APPENDIX D. 229 



from the good end of the scale of temper, and too near the had end. 

 If the number of cases of bad temper exceeded that of the good, the 

 error would have been in the opposite direction. But it appears, on 

 the whole, that the compilers of the records have erred neither to 

 the right hand nor to the left. So far, therefore, their judgments 

 are shown to be correct. 



Next as regards the proportion between the number of those who 

 rank as neutrals to that of the good or of the bad. It was recorded 

 as 2 to 1 ; is that the proper poportion ? "Whenever the nomencla- 

 ture is obliged to be somewhat arbitrary, a doubtful term should be 

 interpreted in the sense that may have the widest suitability. Now 

 a large class of cases exist in which the interpretation of the word 

 neutral is fixed. It is that in which the three grades of magnitude 

 are conceived to result from the various possible combinations of 

 two elements, one of which is positive and the other negative, such 

 as good and bad, and which are supposed to occur on each occasion 

 at haphazard, but in the long run with equal frequency. The 

 number of possible combinations of the two elements is only four, 

 and each of these must also in the long run occur with equal 

 frequency. They are: 1, both positive; 2, the first positive, the 

 second negative ; 3, the first negative, the second positive ; 4, both 

 negative. In the second and third of these combinations the 

 negative counterbalances the positive, and the result is neutral. 

 Therefore the proportions in which the several events of good, 

 neutral, and bad would occur is as 1, 2, and 1. These proportions 

 further commend themselves on the ground that the whole body of 

 cases is thereby divided into two main groups, equal in number, one 

 of which includes all neutral or medium cases, and the other all 

 that are exceptional. Probably it was this latter view that was 

 taken, it may be half unconsciously, by the compilers of the Records. 

 Anyhow, their entries conform excellently to the proportions speci- 

 fied, and I give them credit for their practical appreciation of what 

 seems theoretically to be the fittest standard. I speak, of course, 

 of the Records taken as a whole ; in small groups of cases the 

 proportion of the neutral to the rest is not so regular. 



The results shown in Table I. are obtained from all my returns. 

 It is instructive in many ways, and not least in showing to a 

 statistical eye how much and how little value may reasonably be 



