HUMAN FACULTY 267 



being equal to that of its most highly gifted represen- 

 tative at the present moment. 



I desired to plan a laboratory in which Human 

 Faculty might be measured so far as possible, and, after 

 much inquiry and trouble, drew up and sent a printed 

 circular to experts, showing in outline what seemed 

 to me feasible, and drawing attention to desiderata. 

 Useful replies reached me from many quarters. 



There was no one to whose intelligent co-operation 

 I then owed more than Professor Groom Robertson 

 (1842-1892) of University College. His genius and 

 temperament were of the most attractive Scottish type 

 exact, sane, and very genial. He was well known 

 by his work on Hobbes, and as the founder and Editor 

 of the periodical Mind, in which his critical notices of 

 current philosophical literature were soon recognised 

 as of especial weight. He was a thorough friend, 

 whose death left a void in my own life that has never 

 been wholly filled. 



The leading ideas of such a laboratory as I had 

 in view, were that its measurements should. effectually 

 "sample" a man with reasonable completeness. It 

 should measure absolutely where it was possible, 

 otherwise relatively among his class fellows, the 

 quality of each selected faculty. The next step 

 would be to estimate the combined effect of these 

 separately measured faculties in any given proportion, 

 and ultimately to ascertain the degree with which the 

 measurement of sample faculties in youth justifies a 

 prophecy of future success in life, using the word 

 " success " in its most liberal meaning. 



o 



The method of centiles (or of per-centiles as 

 I originally called it) was devised to give greater pre- 



