542 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



From this we see, that although the decade from 30-39 shows the 

 greatest productivity, it is but slightly greater than the next succeeding 

 one, and that less than one half have made good — at least so far as 

 public recognition is concerned — before the age of forty years. 



Although these generalizations are for the whole group studied, 

 irrespective of vocation, the first table shows considerable differences 

 in the average age of those in the various professions and also in the 

 percentages of those under forty years of age. This question was dis- 

 cussed by the author in the Popular Science Monthly for July, 

 1902, but I take the liberty of touching upon it briefly again. 



It is noticeable that the musician distances all competitors in the 

 race for distinction. This is not hard to understand when we recall 

 the infant prodigies who frequently figure on our bill boards, or con- 

 sider that nature has in most cases contributed more largely to his 

 success than has nurture. Of those callings which presuppose a pro- 

 fessional or at least an extended preparation, that of scientist 

 seems from our table to promise the earliest recognition. This 

 is perhaps due to the fact that with him the actual work of life is 

 entered with a completer intellectual equipment than by most of the 

 others, and that the period of preparation offers opportunities for 

 research and original investigation which may bring renown even before 

 life work is begun. This would also apply to the college professor with 

 perhaps fully as much force and in a lesser degree to the librarian and 

 the educator. These four then might be included in a class in which 

 the period of preparation is extended, but for which work of a high 

 order might be expected immediately on its completion and positions 

 of some prominence aspired to from the start. Next in the race for 

 renown come the actor and the author, almost neck and neck. If we 

 conclude that nature had most to do with the musician's success and 

 nurture with the educator's, we should be forced to place the author 

 and the actor in a class in which these two forces divide the honors 

 more evenly. No doubt *one must be born an actor or an author to 

 rise to a high rank, but after all, the making process is not to be despised 

 as a factor, and this takes time. Except for the soldier and sailor, 

 whose ability to rise to prominence, at least in time of peace, is 

 determined by the rapidity with which those above him are retired 

 from service, and the congressman and the statesman, whose minimum 

 limit is prescribed by law, the rest of the vocations shown upon the 

 chart fall, it seems to me, into a class for which the schools, as organized 

 means of education, provide no adequate preparation, and for which 

 that preparation must come to a great extent from the vocation itself. 

 Thus the scientist, or even the college professor, who has devoted 

 thirty years of life to study, can enter his profession from the top, 



