CHAPTER IX. 



GREAT MEN OF THE WORLD. 



In the tables included in this chapter there is given a list of 

 about six hundred of the great men of the world's history. If 

 we add to these names those given in the family histories of 

 Chapter XI, and a few which will be found in the appendix, 

 but which have been omitted from the tables, the number will be 

 raised to about one thousand. If the ancestors be included, the 

 number of persons will be increased to over two thousand. An 

 inspection of the names given in the tables will show the range 

 which my inquiry has taken. In making up my list of names 

 from which these tables have been produced, my object has been 

 to sweep within the list enough of the great intellects of the world 

 to make sure that there may be selected from it a hundred or 

 more persons who are so pre-eminently great that it will be impos- 

 sible to find outside of the list another hundred or so of men of 

 equal greatness. 



EXPLANATION OF TABLES. 



In making up these tables I have not adhered strictly to the 

 lines of division as previously established, but have divided them 

 at the nearest equal division of years and have placed at the head 

 of each table the percentage of total births that normally come within 

 the division. I have also, in calculating these tables, ignored the 

 months, and have simply taken the years of births of fathers and 

 sons. This allows for a possible discrepancy of a little less than 

 two years, so that a person given as having a birth-rank of thirty- 

 five may in reality have a birth rank of thirty-four or thirty-six. 



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