372 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



applicable to this method the royal ones offer the most favorable field, 

 owing to the maintenance of family trees and the great interest that 

 has always been taken in their lives and characters as found in 

 histories, biographies and memoirs. Besides, although all have the 

 highest social rank, they have lived in different countries, in different 

 centuries and under varying circumstances, with different educations 

 and opportunities. Their peculiar positions make it unwise to compare 

 them with men at large, but, having a great number, we can properly 

 compare them with each other and judge them according to a standard 

 of their own. 



Galton in his "Hereditary Genius' purposely avoided royalty, 

 because, as he says, the qualities that make a great king are not the 

 same as apply to genius in general. In this work it is no drawback, 

 since here I have gone with more pains into the question of intellect 

 and actual achievements, and a man is not given the same rank for 

 being a wise and successful ruler that he is for great and brilliant 

 creative achievements. The adjectives that are used by biographers 

 arid historians are the basis of the estimate, and by this standard 

 William I. of Germany would not rank with Frederick the Great, 

 since one does not find the same admiration expressed for his intellect. 



By taking down every individual met in every degree of blood 

 relationship and also everything in the nature of a characterization 

 or adjective applied to him, I have been able to verify or check the 

 estimates, and avoid the difficulty which one might expect to arise 

 from a lack of uniformity of opinion. It is really very easy to get a 

 sufficiently clear idea, in a rough way, of the mental and moral status 

 of any historical character. The accounts may vary on some points 

 but not much on essentials. Thus in the case of Frederick the Great 

 none would question his high intellectual standing, though consider- 

 able difference of opinion would be found relative to his moral 

 qualities, most putting him rather low. The same would apply to 

 Napoleon, but in both these instances the interesting and important 

 thing to be explained is the intellect, and of this we can form a suffi- 

 ciently just estimate. In the same way the important fact regarding 

 Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, is his high moral tone and 

 studious tendencies, and about these we can have no question. So 

 that in the main, two sufficiently accurate scales can be formed in 

 which to place them all, one for the intellectual side and one for the 

 moral side. 



Grades from 1 to 10 have been used for each class of traits, 

 intellectual and moral; and attention has also been paid to the law of 

 'Deviation from an average/ by which most people are made to range 

 close to mediocrity, the geniuses and imbeciles being relatively few. 

 This law is set forth in Galton's 'Hereditary Genius/ page 22, and 



