CHAPTER III 

 Analysis and Interpretation of Data 



This study, as has been stated in the preface, was origi- 

 nally undertaken with the intention of making an investiga- 

 tion exactly parallel to that of Odin. The plan was to dis- 

 cover, with respect to American men of letters, whether 

 Odin's contention that nature is much more important than 

 nurture was sustained. It was the belief and hope of the 

 author that the data collected would lend themselves to such 

 interpretation, and thereby be in harmony with Professor 

 Ward's argument for the preponderant influence of en- 

 vironment over heredity, as presented in his interesting 

 work, Applied Sociology.^ As the work progressed, how- 

 ever, and as the tables on heredity were prepared, it became 

 evident that, in order to reveal the whole truth, methods of 

 manipulating the data which were not used by Odin would 

 have to be employed. Hence it became necessary to scruti- 

 nize from as many angles as possible the data which had 

 been collected, instead of simply following the method of 

 analysis which Odin had used.^ Tables were therefore pre- 

 pared to present the data from many points of view. Some- 

 times a table was made simply to present facts in a con- 

 venient summary. More frequently, however, one was pre- 



^ Lester F. Ward, Applied Sociology (Boston, 1906). 



* As a result of this modification of the plan of study, a few tables 

 are introduced in the following pages which are quite unlike any pre- 

 sented by Odin. In the main, however, his method of analysis waa 

 closely followed. 



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