GREAT MEN OF THE WORLD. 1 59 



men about whom our information is restricted to the sum of the 

 birth-ranks for two or more generations. x\n inspection of this 

 table will show that the lower of our ten classes cannot be recruited 

 from them in either number of individuals or in men of great 

 ability. 



In table XX we have a list of 114 men in regard to whom 

 the information is still more limited. This information, as far as 

 it goes, indicates that their fathers were old when they were born. 

 The mere fact that a man, who lived to be old, was an orphan at 

 an early age is not, of itself, proof that he was a son of an old man. 

 but where a good many such cases are taken together, the facts are 

 good circumstantial evidence that the fathers were old in a good 

 many instances. It certainly would be a queer commentary on the 

 laws of inheritance and circumstantial evidence if it should not 

 prove that more than one-half of these persons had birth-ranks 

 above 35. It is quite evident that we cannot expect to fill the 

 vacancies in the lower of our ten classes from this group of men. 



In table XXI we have a list of men whose birth-ranks I have 

 looked for but have not found. This does not mean that the birth- 

 ranks of all of them cannot be found, but that I have not been able 

 to find them with the facilities at my command or without an 

 amount of research which I was unwilling to give. Besides, I 

 could see no useful results to be obtained by a large amount of 

 additional labor after it became evident that the process would be 

 slow and attended with meagre results. 



CAN THE TABLES BE EQUALIZED IN NUMBERS AND QUALITY? 



The question then is: If we could obtain the birth-ranks of all 

 of these unknown men, would enough of them fall in the lower 

 classes to even up these classes in numbers and mental ability? 



