24 AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS [24 



of considerable difficulty. In the interests of equity all 

 writers of the same degree of importance had to be included 

 in the list, all others had to be rejected. No ready-made roll 

 satisfied this condition. Authors of biographical diction- 

 aries do not agree in their lists. They appear to include 

 and reject names of minor importance in the most arbitrary 

 manner. Many mediocre writers are included by some 

 compilers and excluded by others, while various men of 

 obvious merit are by some compilers omitted entirely. 

 This failing in ready-made lists was found to be particu- 

 larly serious, since minor authors who are treated in such 

 an arbitrary manner constitute the vast majority of all men 

 of letters. To avoid this source of weakness, inherent in 

 any ready-made roll, there was but one method of proce- 

 dure ; the investigator had to make a list for himself, using 

 a method as scientific and as little arbitrary as was pos- 

 sible. 1 



In the preparation of a scientific list certain general con- 

 ditions had to be satisfied. 



1. The data had to be collected according to an indis- 

 putably objective method, quite independent of the person- 

 ality of the investigator. 



2. The relative number of facts collected had to be large 

 enough to be representative. 



3. The absolute number had to be large enough to per- 

 mit significant statistical work. 



4. The subject under investigation had to be fairly 

 familiar to the investigator. 



5. As far as possible, the investigation had to be based 

 on well-known men, so that the material used could be veri- 

 fied by any one who might desire to do so. 2 



1 A. Odin, op. cit., pp. 358 et seq. 



2 Ibid., pp. 291 et seq. 



