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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



in" fact we encounter is the extraor- 

 dinary extent to which British men 

 and women of genius have been pro- 

 duced by the highest and smallest so- 

 cial classes, and the minute part which 

 has oeen played by the 'teeming masses' 

 in building up British civilization. In 

 the article above referred to it is shown 

 that 'The nobility, the office-holding 

 class and the liberal professions in no 

 community form so much as a tenth 

 part of the population, yet from this 

 small minority seventy-eight per cent, 

 of the primates of Italian and German 

 literature, eighty per cent, of Spanish 

 and sixty-nine per cent, of English were 

 descended.' The fecundity of the dif- 

 ferent parts of French territory, like 

 that of Great Britain, has been very un-' 

 equal. "If we examine the nativity of 

 French writers according to their geo- 

 graphical distribution . . . we find 

 that the northern and eastern parts 

 have been most prolific. (Is this the 

 result of the comparatively large Teu- 

 tonic intermixture?) Taking France by 

 Provinces, He de France heads the list 

 with 1,572 names out of a total of 5,617. 

 Next in order comes Normandy with 

 413 names. The adjacent districts of 

 Picardy and Artois furnish 373; Pro- 

 vence gives us a register of 295 names; 

 Lorraine, 240; Touraine, Anjou and 

 Maine, 207. All others fall below 200. 

 Except in a general way, it cannot be 

 known what relation these figures bear 

 to the total population, as no census of 

 France wa9 taken until comparatively 

 recent times. If we make an estimate 

 on the present basis of inhabitants, the 

 relation of the districts will be somewhat 

 changed. He de France will still stand 

 at the head, but the second place will 

 be taken by French Switzerland, the 

 third by Provence and the fourth by 

 the Orleannais." 



The religious milieu is a factor of 

 very considerable importance. "It is 

 well known that among French writers 

 in all departments Geneva has produced 

 a much larger proportion than would be 

 expected from the number of its inhabi- 

 tants. For more than four centuries it 



has been a Protestant city, while the 

 rest of French territory has been for the 

 most part Roman Catholic. It is worthy 

 of remark, too, that in Germany, includ- 

 ing by this designation its territory 

 linguistically and not politically, the 

 Catholic portions of Bavaria and Austria 

 have given birth to a relatively small 

 number of persons who are entitled to 

 the highest rank in letters. It has al- 

 ready been shown that, in the product 

 of men of science, the religion of a 

 country seems to play an important 

 part. We are justified in drawing the 

 same inference in regard to literature." 

 One more quotation that bears on the 

 preponderating influence of what may 

 be called centers of civilization, and I 

 have done: "Of fifty-five eminent Ital- 

 ian literati, twenty-three were born in 

 large cities, and most of the remainder 

 in small municipalities, though, strange 

 to say, not one had Rome as his birth- 

 place. Of the fifty Spaniards who are 

 generally regarded as holding the high- 

 est rank in the literature of Spain, six- 

 teen were born in Madrid, and a large 

 proportion of the remainder in cities 

 of the first rank, several of which con- 

 tain universities. The coryphei of Ger- 

 man literature seem at first sight to 

 make an exception to the conclusions 

 that naturally spring from the above- 

 stated facts. The great writers are 

 quite evenly distributed over what now 

 constitutes the empire and Switzerland. 

 Three large cities are the birthplace of 

 three great writers each; two. of two 

 each ; while the rest have produced but 

 one each. This calculation embraces 

 about thirty who stand confessedly at 

 the head: yet if we increase the number 

 the results are not widely different. 

 Here again the importance of the en- 

 vironment is strikingly made prominent. 

 During the last five centuries Germany 

 has had a large number of capitals, 

 many of which the reigning monarcha 

 tried with more or less success to make 

 centers of art and literature." 



Chas. W. Super. 



Athens, O. 



