302 



The Journal of Heredity 



Monthly, February, 1903. Here a thou- 

 sand historical characters are graded 

 according to their "eminence," in other 

 words with reference to the amount of 

 attention that they now attract. _ Such 

 a method of comparison is obviously 

 faulty as a test of mental merit, since 

 it places Louis XVI, Philip II of Spain 

 and George III of England in the first 

 hundred. Also Nero, Robespierre, 

 Mirabeau, and Bossuet seem out of 

 place, nearly at the top of the heap. 

 If we search down through the lower 

 rankings we find some, though not 

 proportionately many, of undoubted 

 geniuses who ought to go higher up, 

 such as Wagner, Copernicus, Kepler 

 and Bach. Now if we substitute these 

 for the misplaced names in the first 

 hundred according to our choice, allow- 

 ing for all differences of opinion, we 

 do not change the character of the 

 second hundred to any appreciable 

 extent.^ 



The leading names of Americans are 

 in order of eminence: Washington, 

 Penn, Lincoln, Franklin, Jefferson, 

 Grant, John Adams, Webster, Hamilton, 



Jackson, Longfellow, Prescott, Irving, 

 Emerson, Madison, Farragut, J. Q. 

 Adams, Hawthorne, Cooper, Rumford, 

 Clay, Patrick Henry, Fulton, Sumner, 

 Sheridan, Monroe and Audubon. 



Washington, Penn, Lincoln, Franklin 

 and Jefferson are in the first hundred. 

 Grant, John Adams and Webster are 

 in the second hundred, Alexander Hamil- 

 ton and Andrew Jackson are in the 

 third. 



The place of Roosevelt in world 

 history from the standpoint of genius 

 seems to be, by this test, fairly well 

 indicated. He certainly cannot go 

 much below the second hundred, not 

 if he be the equal of Hamilton or 

 Jackson. If his genius were greater 

 than that of John Adams or Webster 

 or Grant, he may go in the first hundred ; 

 if greater than either Jefferson or Penn, 

 then he might go well up in the first 

 hundred. At any rate the probability 

 is that there have not been more than 

 one hundred and fifty men of eminence 

 or of genius greater than Roosevelt in 

 all recorded time. 



» My own suggestion is that the f :)llowing names do not deserve a place in the first hundred. 

 They should be placed somewhat lower, and room thus made for the names of very great men 

 who have obviously been graded too low: Penn, Byron, Nero, Robespierre, Charles V of Germany, 

 Mirabeau, Guizot, Bossuet, Thiers, Louis XIV, Fox, Machiavelli, Philip II of Spain, George III, 

 Cousin, and Justinian. Som.e of these might be placed in the second hundred, some much lower. 

 The second himdred might also be i^iproved by the removal to lower grades of certain names 

 as. for instmce: Fenelon, Pius IX, Ch Tries I of England, Lamartine, Joseph Bonaparte, Janes I, 

 Alberoni, L-rns XIII, Diderot, Maim^nt, Francis I, Nicholas I, Athanasius, Bentley, J. Cook, 

 and Louis XV. 



