262 



More About the Twenty Greatest Men. 



Mr. Andrew Carnegie, whose list of twenty first 

 started the inquiry as to who were the twenty greatest, 

 sends me the following letter : — 



" Dear Mr. Editor,— The list of ' The Twenty 

 Greatest Men ' to which you have given wide circula- 

 tion thru the Review of Reviews were not given 

 by me as such. 



" In ' Problems of To-da>-,' dealing with Socialism, 

 page 151, chapter headed ' Variety versus Uniformity,' 

 I write : ' Seldom if ever to the palace or stately 

 home of wealth comes the messenger of the gods to 

 call men to such honor as follows supreme service 

 to the race. Rank has no place. Wealth robs life of 

 the heroic element, the sublime consecration, the self- 

 sacrifice of ease needed for the steady development of 

 our powers and the performance of the highest service. 

 Let working men note how many of the exceptionals 

 indicated in the preceding pages, who have carried 

 the race forward, were workers with their hands ; — 



" ' All these began as manual workers. There is 

 not one rich nor titled leader in the whole list. All 

 were compelled to earn their bread. 



" ' Under our present individualistic system, which 

 breeds and develops the needed leaders, there is no 

 State official to interpose — no commission to consider 

 the respective claims of the exceptionals and decide 

 upon their destinies. All are left in perfect freedom 

 in the possession of glorious liberty of choice, free " by 

 the sole act of his own unlordcd will " to obey the 

 Divine call which consecrates each to his great mission.' 



" So much for ' The Problems of To-day.' 



" Perhaps you can start another ball which will 

 roll round the press which uses the English language — 

 and perhaps give rise to similar interesting criticism. 

 ^Yours, Andrew Carnegie." 



I had not intended to publish any more contributions, 

 but since the issue of our last number I have received 

 some communications from which I deem it well to 

 make extracts. One is from an Icelander now working 

 as a farm labourer in Winnipeg. I publish his list not 

 onlv because he is an Icelander, but because his 

 contribution illustrates the very wide range of interest 

 that has been excited by this discussion. 



The writer says : " Being myself an Icelander, I put 

 two Icelandic names on the list, those of Jon Sigtirdsson 

 and Hannes Hafstcinn. The former was the greatest 

 statesman and patriot that Iceland has produced, 

 and the latter, Hannes Hafsteinn, ex-Premier of 

 Iceland, and doubtless her ablest and most farsighted 

 statesman of the p'resent day. He also is one of the 

 most distinguished poets of the country." 



Homer, loth or nth cen- 

 tury B.C. 



Aristotle, B.C. 384— B-C- 

 322. 



Marcus Aurelius, 121-180. 



Dante, 1265 — 1321. 



Gutenberg (the greatest 

 benefactor),i4oo — 1468. 



Michael Angelo, 1475 — 

 1564. 



Shakespeare, 1564 — 1616. 



Spinoza, 1632 — 1677. 



Voltaire, 1694 — 177S. 



Goethe, 1749 — 1832. 



Balzac, 1799 — 1850. 

 Charles Darwin, 1809^- 



1882. 

 Jon Sigurdsson, i8ii — 



1879. 

 Herbert Spencer, 1820 — 



1903. 

 Ernest Renan, 1823 — 



1892. 

 HenrikIbsen,i828--i9o6. 

 George Brandes, 1842. 

 Anatole France, 1844. 

 Leo Tolstoy, 1828— 1910. 

 Hannes Hafsteinn. 

 Sir Harry Johnston, in sending in his first twenty, 

 said he would be better satisfied if he could nominate 

 a second twenty, which he proceeded to do as 

 follows : — 



Marco Polo, 1254 — 1324. 

 Prince Henry of Portugal, 1394 — 1460. 

 Vasco da Gama, 1450 — 1524. 

 Magalhaes (Magellan), 1480— 1521. 

 Jaques Cartier, 1491 — 1557. 

 Elizabeth of England, 1553 — 1602 

 James Cook, 1728— 1779, 

 Catherine II. of Russia, 1729 — 1796. 

 Robert Arkwright, 1732 — 1782. 

 Edward Jenner, 1749 — 1823. 

 Robert Fulton, 1765 -1815. 

 Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769 — 1821. ' 



Elizabeth Fry, 1780 - 1845. 

 Ferdinand de Lesseps, 1805 — 1849. 

 Harriet Beecher Stowe, 181 2 — 1896. 

 Charles Dickens, 1812 — 1870. 

 Henry Bessemer, 1813 — 1898. 

 Bismarck, 1815 -1898. 

 Queen Victoria, 1819 — 1901. 

 " Even this leaves out William Ewart Gladstone, 

 whose opinions and reforms have profoundly affected 

 modern Europe." 



The Strand gives a symposium by more than a 

 dozen contributors on the twenty greatest men, taking 

 Mr. Carnegie's list as text, and supplies the result in 

 the following list of the names most frequently chosen 

 antl the number of votes which each has recei\'ed. It 

 will be noticed that the list includes more than twent\' 

 names, owing to no fewer than nine having recei\ccl 

 four votes each : — 



y 



I 



