8l] ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA gl 



The eighth of the environmental conditions to be consid- 

 ered is early religious training. The facts on this topic are 

 given in Table XXIV. This table shows that in respect to 

 absolute numbers the Congregational body stood far above 

 its nearest competitor, the closely related Presbyterian 

 church. If relative numbers are considered, however, the 

 Unitarian body apparently had the greatest proportion of 

 literary persons born within its ranks, and the Congrega- 

 tionalisms, Friends and Universalists followed in order.^ All 

 four had a relatively large number of men of letters born 

 to their members. On the other hand, Methodist Episcopal, 

 Baptist and Roman Catholic families possessed relatively 

 very few literati. 



The fact that there were born within the ranks of some 

 denominations relatively more men of letters than in others 

 is of interest, but standing by itself it cannot be considered 

 particularly significant. Odin found that, in proportion to 

 the numbers in each religious division, many more French 

 men of letters had been brought up as Protestants than as 

 Catholics. He thought that there had been a number of rea- 

 sons for this superiority, but believed the most important to 

 be that, on the whole, Protestant children received superior 

 educational opportunities because of the superior wealth of 

 their parents. Possibly both economic and educational 

 factors may serve to explain the differences discovered 

 in America. It is a well known fact that, during the 

 period studied, the Unitarians and Friends, for instance, 

 were on the whole in comfortable circumstances, while 

 the Roman Catholics were relatively poor. The result- 



^ It is impossible to make accurate comparisons, because there exists 

 no certain knowledge of the strength of the various denominations 

 during the period studied. Nevertheless it is beyond dispute that the 

 Universalists, Unitarians, and Friends never rivaled the Congrega- 

 tionalists in numbers, and that the Congregationahsts were few as 

 compared with the Baptists and Methodists. 



