers of 

 great men produced by several 

 nations. France leads, followed 

 pretty closely by Great Britain. 

 Then there is a considerable fall 

 to Germany and Italy. Borne 

 and Greece are nearly alike. 

 America has produced one more 

 eminent man than Spain (not on 

 the chart) which is followed by 

 Switzerland,Holland and Sweden. 

 "We then reach the nations headed 

 by Eussia, which have produced 

 fewer than 10 preeminent men. 

 The shaded rectangles show the 

 distribution of the 500 men who 

 are the most eminent and the 

 heavily shaded rectangles the 

 hundred who are the greatest of 

 all. Here the relations are some- 

 what altered. Great Britain sur- 

 passes France, and Greece has 

 produced more exceptionally great men than Germany.* 



We have already noticed the curves showing separately the Greek 

 and Eoman periods. Similar curves for the leading modern nations are 

 given in the chart. The Italian renaissance is followed by its decadence 

 with a partial revival in recent times. Germany for one short period 

 in the fifteenth century rivaled France and England, but in the two 

 following centuries lagged far behind, to rise with great rapidity in the 

 eighteenth century. France and Great Britain, as we have seen, have 

 produced nearly the same number of great men, and their curves during 

 the centuries cross and recross. The British curve is somewhat more 

 regular than the French, exhibiting perhaps certain racial characteris- 

 tics. As has been already stated, the French revolution brought into 

 prominence many men not truly great, and the position then attained 

 by France is not held in the nineteenth century. In so far as the curves 



* These relations are somewhat dependent on the authorities collated ; their 

 validity may be assigned by the calculation of probable errors, but there may 

 be a constant error due to the fact that the collation of names depends chiefly 

 on French and Anglo-Saxon standards. 



The Rectangles are Proportional to the 

 Numbers of the Most Eminent Men Pro- 

 duced by Different Nations. The shaded 

 parts represent the more eminent five hun- 

 dred, and the heavily shaded parts the hun- 

 dred most eminent of all. 



