139 



Who Arc the Twenty Greatest Men? — IL 



MR. FREDERIC HARRISON SUMS UP. 



THE symposium we published last month on the 

 subject of the Twenty Greatest Men has 

 attracted very widespread attention at home 

 and abroad. I am glad, therefore, to be able to 

 supplement the previous symposium by a further 

 paper in which NIr. Frederic Harrison sums up the 

 whole subject. 



IS AGREEMENT POSSIBLE? 



By Mr. Frederic Harrison. 



The recent symposium might have been more 

 useful if a larger list'than twenty had been admitted, 

 and if some common 

 principle of selection had 

 been adopted. May I 

 suggest the following con- 

 ditions : — 



1. Fifty names is not 

 too much, if we include 

 the whole planet and 

 4,000 years. 



2. E.xclude all living 

 and recent names. " Call 

 no man happy until his 

 death," said Solon. Let 

 us wait a generation or 

 two before we talk of 

 the world's " greatest " 

 sons. 



3. Include diflferent 

 nations, races, and 

 creeds, ancient and 

 modern. 



4. Include all forms 

 of intellect and character 

 which h.ive adtied to the 

 >ium of human civilisa- 

 tion. 



5. Judge, not by bril- 

 lianty of genius or of 



IKjrsonal power, but by service to humanity. 



6. Admit the principle of representation, i.e., 

 .iliow one highest type to stand for the rest, and 

 thus omit all but A i in each class. 



In the entire liistory of mankind there an.- aliout 

 tifty— |)erhapsa hundred— men of almost C(|ua! power 

 and of nearly eijual usefuln'ss, between whom it is 

 dittkult to decide. A selection should not depend on 

 IK-rsonal taste, nor ujx)n merely moral or intellectual 

 sui)eriority, so much as on permanent intUiencc on 

 their race and posterity. . Alexander of Macedon 

 was the most transcendent personality in recorded 

 history, but his .\iiatic comiuests did not ultimately 

 equal the komin lOmpire of the Cxsars. We must 

 not admit his only uiodern equal, Bonaparte, wlif)se 

 evil work suri)a-,>' s and annuls his good works. The 



Mr. Frederic Harrison. 



only perfect sovereign in recorded history, Alfred, 

 worked on a scale so .far smaller than the mighty 

 Charles. Cromwell was more a destructive than 

 strictly speaking a founder ; however, his work was 

 indispensable. Pericles, noble as he was, saw 

 his state ruined. Hannibal, the greatest soldier 

 in history, utterly failed. And . so did the 

 saintly ruler, Marcus Aurelius. For these reasons 

 I omitted all these in my original list of twenty. I 

 now submit a larger list of fifty, based on the prin- 

 ciple of leading types of all forms of service to the 

 progress of mankind. Mr. Carnegie, no doubt, was 



thinking of the practical 

 life of the present day. 

 My own scheme was a 

 brief summary of univer- 

 sal history. Carlyle's list 

 were merely " fine fel- 

 lows." It is, no doubt, 

 impossible to api)ortion 

 the exact part of many 

 discoverers in practical 

 mechanics ; and so let us 

 take the accepted names 

 in each. Columbus is 

 the popular type of mari- 

 time discovery, as Guten- 

 berg is of printing, and 

 Franklin of practical use 

 I if electric force. Darwin, 

 .Simpson, Pasteur, Besse- 

 mer, Wheatstone, Kelvin, 

 Wagner, Bismarck, are too 

 near us to be properly 

 placed. Chatham, Pitt, 

 Nelson, and Wellington 

 are too purely British. 

 Others are too local or 

 too special. For a list 

 of fifty, on the principle I 

 state above, I think a wide agreenicnt would be 

 found. I-'reuekic Harrison. 



Fil'TV FOUNDERS AND THINKERS. 

 (.Nor Inci.udi.no Destroyers, Mvthical, Living, 



I 



