26 



The RiiviHVV or RkvU'WS. 



conversation which he IkhI with Mr. Carnegie some 

 years ago when he met iiim at Kiel. Prince von 

 Bi.ilow says : — " Naturally you can have many different 

 views of 'greatness.' 'I'he answer to your question 

 will always be an individual one, according to the 

 habits and sentiments of the person in question." 



It will Ije noted with some interest that seven of 

 die following list are products of Protestant Germany. 



Heraclitus of Ephesus, 5th century B.C. 



Aeschylus, B.C. 525— B.C. 456. 



Hannibal, B.C. 247 -B.C. 183. 



Julius Cassar, B.C. 100 — B.C. 44. 



St. Paul, I St century. 



Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 — 15 19. 



Luther, 1483 — 1546. 



Shakespeare, 1564 — 161 6. 



Richelieu, 1585 — 1642. 



Frederick the Great, 1712 — 1786. 



Kant, 1724 — 1804. 



Goethe, 1749 — 1832. 



Nelson, 1758— 1805. 



Pitt, 1759 — 1806. 



Napoleon, 1769 — 1821. 



Moltke, 1800 — 1891. 



Lincoln, 1809 — 1865. 



Cavour, 1810 — 1861. 



Richard Wagner, 1813— 1883. 



Bismarck, 1815— 1898. 

 Among the lists sent me two are notable from their 

 contrast. The first is Sir Harry Johnston, the well- 

 known traveller and Pro-Consul, who is dominated 

 by a strong animus against the Old Testament. The 

 other, the Rev. Dr. John Cliftbrd, the foremost Non- 

 conformist in England, m.iy be regarded as the 

 typical product of the Puritan culture which is largely 

 based upon the Old Testament. 



Sir Harry John.stun 

 Sir Harry Johnston writes : " This a fascinating 

 subject, stimulating to the imagination and delight- 

 fully provocative of combativeness. One's first 

 instinct is to e.xpunge from the list the greatest men 

 of other competitors, and to put forward someone that 

 no other partici[)ant in this best of parlour games has 

 ever thought of — some Quetzal Coatl, some leader of 

 Mongols, conqueror of inner Africa, or author of 

 ' Arabian Nights,' or the founder of the French Revolu- 

 tion. It argues well for the convincing greatness of 

 Shakespeare (a miracle of ins[)iration if there ever 

 was a miracle or any divine aftlatus in the world), 

 Dante, Columbus, and Abraham Lincoln, that they are 

 in so many lists, even of people who try to think for 

 themselves. 



" In drawiiig up my own list I have excluded 

 unhistorical, mythical, or semi-mythical personages, 

 whether or not the legends about them exercised any 

 influence on the evolution of man's th;iught, morality, 

 or actions. .Aijart from this, I doubt whether tlie 

 boresome ])ersonality of Moses (as depicted in 

 Hebrew legends^ really had much influence oil hu.nan 



history ; and still less effect in the way of things that 

 count was produced by the poetry ascribed to Homer. 

 On the other hand, the conquests of that demi-god 

 and semi-devil, Alexander of Macedon, have had an 

 immense and far-reaching — and, on the whole, bene- 

 ficial — effect on Western Asia, Egypt, and India. 

 Naturally my selection is not composed of men and 

 women— (.\nd why do so many of your correspondents 

 forget women?)— whose lives have been irreproach- 

 able from the point of view of the morality of 

 Twentieth Century Europe ; but they are at any rate 

 persons who by action or the inspiration of ideas or 

 publication of inventions have reacted profoundly and 

 beneficially on human progress. I have excluded 

 mere destroyers like Muhammad and Jenghiz Khan ; 

 yet even these destroyers did some good — got rid 

 of rubbish, broke down barriers, created nations, 

 implanted hopes. I feel .some compunction at having 

 omitted Muhammad and even Tipiur, and, still more, 

 Oliver Cromwell. In the case of the first and last ot 

 these three that wait without the gate of our Valhalla, 

 it is mainly my dislike of dogmatic religion and 

 passionate love of scientific research which influence 

 me, and the doubt in my mind whether either effected 

 any permanent good. Oliver did, but is he not too 

 purely a national and not a world-wide hero ? " 



Buddha, 5th century B.C. 



Alexander the Great, B.C. 356 — B.C. 323. 



Aristotle, B.C. 384— B.C. 322. 



Julius Caesar, B.C. 100 — B.C. 44. 



Jesus the Christ. 



Paul of Tarsus. 



Charlemagne, 742 — 814. 



Dante Alighieri, 1265 — 1321. 



Gutenberg, 1400— 1468. 



Joan of Arc, 1412 — 1431. 



Columbus, 1435 — 1506. 



Michael Angelo, 1475 — 1564. 



Galileo, 1564 — 1642. 



Shakespeare, 1564 — 161 6. 



Isaac Newton, 1642 — 1727. 



Benjamin Franklin, 1706 — 1790. 



James ^^'att, 1736 — 1819. 



Abraham Lincoln, 1809 — 1865. 



Charles Darwin, 1809 — 1882. 



Sir James Simpson, 181 1 — 1879. 



Dk, Ci.ii-fokd. 



" Human life, in my judgment, has been ruled bv 

 ideas ; but through the men in whom those iiiea's 

 found their earliest and most fruitful incarnation. 

 Hence the standard of judgment I take must be the 

 ([uality and character of the ideas promulgated and 

 the energy and efficiency with which they have got to 

 work in the lives of men. 



" Following this line, Abraham lakes high rank for 

 his courage in going into exile in obedience to a 

 fresh conception. Next comes Moses, the most 

 formative in building the Hebrew Commonwealth, 



